Pro-ana
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- Note: Wikipedia does not provide medical advice. If you have a medical problem, you should seek expert help.
Pro-ana is a largely Web-based movement which views anorexia nervosa (considered by most others to be an eating disorder) in a positive light, considering it a lifestyle choice rather than a disorder. There are a growing number of pro-ana websites and discussion groups where self-identified anorexics come together to reinforce their beliefs and behaviours, creating a feedback loop.
Many doctors who deal with anorexia see these websites as a life-threatening danger to current and potential anorexics. It is thought that these sites are actively trying to recruit new anorexics. Some pro-ana websites are fairly exclusive. Others always welcome new members into the fold, whether they wish for support in recovery or illness, while others do not accept anorexics who are recovering or wish to recover. These sites often include tips on how to stay anorexic or be a "better" anorexic, but rare is the site that literally tells healthy people that they too should be anorexic.
Pro-anorexia websites can offer advice, such as admonishments to avoid the use of syrup of ipecac to induce vomiting. They can also be a place for the anorexic to go to talk to those like him/herself, and possibly feel better about themself and their choice to remain anorexic. Some pro-ana sites vigorously castigate and mock those who decide to seek treatment for anorexia. Some are not anti-recovery, and an anorexic who wishes to recover can find support for his/her choice through this network.
However, pro-ana sites often involve encouraging dangerous anorexic behaviour. Anorexics can post pictures of themselves or others which can be read as "triggering": Either extremely thin people (seen as something which they should aspire to be) or extremely obese people (seen as what they never want to be). However, many anorexics were never obese. Pro-anas sometimes perpetuate misinformation about their lifestyle, touting it as healthy or superior, though this is less common.
To counter this, many anti-ana (pro-recovery) sites have banned the use of "numbers" (weights, BMIs, calories, etc) and pictures. Others such as AnorexicWeb (http://www.anorexicweb.com) post excessive pictures of extremely thin and unhealthy people, claiming that the pictures are intended to point to anorexia as a bad choice. However, as well-meaning as these sites are, many visitors never bother to read the text, looking only at the photographs.
In some circles of the pro-ana movement, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are personified as women named Ana (for anorexia; hence the pro-ana movement) and Bella or Mia (for bulimia). This illustrates the anorexic's loneliness: "Ana" is the anorexic's only reliable friend, someone they can fall back on when the rest of their life feels out of control. Pro-ana sites involve the anorexics coming together to talk about their experiences with their shared "best friend".
The pro-ana or anorexic "community" is considered by many anorexics to be a sort of secret society called the "anorexic underground." Anorexics are believed to be able to spot other anorexics at first glance. Anorexics will also wear color-coded bracelets to signify their disease. Red is generally considered to represent anorexia. Purple is bulimia, green is binge-eating, black is self-injury or depression, yellow is strength and hope, and orange is recovery. The most popular maker of these bracelets is BlueDragonfly (http://www.bluedragonfly.org).
The pro-ana movement has gone so far as to include the popular rating communities found on LiveJournal and other blogging sites. These communities allow new applicants to post pictures and information about themselves, enabling the current members to determine whether they are "good anorexics." The community names often contain words like "beauty", "perfection", or "thinnest". They may quantify or "rate" one's anorexia from one to ten or qualify it as being "anorexic enough" or not.
This has spawned several opposition communities, such as the "Anti-Ana" community, or the "Pro-Smallpox" community, a satire of the pro-ana movement. (The latter is much-defamed as cruel and irrelevant, because smallpox is a physical illness whereas anorexia is a mental disease.)