To put it simply, I am no stranger to the lovely world of eating disorders. I really don't feel ready to post my story just yet as I feel as if it is something that I'm still coming to terms with and getting my head around, but I am pretty sure I will post about it in the future.
Something that continues to make me sick (just realised the irony of that; I promise you it was typed with absolutely NO pun intended) is the 'pro ana' movement in social media, such as tumblr, instagram, twitter etc. For those of you lucky people who are blissfully unaware of what pro ana means, it is the promotion of anorexia. This is done by using images and slogans, such as 'anorexia is a lifestyle, not an illness' and 'a moment on the lips, forever on the hips' to name the most innocent. And as for the pictures, well I feel that in itself would be promoting and exposing this disgusting topic to further lengths.
Members of the delightful pro ana community endorse anorexia and bulimia as desirable, share crash/fad dieting tips and tricks, compete in their weight loss, commiserate with each other after binging or breaking fast, advice on laxative use or how to best induce vomiting, glamorise the illnesses of anorexia and bulimia to vulnerable young girls, post their weight and body measurements as motivation, and post thinspo ('thinspiration) images to further glamorise eating disorders.
Now let me point out, This blog post is possibly going to be triggering to any of you out there with eating disorders. And it is something that I'm really getting fired up about for one simple reason- pro ana sites have over the past few years ruined aspects of my life. They have distorted my view of healthy and attractive, and plummeted my self esteem levels to an all time low. It is something that I'm trying so hard to change at the moment, and I quite frankly would like to shut down every single pro ana site out there and slaughter all of their publishers (I will explain further later) not only for ruining my life, but undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of other vulnerable young girls and boys out there. It honestly pains me to think of young girls even today, stumbling across such disgusting websites and developing the same issues that I have.
The people who begin these horrific websites fall into two categories- 1) sufferers of anorexia, who are usually recovering and are looking for other people in the same situation to talk to, who get warped in by the disgusting hideous monsters of the second category- 2) horrific trolls who are incredibly sad, pathetic people with an obsession with thin girls (may I add, studies show such monsters are usually overweight themselves) and use this community as a way to feed their sick obsession. I don't blame either one of the two people- both stereotypes are suffering undoubtedly from mental issues and illnesses, I quite frankly blame social media for allowing such things.
Eating disorders are developed by the brain. It is not something you choose. This seems unknown to so many people. And eating disorder is a mental illness, which is usually triggered by things like wanting control, self hatred, low self esteem and loneliness. Things like pro Ana only further and deepen this illness, and trick sufferers into thinking that what they are doing to themselves Is healthy, normal and right. Not to mention, causing many vulnerable young people who don't know better to try things out like fasting and purging for themselves.
This has to stop. How many more lives need to be ruined before these websites are shut down? How many more young girls need to die before the government realises just how preventable eating disorders can be? When is enough truly enough?
If only big websites like tumblr and twitter were to abolish the 'pro ana' tag forever. Would it really be so hard? Why can websites like blogger and word press make it easier for complaints to be formed, and take complaints more seriously in ways that involve taking steps to shut down dangerous websites?
20% of people with eating disorders die from their eating disorder, not to mention the countless number of sufferers who become infertile and die young
In my eyes, people need to realise exactly what is happening. I can bet you any amount of money that parents (even my own parents, who know the struggles I have been through) have no clue what damaging material is out there and how easy it is to come across. If every adult in this country was aware exactly how bad it is, I guarantee we would have less of a problem.
So I'm asking you to do something about this. Blog about this issue, write a letter of complaint, YouTube a video response about it, talk to someone about it. If we could make 100 more people aware of this issue, then the first step would have been taken towards tackling this scary problem that so many innocent young people are facing today. If you have read this blog post and support my wish, then please take the time out of your day to sign my petition. It is quick, easy, anonymous and best of all FREE, and means more then you can imagine to me as I really feel it could make a difference. You can find it here. Thank you so much if you do :) Now, before it becomes too late to change anything. Deaths from eating disorders ARE preventable.
Thanks for reading, and for your continued support xox
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Lent...
Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not the most religious. I was baptised as a catholic, go to a catholic school (in England faith schools have higher education standards) and go to church for all the holidays. But my family isn't exactly the rosary saying type.
In saying that, we still take part in lent. It is a time of year when we actually have the motivation to do something good, with the added 'God is watching your every step' blackmail. It is essentially, an excuse to give up something you love for a certain time period. And, above all that, to appreciate what Jesus went through for us. Now I'm not trying to be a bible basher here, but if it is all true, then fair play Jesus. He went out into the desert, and fasted for 40 whole days. Only to go into a town, be judged by people, and then finally put through an immense amount of suffering before being executed!
So every year, I try and give up something which is not essential to my living, and try and give my body a 'break'. I would really love to go veggie for lent. But by no means am I going to expect my mother to cook me a separate meal from everyone else in the house! On top of that, I love chicken. And since I'm a very fussy eater, I would probably struggle to get adequate protein without meat.
