Reality

Ana

Every person has been self conscious about their body at one point or another. An eating disorder takes it to a new extreme. Many people blame eating disorders on magazine photoshop and models being required to keep an unbelievably skinny figure, but those things are merely triggers not causes. An eating disorder isn't something a person can choose to have, nor is it something people can just get over. Can a person voluntarily fast? Of course, but when it becomes a constant thing that consumes your life and it severely affects your health and weight, it's a problem.

You look in the mirror one day. Seems you've gained a little bit. You shrug it off and you continue with your routine. It's now lunch time and you're sitting at a restaurant with a friend. Your food comes and you remember what you saw in the mirror earlier. You look at the food and decide to eat half, and take the rest home for another day. Your meals gradually get smaller and smaller, until it's barely a morsel of food. You don't snack, you only drink water, you're meals aren't even meals anymore. It's been a month straight of this and you've lost a bit. It's not enough though. You still feel insecure about your body. You NEED to be skinnier. So you decide to take it up a notch. Your meal portions stay the same, but now you're only eating every other day. This continues for a while but your progress slows down. People around you can see the reason of your slowed progress is the mere lack of fat to lose, but you, however, don't see it that way. You've gone from every other day to every two days with one small meal. 

Skip forward a bit to the future. You've been doing great. You're a healthy weight, no one's been suspecting a thing. You've been eating...but now your situation is the opposite of what it was. You're so scared of getting back to that point in time. Every time you feel the slightest pang of hunger, your mind goes back to that place. Your solution to that problem? You won't go longer than the amount of time you sleep without eating. You're scared to feel that hunger.. .you refuse to feel it.

You feel as though there is no way out. You either end up sickly skinny or unhappy with yourself. This cycle goes on and on. 

Ana is a nickname people have given anorexia. Anorexia is often popularized by pro-ana sites and blogs that support an anorexic "lifestyle". The reason I hate when people call it a lifestyle is because it sounds like a choice; it isn't. I am a living testimony against it. Let's put it this way; the first time I fasted, I was trying to lose baby fat. Pro-ana sites and blogs are harmful to those suffering from an eating disorder.