Pro-Ana

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Pro-Ana (from pro : for and anorexia nervosa : anorexia) and Pro-Mia ( bulimia nervosa : eating-nausea) are movements by people who are skinny or vomit addicts on the Internet. They originated in the United States at the beginning of the 21st century and spread to Europe from there.

The followers of Pro-Ana, almost exclusively young women, idealize anorexia and are mostly anorexic themselves. They are aware of their illness. Instead of fighting against it, they try to keep losing weight - even if this is associated with mortal danger. Those affected exchange information via special Pro Ana websites, where they depict anorexia as an extreme ideal of slimness, which they approach with radical measures with the aim of achieving satisfaction with themselves and their appearance. The anorexia gets the echo of a kind of self-realization , of sovereignty and power over one's own body, which must be defended against a hostile environment. The association of “Ana” with the name “Anna” is intentional and stands for an idealized personification of anorexia. It is particularly expressed in the “Letter from Ana” , which can be found on the movement's website as a central manifesto . Pro Ana is particularly controversial because those affected exchange information on the Internet. Here, the danger is seen that those affected encourage each other to lose weight by all means and that bystanders could also develop anorexia.

The number of Pro Ana pages in German-speaking countries was estimated at several hundred in 2007.

Content

The website jugendschutz.net , which was set up on the basis of the State Treaty on the Protection of Minors, examined a total of 270 German-language Pro Ana websites in 2006/2007 and found the following, typically recurring content:

  • sacred texts : Letter from and to Ana, creed, 10 commandments, psalm
  • thinspiration (also thinspo ; suitcase word from thin , thin and inspirations ): often post-processed photos of underweight stars, models and other people in the advanced stage of anorexia, artistic representations, videos
  • Tips & Tricks: Advice and tips on how to keep losing weight and how to hide the eating disorder from doctors, parents and friends
  • Laws & Commandments: strict instructions, among other things, on eating and social behavior, secrecy, weighing
  • thinlines: Quotes and sentences with a motivational character, for example "Hunger hurts, but starving works."
  • BMI calculator
  • Forum : for the exchange of like-minded people, mutual animation for further weight reduction, exchange about nutrition, diets, medication and tips, among other things, on confidentiality

In addition to BMI rankings , competitions (so-called contests ) are organized in some forums , in which the member with the greatest weight loss or the lowest BMI wins. Many users of the forums write an eating and weight diary in which eating behavior and weight history are documented. It is also typical to look for a twin , a partner with the same body size and age to support each other in further losing weight. Most forums are non-public and require you to fill out a detailed admission questionnaire for activation. Some forums also have strict age restrictions, although these certainly cannot be controlled on the anonymous Internet.

In an older and smaller study, the doctor Mark L. Norris examined the content of twelve English-language Pro Ana websites and came to similar results. Accordingly, seven of them contained an upstream notice ( disclaimer ). It asked people without eating disorders to leave the site, stated that it was a site that supports the pro-ana movement, or contained an invitation to minors not to enter the site. A central component of half of the websites were protected web forums in which registered visitors and those authorized by a moderator encourage each other to continue to lose weight. The websites themselves contained pictures and quotes, which are called triggers and are intended to encourage further impulsive weight loss. The pictures, also called thinspirations, were found in all but one of the cases and showed celebrities (these are often retouched to an emaciated appearance with image editing programs ), people in the advanced stage of anorexia, but also, as negative examples, obese people. In addition, eight of the pages contained “Ten Commandments”, instructions for weight loss, for distracting from eating and thinking about it, or a calculator to determine the body mass index . In addition, nine of the pages contained poems and short stories and five of the pages provided general information on eating disorders and links to various institutions or other pro-ana pages. Only one of the sites examined described anorexia nervosa as a “lifestyle choice”, while almost half of the site operators saw it as a means of supporting people with eating disorders.

interpretation

There are several ways of characterizing it: The literary scholar Roxanne Kirkwood defines Pro-Ana as a movement that views anorexia as a choice and lifestyle rather than an illness. Kirkwood notes, however, that the movement does not actively suggest this point of view to other people. The sociologist Nick Fox, on the other hand, speaks of a movement whose supporters reject healing ("anti-recovery").

Norris characterizes Pro-Ana as an internet movement promoting anorexia nervosa as beneficial.

Similarly, Siefert found in a qualitative study that the authors of pro-ana websites are not all anorectic, but together they strive for an anorectic ideal.

