Really upset about #thinspo

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  • beckyinma
    beckyinma Posts: 1,433 Member
    those images make me want to vomit, not because I want to be skinny, but it makes me sick that that is 'proper body image' for so many people. Ugh.
  • Jmchao
    Jmchao Posts: 27 Member
    Dear friends of ours are struggling with trying to find appropriate help for their 14 year old girl who has decided that "Ana" (yes, various eating disorders now have nicknames...and specific colors associated with them so they make/wear certain color bracelets to "support" various eating disorders) is her new best friend. At age 14, she stands at 5'5" and weighs 92 pounds. Her goal is to get that "thigh gap". They noticed there were issues and she sees a counselor regularly, but then the parents happened upon her Instagram account(s) (yes, she has 3 under various names, one devoted to anorexia, one depression/suicide, one to cutting). She's a sick little girl and needs help and support, not websites like this that fill her head with garbage! (Yes, the parents are working with various doctors and groups and counselors and she's in treatment, but she has a long way to go!) They were totally blown away by ALL the information, groups, support, etc. like the thinspo website that she has access to at her fingertips.

    What are we doing to our girls these days? And then that latest disclosure of the Abercrombie & Fitch statement by the CEO about only marketing to "cool kids" and they won't be selling anything over a size 10 (the statement was made several years ago, but finally hit the media full force just recently)!

    Sigh...
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    What makes it worse is that most of the images are photoshopped to make the girls even skinnier. Therefore te girls aspiring to them and aspiring to something that doesn't even exist in real life. It's so sad.
  • psyche929
    psyche929 Posts: 4
    Sadly enough, I used to look at this stuff every day. I followed their advice (rubber bands on the wrist to snap when you get hungry, etc), I got sucked into the whole thing.

    I felt terrible about myself. I felt terrible health-wise, I was miserable, and it only fed my depression. I lost a good bit of weight, but in the end, it just didn't last. I got through my depression, gained weight (far too much of it), and developed a different perspective on my life. That's why I'm here now! :)

    I knew that I had to hide what I was doing from my friends and family, although several could- and did- guess and tried to talk me out of it. It took a few years. In the end, my low self-esteem and body image issues are still here, but now I have a messed up metabolism to boot.

    Definitely not worth it, in the least.

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