So that being said, what am I going to give up? Junk food. I'm going to try and lead a diet of things that are good for my body! So for forty days, no chocolate, sweets, cakes, crisps or fizzy drinks. The exception to this is jelly, squash and ketchup.
So, wish me luck! I'm hoping I wont give in to any cravings, and will feel really good for the next forty days!
thanks for reading! xox
In saying that, we still take part in lent. It is a time of year when we actually have the motivation to do something good, with the added 'God is watching your every step' blackmail. It is essentially, an excuse to give up something you love for a certain time period. And, above all that, to appreciate what Jesus went through for us. Now I'm not trying to be a bible basher here, but if it is all true, then fair play Jesus. He went out into the desert, and fasted for 40 whole days. Only to go into a town, be judged by people, and then finally put through an immense amount of suffering before being executed!
So every year, I try and give up something which is not essential to my living, and try and give my body a 'break'. I would really love to go veggie for lent. But by no means am I going to expect my mother to cook me a separate meal from everyone else in the house! On top of that, I love chicken. And since I'm a very fussy eater, I would probably struggle to get adequate protein without meat.
So that being said, what am I going to give up? Junk food. I'm going to try and lead a diet of things that are good for my body! So for forty days, no chocolate, sweets, cakes, crisps or fizzy drinks. The exception to this is jelly, squash and ketchup.
So, wish me luck! I'm hoping I wont give in to any cravings, and will feel really good for the next forty days!
thanks for reading! xox
Monday, February 11, 2013
Technology
Oh for the days when only the upper class had televisions and cars, and mobile phones were only for businessmen. The days when apple and blackberry meant nothing more than fruit, and you wrote everything by hand. Everything just seems to have been so much more simple in that era. Don't get me wrong... I wasn't alive in such a time. So I am left to do nothing more than lust over tumblr pictures, and listen to my elders reminisce.
But I can't help but wonder, what would my life be like without technology? Well, there would be no annoying, rambly ict lessons with a teacher who hates me, doing nothing but learning rather pointless skills on ancient computers. Now I'm sorry, but we are, as they say, the 'generation of technology'. Nearly every child nowadays has the ability to work an ipad, instinctively. So why, do I have a 50 something teacher wasting two hours of my time every week, teaching me things that i already know/ Or if I don't already know them, computers are pretty self explanatory once you know the basics! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate computer programming and coding is very complicated and takes a lot of knowledge and skill. But we don't learn things like that! I already know all that I need to know about the Internet and Microsoft! Secondly, see my post on Ask.fm. This basically covers my current views on all social networking in teenagers- it just over complicates things. But, we still all feel compelled to be on every site, telling each other what were doing, how we're feeling, and annotating with pictures. Aside from being insanely addictive, its dangerous. As much as we feel we might, we really don't know exactly who could be, essentially, stalking on us.
Now don't get me wrong, technology makes my life very enjoyable and easy. Many a times have I been caught out with no credit or free texts left on my phone, and been blessed with the features of imessage or whatsapp to contact my mum. And, if it wasn't for my iphone, I would have a very boring hour long bus ride to and from school each day. This blog, which may have only been in my life for a short time, would not be here to give a home to my rants, to distract me from the bad things. I wouldn't be able to contact my friends, or become closer to new people (which is very debatable).
But I cant help but feel admiration when I see an older person in the street, sending a text on their little nokia. They've seen so much change in this little world of ours, in such a short time. And they've had to accept this change, because if they didn't they would get stuck in a time freeze, in generation unable to move forward. And that must be a scary prospect for them!
So before you have a go at your mum, dad, uncle, aunt or grandparent for being completely useless on the ipad... take a minute out to think about what you would do if they were to stick a typewriter in front of you. Or even going back to forever ago, ask you to dry your clothes using a mangle. Or knit a scarf! Yes, you would probably be able to figure it out. But it would take change and adaptation, which is the same thing they have to go through... at a slower pace, as older brains aren't quite as fast as younger ones.
Thanks for reading!! xoxo
Now don't get me wrong, technology makes my life very enjoyable and easy. Many a times have I been caught out with no credit or free texts left on my phone, and been blessed with the features of imessage or whatsapp to contact my mum. And, if it wasn't for my iphone, I would have a very boring hour long bus ride to and from school each day. This blog, which may have only been in my life for a short time, would not be here to give a home to my rants, to distract me from the bad things. I wouldn't be able to contact my friends, or become closer to new people (which is very debatable).
But I cant help but feel admiration when I see an older person in the street, sending a text on their little nokia. They've seen so much change in this little world of ours, in such a short time. And they've had to accept this change, because if they didn't they would get stuck in a time freeze, in generation unable to move forward. And that must be a scary prospect for them!