According to the portrayal of an anorexic student who was asked about her point of view by ZEIT online , the pro-ana supporters are well aware that anorexia is a life-threatening disease. According to their impression, most of them have already had therapy. The student believes that those affected are pro-ana because they have given up on anorexia and given up hope of a cure. This opinion is also clear in another pro-ana interview, in which the theory is put forward: if there were no pro-ana movement, those affected would harm themselves in other ways. Elisabeth Bader and Barbara Novak from the Austrian Society for Eating Disorders see the situation much more critically: They believe that pro-ana supporters "often do not recognize [anorexia] as a disease and are not aware of the accompanying symptoms and secondary diseases."

Apart from the reference to bulimia, Pro-Mia is essentially Pro-Ana. Despite their strong Internet connection, the supporters of both movements also suggest bracelets as identification symbols on their websites: in red for supporters of Pro-Ana, in purple for Pro-Mia. Based on this, a color and shape symbolism has developed. Blue should stand for self-harming behavior (SVV, “scratches”), black for depression , green for participation in therapy, white for self-imposed fasting and starvation, pink or pink for the DSM-IV -TR category of “eating” disorder not otherwise specified "(ED-NOS). The dragonfly depicts the distorted view in terms of body structure aesthetics, the down feather in terms of weight.

differentiation

The pro-ana scene is now increasingly differentiating itself into with ana ("with Ana"), in which the eating disorder is understood as a form of expression and an outlet for deeper problems and self-help can and must take place, as well as ana till the end ( atte , "Ana until the end ”), in which the followers accept death or even consciously strive for it.

Reactions

The existence of the movement has triggered several disturbed and warning reactions in the media and especially in organizations dealing with eating disorders. Elisabeth Bader and Barbara Novak from the Austrian Society for Eating Disorders see Pro-Ana as “a glorification of anorexia up to and including fanatical devotion to it.” Georg Ernst Jacoby, chief physician at the Klinik am Korso , a specialist clinic that specializes in eating disorders, warns against pro-ana websites and takes the position that they are very dangerous because they not only drag anorexics further into the disease, but because they could also lead healthy people to anorexia. In his opinion, these websites should be banned in the same way as cigarette advertising. He also sees the consensus in danger through Pro-Ana that anorexia is a dangerous disease. The Academy for Eating Disorders , which by its own account is the world's largest professional association for people who deal with eating disorders, points out, in addition to the serious physical consequences, that one of the diagnostic criteria of anorexia is whether those affected deny it or not take seriously. The association assumes that pro-ana websites can reinforce this and calls for sustainable treatment of eating disorders.

Psychologist Julie Hepworth, who conducted a controversial study on participation in pro-ana websites, concludes that the fears are exaggerated. In the websites examined over a period of six weeks, the participants did not fuel each other's behavior, but rather gave each other emotional support through social contact that helped them to get their problems better under control. The study further reports that the websites were used less by anorexics and more by women who only looked for information on weight loss.

Karen Dias, student at the interdisciplinary Center for Women's and Gender Studies at the University of British Columbia, explicitly takes a view that deviates from the prevailing interpretation of Pro-Ana. She sees the dangers of anorexia as such, but notes that conventional therapy has poor success rates. Women affected by eating disorders on pro-ana or pro-mia websites could therefore find a place of refuge there, where they are beyond the constant control and control of their environment and where they still have the authority to define what they experience. The fact that certain websites are taken offline, but reappear in a similar way elsewhere, shows how much those affected are looking for a place where "stories about their bodies" can be told. Here you could say things that you cannot (yet) say to your family or a therapist. The typical isolation of the eating disorder could be broken in this way. Formulating thoughts on the subject of anorexia could make it easier for those affected to ultimately distance themselves from these thoughts. Finally, Dias interprets Pro-Ana as subversive and discusses whether they could be part of a “ third wave of feminism ”.

Following efforts by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) with a campaign via fax and similar efforts by other associations, Angelfire, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, MySpace, Tripod and other providers have moved on to offer Pro-Ana websites and services to the To take the operation of corresponding web communities from the network, which were made publicly accessible via their free offers. They did this based on the ethical guidelines in their Terms of Use. However, some providers are said to have rejected this with reference to freedom of expression . ANAD has even hired a full-time employee to search for Pro-Ana websites and notify the relevant service providers. Ebay has put products that are related to the movement (identification jewelry) on its list of prohibited trade goods.

In France, in April 2008, the French National Assembly passed a bill making “incitement to anorexia” a criminal offense. According to the draft law, there is a risk of up to 2 years imprisonment and a € 30,000 fine for “those who encourage others to lose excess weight” or up to 3 years imprisonment and a € 45,000 fine if a person dies.

