Trigger Warning: This article contains mention of eating disorders and pro-eating disorder communities, and could be triggering. See here for helplines and resources.
A look into the rise of destructive, pro-ana communities in lockdown.
The nationwide lockdowns in 2020 saw many of us driven onto social media, scrolling through an endless feed of banana bread, laughing at Carol Baskin memes, and attempting harmless 15 second TikTok dances.
For others, the extended screen time led to a dark and uncomfortable part of the internet. In March, there was a 50% rise in Google searches for terms such as “thinspiration” and “meanspo”. These terms are used by the pro-ana, a community that promotes anorexia nervosa as a lifestyle choice. A quick Google search of the terms pulls up hundreds of images of underweight women, and fatphobic paragraphs telling sufferers that they do not deserve to eat.
‘Is everything okay?’
On Instagram, posts containing these hashtags are hidden, and users searching for the tags will be prompted to “get support”, however many accounts with these phrases in their name remain in place. Equally, on Tumblr, a warning page pops up asking “is everything okay?”, however with a few simple clicks, users can access an endless stream of pro-ana content.
On Twitter, posts can only be flagged manually. Given the size of the platform, it has been impossible to regulate pro-ana content, and as a result, Twitter has arguably become the epicentre of this growing crisis.
Kathleen Rais is part of the online eating disorder community, and whilst her Twitter bio mentions that she’s pro-recovery, she admits to creating and engaging with pro-ana content. A quick scroll through her twitter page shows hundreds of retweets celebrating protruding spines, 30 calorie dinner recipes and long lists of dangerous weight loss tips.
One of her most recent tweets was asking for followers to send her ‘meanspo’. “Meanspo is writing things to make people want to starve,” she said
When asked about the impact lockdown has had, she explains that a lot of new accounts have started following her, and accounts that stopped posting have started up again. “I think it was mostly teenagers once the schools were closed. Maybe they were bored and wanted to make friends, I don’t really know but everyone has their reasons I guess.”
Lack of social settings
Zainab Sultana, a 19-year-old recovering anorexic believes that lockdown has made it easier for people to calorie restrict without raising suspicions because there’s no need to eat in a social setting.
“Friends would ask me if I wanted to join them for lunch and there’s only so many times, I can tell them I feel sick so sometimes I would have to go and do the calculations in my head for how much I was allowed to eat,” she said.
Zainab admitted that during the worst parts of her eating disorder she would refuse to eat anything if she didn’t know exactly how many calories were in it, and it’s something she still struggles with.
In light of new government plans to calorie label menus, she said: “I think that’s really reckless. It’s going to be super triggering for a lot of people who obsess about numbers.” Many people have suggested it makes more sense to print the macros instead, but Zainab believes this can be equally damaging.
“I would obsess over those too. I had an app on my phone where I could set targets on how much carbs and fats I eat and I set it at the lowest possible amount and even then, would do my best to miss the target,” she said.
Zainab was not alone in her criticism. Many eating disorder campaign groups have spoken out about the proposals. Beat is the UK’s leading charity supporting those affected by eating disorders and campaigning on their behalf. Founded in 1989 as the Eating Disorders Association. It has been working hard to reach those who have been negatively affected by the lockdown.
Elsie Potter, volunteer research and policy adviser says: “BEAT do a lot of work with social media giants to create a safe space online. Instagram suggest our page to anyone who they flag up as being in danger.”
In response to growing demand for their services in lockdown, BEAT have a dedicated page of resources targeted at the difficulties brought on by coronavirus. This includes “the sanctuary”, an online chat room where sufferers can talk through the anxieties brought on by the pandemic.
Even with new provisions, Elsie is not confident that the work BEAT does will be enough to counter the effects of pro-ana communities online. “Our services are so unbelievably limited. There’s not really anything we can do to help someone who’s feeling low in the late hours of the night, but Twitter’s always there.”