pro-ana thoughts

[tsukikage]

I don't understand how you can admit you have anorexia and continue to actively pursue that lifestyle. And I don't mean that like "once you admit you have it, you need to start getting treatment". I mean, anorexia is pretty much defined as a bad thing, so by admitting you have anorexia, you are saying yourself that it's not a healthy lifestyle, which doesn't match with actively pursuing that lifestyle. It's like someone admitting they're alcoholic, and continuing to specifically plan ways to get drunk, which is very different from admitting you're an alcoholic and not actively attempting to stop drinking.
Am I mis-analyzing this?

Comments

[conuly]

Yes.

I believe that the pro-ana community (and I cannot abide any mention of it myself, and so try to avoid it as much as possible - I do not envy them their problems, but I don't have to deal with them either) attempts to define anorexia as either a neutral or even a positive part of their lives.

I vehemently disagree, of course, but if I am correct, I do believe that goes a long way towards explaining the discrepency.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

So basically in saying "I am anorexic", they are making that statement with a slightly different definition of the term than most of the world uses?

[conuly]

Yes, precisely.

[belindabird.livejournal.com]

I saw (on somethingawful.com) a message board called "ana-friends" where people would encourage other people in their anorexia, admire stars who were really skinny, stuff like that. To them they justify it as a positive standard - almost like a self-control thing. I mean, it's just another aspect in their skewed view on, well, pretty much everything, but that's what makes it a disorder.