In Germany, on April 23, 2008 , the jugendschutz.net GmbH submitted a report on a multi-year investigation of more than 650 blogs and forums. 80% of these blogs and forums violated the protection of minors because they propagated eating disorders . According to its own information, the organization achieved the removal of 70% of these offers. In December 2008, the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People indexed a German-language blog on the subject, as the disturbance would be presented and glorified extremely positively there.

Demarcation

Antipsychiatry goes further than Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia , a movement whose followers reject any classification in the medical category of mental disorders , including eating disorders . Instead, she takes the position that such classifications are merely a social construction.

According to the description of the operator of the website pure ana , who is anorexic herself, the terms “anorexia” and “Ana” are understood in the pro-ana movement as different terms for two perspectives, for the disease and for its understanding of lifestyle. For them, however, these are "basically one and the same phenomenon". Because understanding anorexia as a lifestyle is a lack of disease insight, she believes that it is part of the disease itself, pointing out the correspondences with the diagnostic criteria.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christiane Eichenberg, Elmar Brähler. "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels ..." - assessments of the pro-anorexia movement on the Internet. Psychother Psych Med 2007; 57: 269-270 doi : 10.1055 / s-2007-970912
  2. ↑ Katja Rauchfuß: Final report of the research on pro-anorexia offers. (PDF; 1.0 MB) 2006/2007.
  3. ↑ pure-ana: Sacred Texts
  4. ↑ Gallery with retouched photos and original recordings
  5. ^ A b M. L. Norris, KM Boydell, L. Pinhas, DK Katzman: Ana and the Internet: a review of pro-anorexia websites. The International journal of eating disorders 39 : 6 (Sep 2006), pp. 443-447. PMID 16721839
  6. ↑ L. Siefert: The anorectic ideal on 'Pro Ana' weblogs. A qualitative study of a virtual staging practice. Klinkhardt 2015
  7. ↑ a b ZEIT online Cornelia Laufer: Hunger as a social event . ZEIT online (August 24, 2006 3:48 pm)
  8. ↑ Interview with a Pro Ana ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ W. Gawlik: Prohibiting incitement to anorexia makes sense? . hungrig-online.de, April 20, 2008.
  10. ↑ http://www.aedweb.org/policy/pro-anorexia_sites.cfm
  11. ^ Richard Gray: Outcry over claims that pro-anorexia websites help sufferers . Scotland on Sunday (March 26, 2006).
  12. ↑ Chris Bushnell: The Skeleton Crew. Inside the pro-anorexia movement's underground web campaign . The Wave 3 : 2 (January 16-29, 2003)
  13. ^ Wolfgang Gawlik: Yahoo! removes pro-anorexia pages . Anorexia Online
  14. ↑ Theresa Baeuerlein: Hunger attitude towards life . In: Neon . March 1, 2006
  15. ↑ We bite back: Frequently (sometimes unasked) Questions , but this contradicts Academy for Eating Disorders: AED Position Statement on Pro-Anorexia Web Sites .
  16. ↑ Kristen Depowski and Kelly Hart: 'Pro-Ana' Web Sites Glorify Eating Disorders . abc news (June 13, 2006)
  17. ↑ Petition Online: Stop Shutting Down Pro Ana / Mia Websites .
  18. ↑ Chris Bushnell's article gives no names.
  19. ↑ Wolfgang Gawlik: 'Anas' defend themselves against the closure of pro-anorexia sites . Anorexia Online
  20. ↑ Thomas Zehetner (Ed.): EBay puts Pro-Ana products on the black list . PCFreunde.de (August 4, 2006)
  21. ^ Daniela Pegna, Imke Zimmermann: Anorexia Movement "Pro Ana": Hunger as a Lifestyle . stern.de (September 22, 2006)
  22. ^ French National Assembly: N ° 781 - Proposition de loi visant à combattre l'incitation à l'anorexie . April 8, 2008.
  23. ↑ jugendschutz.net: Anorexia on the Internet - 8 out of 10 offers dangerous (PDF; 85 kB). April 23, 2008.
  24. ↑ Parental controls on over 650 websites Article from November 28, 2012
  25. ↑ Report to gulli.com
  26. ↑ in a contribution from RTL ( Addiction after anorexia ) from 7./8. August 2006 presented as an exemplary Pro Ana website, but in our own opinion no such website
  27. ↑ pure-ana.com: definition .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 31, 2006 .