STARVED
Pro-ana sites offer tips and tricks on how to excel at the eating
disorder of choice, advice on how to hide it from family and
friends, and even pictures of thin and emaciated women to
offer inspiration, called "thinsperation." On these sites, Ana is
not anorexia the life-controlling eating disorder, but a female
goddess who promises a thin, fulfilled life in exchange for total
devotion and sacrifice to her alone.
My friends from the pro-ana sites encourage me to choose
my eating disorder. It makes me feel powerful
and in
control of something that deep down I know I am not.
Part of me is captivated by these sites. I am drawn to the
acceptance and feel that I belong. The other part of me
feels I am foiling in a bottomless pit as I live every day off
these dark lies.
-Allie,
personal journal entry
Below are examples of statements from a pro-ana site
contrasted