Because I once reached out to a young woman suffering from Anorexia, I tuned in to the Dr. Oz Show last night to learn more about the dis-ease. Boy did I learn. I saw and heard from a male suffering from anorexia as well as a male recovering from the dis-ease.
But here was the shocker; I learned about an online movement called the "Pro-Ana Movement." What is this movement you ask? Well, it's a pro-skinny movement with aims to occupy and mislead mostly young adults and adolescents down the dark corridors of eating disorders. It encourages unhealthy habits in people who are susceptible to becoming eating disorder victims.
The expert on the show described anorexia as something like this: Think of beginning anorexic habits as getting on an elevator at the top healthiest floor. As your mind and body descend downward through less healthier floors it is harder to stop the descent. By the time you reach the basement your near death and feel helpless and hopeless of ever recovering from the dis-ease. Weighing seventy-pounds or less you feel fat and miserable.
The show reiterated over and over that eating disorder dis-eases are a sickness mostly of the mind. There is help out there for those suffering from eating disorders. There seems to be no help for all the Pro-Ana Movement solicitors who've setup web pages and blogs promoting "How To Eat Thin" methods.
As I listened to the young Pro-Ana promoter on Dr. Oz ignorantly defend his actions, I felt some hatred, but mostly pity for him. Not only has he sold his soul with the red beaded unity bracelet, but he doesn't realize that he's a dead-man-walking if you think of the angry loved ones left behind when someone his website encouraged has died.
He feels he's giving those who want to indulge in eating disorders an online social place to share and talk about their indulgences without being ostracized or criticized. Without being badgered to get help. He's enticing without warning, healthy people to take the elevator down while feeding them the dream of a basement full of beautiful skinny promises. Don't fall for it folks, that basement is a crypt full of young decaying bodies.
Someday he may entice the wrong daughter, wife, son or friend. On that day he may not find pity or forgiveness. On that day he just might find he's the one being offered a one-way elevator ride down; a ride that gets darker as it descends deeper and deeper downward toward that cold and lonesome place eating disorder victims too often find at the end of the elevator shaft; the basement of death.
Eating Disorder Outreach
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