Thinspo: Hidden Dangers of Pro-Ana & Pro-Mia Culture

What Is Thinspo?

Thinspiration, or thinspo, is any online content that promotes unhealthy body image and thinness.¹ It also subscribes to the dangerous notion that eating disorders are a viable lifestyle choice.² Thinspo message comes in many forms and can include anything from dangerous diet strategies to laxative abuse tips to community support for restricting your calories.

Thinspo promotes the following:

• Specific tips and tricks to help you lose weight
• Thinness is the highest standard (anything outside of that is ugly and unwanted)
• The quest for total control and perfection
• The idea that if you have enough dedication, you can achieve the perfect body

While many website moderators and social media platforms attempt to block triggering comments, these well-intentioned efforts don’t always work. Unfortunately, it simply takes a different hashtag, website, or motivational quote to start a new thinspo trend. For example, when Instagram banned “thinspiration” content, users began spelling it as “thynspiration.” In other words, as moderation ramps up, people tend to become more creative in their wordplay.³

What Is Pro-Ana & Pro-Mia?

Pro-ana websites and pro-mia websites are online platforms that share content that embraces anorexia and bulimia, often in the form of thinspo. The efforts of these websites may be covert or overt, but the goal is to inspire and connect like-minded people to validate their struggles. Unfortunately, rather than promote recovery resources, most members rely on consuming thinspo content as a means of staying dedicated to their disorders.

Who Is Making Thinspo Content?

Most creators of thinspo content are likely individuals who are suffering from eating disorders themselves. The people who identify as “pro-ana” or “pro-mia” creators may minimize or deny the existence of disordered eating in themselves or others and instead refer to disordered eating as a “lifestyle choice.” Unfortunately, since these creators tend to remain anonymous and there is freedom of speech, it can be difficult to control and manage the spread of thinspo content.

Psychological Impact of Thinspo

When a person’s self-image continues to not measure up to the thinsopo content they are consuming, they may suffer from feelings of shame that cause depressive or anxiety symptoms. People may develop an inclination towards self-loathing or withdrawing from others due to feelings of inadequacy around appearance. Finally, thinspo content increases the risk of a person developing disordered eating or an eating disorder.

Mental health effects of thinspo can include:

• Depression: People can become depressed from isolating themselves from others or feeling shame about their appearance. They may start to withdraw, avoid social gatherings with food, or feel unable to be present around others due to image concerns.
• Anxiety: People can develop anxiety around body image from viewing thinspo. Sometimes, they may be focused on overall body weight or shape or a certain body part that is “different” or “not good enough” compared to the images they view.
• Self-loathing: People may develop self-loathing behaviors based on the shame caused by thinspo content. Self-loathing might include repetitive negative remarks made about their body, either to themselves or others.
• Self-isolation: People may begin to isolate or withdraw from feelings of inadequacy around their appearance. Self-isolation may happen around meal times, social events, or present as generalized social anxiety that causes them to feel afraid of others.

Thinspo & Body Image

Research indicates that social media usage, such as seeking out thinspiration, can lead to body image concerns.⁴ However, experts also indicate that seeking out thinspiration when someone already has poor self-esteem can lead to a cycle where someone stays “stuck.” Their poor body image causes them to view thinspo content, which in turn reinforces their poor body image, and the cycle continues.

Thinspo impacts body image in the following ways:

• Encourages striving for an often unattainable and unhealthy body image
• Reinforces unhealthy standards for body types
• Increases body dissatisfaction
• Distorts an individual’s perception of their own appearance
• Encourages unhealthy levels of comparison
• Encourages levels of engaging in fitness or diet that may not be accessible to all users
• Increases feelings of shame or guilt when the user’s image or lifestyle does not match the thinspo content

Thinspo & Eating Disorders

Thinspo can put someone at risk of developing disordered eating or eating disorders because it oftentimes causes body comparisons.⁴ These comparisons tend to lead these individuals to use eating-disordered behaviors to cope, which leads to high levels of body dissatisfaction.⁴

Types of eating disorders that thinspo can put someone at risk for developing include:

• Anorexia nervosa: Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder where someone goes to extreme lengths to restrict their diet for fear of gaining weight. Individuals with anorexia often suffer from low body weight, and viewing thinspo content might only reinforce dangerous ideals of starvation.
• Bulimia nervosa: Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder where someone engages in a binge and purge cycle to control their weight or shape. Individuals with bulimia often experience the compulsion to purge when experiencing feelings of guilt or shame, which thinspo content can generate when viewing.
• Body dysphoria disorder (BDD): BDD is a mental health disorder where someone is obsessively concerned with perceived flaws in their appearance. Individuals with BDD already have low insight into how their symptoms affect their self-esteem, and thinspo content may only reinforce these rigid standards of appearance.

Physical Effects of Thinspo

Thinspo can also correlate with dangerous eating and exercise habits, which can coincide with physical symptoms and effects like heart problems, blocked intestines, and losing hair.

