I'm sorry, you're Pro-What?!?

[wednes]

So I was looking around to find an LJ community about PTSD so I could hear some chat about people's experiences with it, with their medications and whatever. Of course when looking for a new community to join, one has to wade thru a ton of crap. When one is looking for a new mental-health community to join one should, I have found, be prepared for anything.

But this...

I had heard rumors about "pro-anorexia" communities before. I swear, I thought they were urban legends; sort of a take off on those comms where "cutters" talk about cutting and post pics of the stupid crap they do to hurt/call attention to themselves. I mean no offense to any cutters on my freinds list, but I really don't think there are any cutters on my list. Anywhoo--I found proanorexia which actually is a community of young girls who talk about how great it is to have some kind of terrible dyfunction. Talk about "down the rabbit hole".

And it's catching, because it really did make ME want to vomit...and that is SO not my scene. (note my clever use of capital letters for emphasis!)

Not only does this community have over 1,000 members, but the first posts I saw were bitchy "I'm leaving" posts and bitchy "I don't care what you all think but this is what i think." posts. As amused as I was, I want to weep for those girls. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they didn't know crap about PTSD.

So seriously, can anyone explain to me what is going on there?

On a completely unrelated topic:


Scott


What Asian Man Will You Marry?
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Comments

[endgame.livejournal.com]

Communities like that just make me sit back and say 'wow'. What on earth is missing from your soul if in order to feel accepted you have to cultivate (and I say cultivate because I have the feeling that most of these girls are generating their misery on purpose) an attitude like that?

[brettsyboy.livejournal.com]

i read an article in rolling stone about guys who wanted HIV, to fit in or something

[wednes.livejournal.com]

That's it. *claps hands* I'm out.

It's things like this that will drive me to go on some kind of multi-state killing spree, just to tidy up the gene pool a little.

[brettsyboy.livejournal.com]

pick me up when you get to nyc

yeah thats right, i responds withuin seconds, im just that pathetic

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Yes.

I understand that young people can be very shallow, self obsessed, and singularly focused on the acceptance of peers. But this is just dangerous and crazy. These girls need help, not a community that reinforces such awful behavoir.

[nokturnalia.livejournal.com]

I have experience about PTSD, but I never took meds or anything so I'm not of much help. What I did is I kind of chopped it in pieces and handled one at a time. For example, a certain scent gave me flashbacks so I bought the stuff and wore it 24/7 until it didn't torture me anymore. I wouldn't necessarily recommend such an approach, it can seriously fuck you up. ;-P

I can't believe you haven't stumbled across one of those communities before. Pro-ana (as they say) is frequently discussed by feminists, some are so fascinated with it that they join a starvation community. It's such a weird thing.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Ew.

I guess I had hear the term "pro-ana" in passing but didn't realize that was what they meant. I thought it was some kind of emo thing.

[pay-the-forfit.livejournal.com]

I was in the one for strickly boys...but friends told me "NO!" Yeah they are not rumors, and they are meant for people who already have the disorder, but in this day and age, we glorify even the worst of things. Everyone wants to be different and in doing so, we install mental disorders when we don't have them-it is the "in" thing now. I would not wish Ana/Mia on anyone.

[oscarssister23.livejournal.com]

I am so glad I have you to find out all the crazy crap so I don't have to do it myself. That's just sick and wrong, and I would say more, but I'm sure your other comment-leavers have covered all the bases.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're great like that.

[everythingtold.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to say about pro-anorexia communities. Yeah, they're out there. I have an LJ friend (she's 12 - for some reason several of them have dubbed me 'online mom' when I posted in some of their journals I found at random) who I'm afraid is anorexic. I wanted to find a good, legit community for her and kinda announce it in my journal. Well... not announce her but I've felt like announcing stuff for people on my list - you know? But I came up with the fakes ones that weren't so good.

I hope you find a good PTSD community. I've been told I have that too and that was a big part of my therapy after the incident I posted about recently. It (PTSD) it much more widespread than people think. It's not just Nam Vets wandering around the street talking to themselves. It's the digital media major who breaks out in a cold sweat when he hears a train whistle because he broke his neck when his car was hit by a train five years ago. It's the Ameritech lady who shakes uncontrollably everytime she smells a certain cologne because the man who raped her wore it. It's the pastor who has a hard time breathing every time she sees campfires because her house burnt down when she was little.

It's the lady who can't stand crowded stores and gets jumpy when people get too close to her - that's really fucking common. Dammit! I wish you could find a good community, I really do. I don't know if you mentioned if you were ever in group therapy for whatever happened - even tho mine's run by a Christian group it's wonderful. I can talk about stuff with the ladies in the group and many of us have PTSD anyway. I don't know if you're able o do that.

OR... *brainstorm* what does one have to do to start a community, do you have to be a paid member? You've already got a community, amybe I should create one and advertize a little, tell our friends to do so. We could share stories, point out good websites (outside LJ) and maybe group-therapy areas where people live? I mean, reasarch isn't so hard and I like doing that. I think that would rock. We don't have to be social workers and we can make it clear that we are not. It'll help people to see that they're not the only ones. We'll get more confortable with sharing (whatever) and we'll do the best we can as we go. I think it's worth a shot?

If I have to be a paying memebr I'll find a way to do that and I'll see what I have to do to start a community. jsut let me know what I need to do.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I am going to a dual diagnosis group currently, and even though I'm going to have to listen to a lot of bullshit I think I will get something useful out of it as well. I'm a bit too impatient and judgemental to voluntarily go to this kind of therapy, but it's in conjunction with career advancement, getting meds and seeing a regular therapist once a week as well. So slowly but surely I will get my shit closer to being together.

As for the community, I already run a few slow traffic comms and am not really looking to do anythinf g more involved than that. I think the idea of moderating any sort of mental health comm would just inundate us with tons of posts from whiny teens. My Michigan pagans comm is over half kids under 20...they don't post and no one has much to say, it's frustrating.

Anyway, you do not have to be paid to run a community, you can just go to the FAQ to get the info. It's pretty easy, and fun to tinker around with a second layout as well.