So before you have a go at your mum, dad, uncle, aunt or grandparent for being completely useless on the ipad... take a minute out to think about what you would do if they were to stick a typewriter in front of you. Or even going back to forever ago, ask you to dry your clothes using a mangle. Or knit a scarf! Yes, you would probably be able to figure it out. But it would take change and adaptation, which is the same thing they have to go through... at a slower pace, as older brains aren't quite as fast as younger ones.
Thanks for reading!! xoxo
Sunday, February 10, 2013
'Ask.fm'...
About 94% of the drama/issues/problems I've been faced with in the past two months have all been caused by this lovely website. If you aren't aware of what it is, then let me first tell you this... you're pretty lucky. Ask.fm, (which you can find here ) is a social networking site, where users can ask each other/be asked questions anonymously. Sounds like fun, right? Well it is... until you drop a load of insecure, cruel, bored teenagers into the mix. Then you have a problem. As we all already know, social networking makes many young people start to say things they probably wouldn't say to others' faces. So add anonymity into the whole thing? 'Great! Now I have the opportunity to tell that girl that I've never really liked what I think of her! I can tell that boy to stop acting so cocky... no one likes him! I can tell my best friend that what shes been doing with her eyebrows lately really doesn't do anything for her... without even offending her!' And so you get double the cyber bullying, with an extra lump of paranoia thrown in. Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea. If it was used correctly, I'm sure it would be 100% innocent fun... finding out who your crushes favourite girls are, complimenting people and even playing harmless jokes on each other. But so many teenagers are getting 'cocky' with what they say to one another, and it is having serious consequences.
Jessica Laney.Ciara Pugsley.Erin and Shannon Gallagher. Four of the high profile suicides last year, which are said to have been solely down to ask fm. There are more then just four, but these are four of the 'biggest', the four that have gained the most publicity. These girls, who were all around the same age as me, felt as if there was no where to turn. They felt like there was No-one who cared about them, no other option then to take they're own lives. At the age of 13?Is it not crazy, that someone so young should even be in the position to contemplate suicide? We are still children. Although it may not feel like it, no problem is to big for us to ask help for. There is always someone to help... they have the obligation to help us, for the next 5 years!
So how many more innocent lives is it going to take before something is done? How many more teenagers are going to fall into this dark, dark place until something changes? I have seen so many horrible, horrible things on ask fm. I would love to link each one of them individually, but most of them are people I know and so I cant. But one of them, a boy I stumbled across a whilst ago, has stuck in my mind. His names Freddie. http://ask.fm/freddieottleylewis I do not know him; all I know is that he lives in the same country as me, and has really had a hard time. If you keep scrolling down his questions, I'm sure you will find what I mean.
I will admit, I have said a few things on ask fm which I'm truly ashamed of. To people I know and don't like, without realising the affect it could have on them. But then, I started receiving hate. I know exactly who it was from, my darling 'frenemie' (post on her soon to come!) as she is very obvious with some of the things she says. And that made me really think, about how everything that is said has a consequence.
This needs to stop. Not ask fm, but the way we are all acting on it.Everyone needs to step back, and just THINK... 'would I be able to put my name to that? Be able to untick the anonymous box, and let them see who said it?' before proceeding. How many more people need to die before something changes?
Thank you for reading xox
Jessica Laney.Ciara Pugsley.Erin and Shannon Gallagher. Four of the high profile suicides last year, which are said to have been solely down to ask fm. There are more then just four, but these are four of the 'biggest', the four that have gained the most publicity. These girls, who were all around the same age as me, felt as if there was no where to turn. They felt like there was No-one who cared about them, no other option then to take they're own lives. At the age of 13?Is it not crazy, that someone so young should even be in the position to contemplate suicide? We are still children. Although it may not feel like it, no problem is to big for us to ask help for. There is always someone to help... they have the obligation to help us, for the next 5 years!
So how many more innocent lives is it going to take before something is done? How many more teenagers are going to fall into this dark, dark place until something changes? I have seen so many horrible, horrible things on ask fm. I would love to link each one of them individually, but most of them are people I know and so I cant. But one of them, a boy I stumbled across a whilst ago, has stuck in my mind. His names Freddie. http://ask.fm/freddieottleylewis I do not know him; all I know is that he lives in the same country as me, and has really had a hard time. If you keep scrolling down his questions, I'm sure you will find what I mean.
I will admit, I have said a few things on ask fm which I'm truly ashamed of. To people I know and don't like, without realising the affect it could have on them. But then, I started receiving hate. I know exactly who it was from, my darling 'frenemie' (post on her soon to come!) as she is very obvious with some of the things she says. And that made me really think, about how everything that is said has a consequence.
This needs to stop. Not ask fm, but the way we are all acting on it.Everyone needs to step back, and just THINK... 'would I be able to put my name to that? Be able to untick the anonymous box, and let them see who said it?' before proceeding. How many more people need to die before something changes?
Thank you for reading xox
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