145 replies to this topic

[StillUnwritten]

Using it as a stage to attention-seek. So pathetic and makes me embarrassed to be ana

[AuburnRose]

^^^preaaaach

it's those people who post "my anorexia story" on youtube, and like most of it is a sad montage of photos of them looking super sick, malnourished, feeding tube, body checks etc. and then at the end they put like 2 photos of "me now!" having gained weight. it just feels self-indulgent, like they're trying to prove or show off that they were 'able' to lose weight/restrict to x amount/etc. and we're supposed to believe they're better? i could be wrong, but i feel like even just posting images of your darkest ED days indicates that you still feel quite attached to that time. and this goes without saying, but these videos are more much triggering than inspiring, regardless of whether you're dealing with an ED or not

i wish i could have recovered after just one hospital visit, but alas... and even if i had, i personally wouldn't post graphic photos for fear of harming my viewers

Yep! This is exactly who I mean. And you’re right - I always think, these girls have got to know they’re posting trigger material thinly veiled as a recovery video. Some of them even have their weights or BMIs in there. That can’t be for true recovery inspo if they have a modicum of knowledge about people still struggling with EDs viewing that stuff. Surely it’s for bragging rights??

[SignofPerfection]

K since we’re name dropping I want to put down two examples, one of an ana recovery account I don’t like and one I do like.

Bad: lilarunz. Not explicitly an ana recovery account but she mentions she had an ED and uses all the dumb #strongnotskinny, #anarecovery, etc hashtags ... while being ridiculously and obviously underweight. All the portions of food that she posts are small, and because she runs it is very reasonable to assume that she burns it all off. Also she goes to this ridiculously expensive private online school where she has the opportunity to take advanced courses and acts like it’s normal, and that life is just so AlL tHe GoOd FeEls.

Good: healthyprosperouslife. Now, she’s vegan and many might view her as being another typical roll-your-eyes recovery account. But, she actually has a lot going for her:
- She’s visibly a healthy weight
- She doesn’t talk about numbers
- She doesn’t actually post a lot about her ED, it’s mainly a food inspo type account
- She’s clear that while she is vegan, she is not prescribing any kind of diet to anyone else. She follows a vegan diet for ethical reasons.
- Doesn’t spam stupid hashtags on every post

[xxRho]

And another cringe:

https://www.instagra...hid=w2onrui7nkm

[tanuki7248]

Oh god, don't even get me started.


Honestly, (as someone who's been trapped with SE-AN for 30+ years), I find recovery Instagrams extremely depressing and discouraging for me to see.

They are all run by mostly very young girls/guys who appear hyper positive about their recovery, showing off a bunch of picture perfect photos of them eating and telling their followers to just love their bodies/etc, making it look so easy to break free and I'm sitting here with a bunch of holes scarred into me from Hickman lines/j-tubes/etc, failing organs and no teeth. All I can think is just, "you're fucking lucky you got away while you still could." (But also irritated by their fairytale presentation of recovery, in general.)

Sorry, I get bitter sometimes seeing this picture perfect image of recovery portrayed by people on Instagram because (and I'm sure many of you know this feeling well), when you've been sick for this long, that fairytale image hurts to see.

(Or that even, if by some miracle, you managed to recover, you've broken your body so badly that there's no coming back from it).

(Edit: Also agreeing with pretty much everything I've read here.)

[heifer]

Dunno why it bothers me so much, but those YouTube videos where they put a big long disclaimer at the start "Please don't watch this if you're going to be triggered, I don't want to trigger anybody."

Like come on. They must know that a huge proportion of their views are from people (like me) who are specifically looking to be triggered.

The fake concern just gets to me.