Self harm, selfies and the wanderers return

I want to thank all of you who commented on my last post

For those of you that don't know

I posted some photos of myself in some new clothes that I bought

And I got quite a nasty comment

Anonymous of course

I wouldn't expect anything more

But you all  jumped to my defence 

And told anonymous where to go 

So thank you for that

So the wanderers have returned

As in my mum and my sister are back from Prague

Myself and Honey and Lea we're delighted to see them

The dogs were so excited they had a fit

A good time was had by all

And it was great that I could tell them that my few days went well too

No hiccups 

No disasters

No lying 

I kept my head up

And my bun down

And stayed well out of trouble

I watched a documentary a couple of nights ago

Called My self harm nightmare

It told the  story of 3 girls 

Who used to use self harm and pro ana websites

One of the girls used to have a pro ana blog

She has 10, 000 followers 

And she was extremely unwell

And posted many photos of herself in various states of undress

With pointy bones and sharp edges

Another girl really struggled with self harm

She said she did it because it was the only thing in her life that she could control

She had been hospitalised many times after cutting herself

Her arms were covered in long deep scars

I have never really struggled with self harm

Of course I experimented when I was a teenager

And I have tried it

But it did little or nothing for me

So I didn't continue

But I know that some of you struggle greatly with this

I guess we all have different coping mechanisms

Mine was drugs and food

Or lack of food

Some body else's might be gambling or sex or self harm

 There all forms of self abuse

The documentary talked a bit about Pro-ana websites

And the girls on these websites encourage each other to lose weight

Posting photo after photo of emaciated malnourished girls

Making YouTube videos of how miserable they are

I have to admit 

I haven't come across that many Pro-ana sites

I mean the hardcore ones

Apart from anas challenge

Who stalked all our blogs for a while

But myself and Bella came to the conclusion that he was a dirty old man trying to get pictures of young girls

But I guess I haven't really gone looking for these sites

As I am sure they are there

I know that the public are campaigning to get these sites criminalised

The parents on the documentary said that if their daughters hadn't had access to these sites

Then things wouldn't have got so bad

I guess we are still in the infancy of the Internet

And things like pharmaceuticals, synthetics and drugs are easy to buy

And these sites are not monitored 

I'm sure in time there will be stricter laws as to what you can and can't do on the Internet

I see blogger is removing any offensive content now from blogs

I'm almost tempted to go looking for these so called Pro-ana blogs

Just out of curiosity 

I'm presuming that these sites are run by maudlin teenagers 

I hope that anyone older than that would know better

Maybe I'm wrong

I don't know 

I guess there are a lot of sick and twisted people in the  world

To think that someone would encourage you to starve or purge or self harm

Is a scary thought

I deliberately don't comment on people's weight here on blogger

I don't condone or congratulate weight loss

It's not something that is healthy to endorse

Unless the person needs to lose weight

And is doing it in a healthy and careful way

My point of view on what constitutes  beautiful has changed in the last year

I used to crave extreme thinness

Protruding collar bones

Pointy hip bones

This was perfection to me

But now my perception has changed

I no longer crave that look

Now I want to be fit and strong

Healthy even 

What a revelation!

I was wondering about you

Have you ever used Pro-and sites?

What is your view on them?

Do you think they should be banned?

I'd love to know...