Physical effects of thinspo include:⁵

• Severe malnourishment
• Electrolyte imbalances
• Heart problems or failure.
• Extreme blood sugar fluctuations
• Blocked intestines
• Constipation or diarrhea
• Damaged nerve endings
• Bacterial infections
• Numbing and tingling in the extremities
• Dizziness or fainting
• Bone loss and osteoporosis
• Losing hair
• Kidney failure

Who Is Most Impacted by the Influence of Thinspo?

Children, adolescents, and people who already exhibit disordered eating are most impacted by the influence of thinspiration. Children and adolescents are highly impressionable because of their age, lack of life experience, and underdeveloped frontal lobes involved in decision-making. One study involving adolescents found that viewing thinspo content was associated with low self-esteem, high rates of perfectionism, and motivation for pursuing thinness.⁶

People who are at risk for developing an eating disorder or already exhibit disordered eating behaviors are also negatively impacted by thinspo content. Thinspo content is documented as worsening an individual’s body image, perception, and self-acceptance.⁷ As someone with an eating disorder likely already struggles with body image and self-acceptance, thinspo content can worsen someone’s eating disorder symptoms.

How to Reduce the Harmful Impact of Thinspo

Strategies for reducing the negative impact of thinspo might include taking control of social media use, talking with your support system, and using new coping skills. Changing your support system to include body-positive friends can help you feel safe enough to have conversations around your boundaries for triggering conversations.

You can take control of your social media use by limiting time spent, diversifying your feed, and questioning the reality of thinspo content. Coping skills like practicing mindfulness, body neutrality, and intuitive eating can help you develop a stronger body image and sense of self-esteem outside of viewing thinspo content.

Here are ten ways to reduce the harmful impact of thinspo:

1. Develop a Diverse Social Media Feed

Viewing only curated, ideal images of people on social media can create unhelpful pressure for comparison. In contrast, a diverse social media feed of many different types of people, lifestyles, and body types can help create cognitive flexibility and acceptance around beauty standards. Try following body positive professionals who are therapists, dieticians, doctors, activists, and educators to curate your own diverse and accepting social media feed.

2. Questions Whether Images & Messages Are Real

Thinspo content is often specially curated and highly edited to promote unrealistic and “perfected” images. When this content is viewed repeatedly without questioning, some users can begin to believe the images are real and feel conflicted when they compare themselves to the images. You may not always be able to control whether or not you accidentally come across thinspo content. Developing some routine questions can help you challenge the images and messages you view.

Here are some questions to ask yourself that challenge the thinspo images and messages you consume:

• Does this image look like my friends, family, or any of the people around me?
• If there is writing on the image, is it encouraging healthy behaviors?
• Could this image be AI-generated?
• Is the overall message of this content something I would encourage a friend to do?
• Is this image altered in any noticeable way, and what would it mean for me if it was altered?

3. Surround Yourself With Body Positive People

Surrounding yourself with a body-positive support system can help you reduce the harmful impacts of thinspo content. The way you talk about your body and the way that your support system talks about theirs can highly influence your sense of self-worth and connections with others. Some friends may not be familiar with body positivity, and it is okay to accept some friends may not be able to engage with you about this topic. You may have to practice having conversations about body positivity and find out who in your support system is able to have these types of talks with you.

Here are some questions to start body-positive conversations:

• What does being body-positive mean to you?
• How do you feel your relationship with your body has changed over time?
• What are some things you appreciate about your body?
• What expectations do you feel other people have for your body, and how do you protect yourself from those expectations?
• In what ways do you show compassion to your body?
• What are some body-positive affirmations that you find helpful?

4. Engage in Positive Self-Talk

One study found that negative self-talk often encourages an abusive relationship to form between the person and their “eating disorder (ED) voice”.⁸ People who hear an “ED voice” also experience worse symptoms and severity when the voice encourages compensatory behaviors like overexercising, restriction, and purging.⁸ Engaging in positive self-talk might look like using daily affirmations, challenging unhelpful narratives about yourself, or providing self-reassurance.

Examples of engaging in positive self-talk:

• Saying a few positive affirmations in the mirror
• Placing affirming sticky notes around your home or workspace
• Challenging when your self-critical voice comes in by asking, “What else about this situation could be true?”
• Providing self-reassurance like “Maybe I made a mistake, but everyone makes mistakes, and I am still worthy of love and affection”
• Challenging negative self-views by asking, “How might I speak to a friend in this situation?”

5. Focus on Health, Not Weight

Cultural standards, such as BMI, encourage a narrow focus on weight as the best indicator of health. It is true that weight can be an indicator of health; however, when it becomes the only focus, people can develop an unhealthy motivation to control their weight. Every body is different and has varying needs. You can begin by asking yourself what other indicators of health might be for you.

Possible indicators of health outside of weight:

• Staying hydrated
• Blood pressure
• Variety of foods eaten
• Cholesterol levels
• Blood sugar levels
• Types of daily movement
• Sleep hygiene

6. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a nonjudgmental focus on the present moment. Mindfulness can be applied to body image to help promote feelings of acceptance and positive attitudes toward self. Strategies for practicing mindfulness might include self-compassion meditations, body scans, or body neutrality practices.

Examples of mindful body image practices:

• Doing a body scan that acknowledges gratitude for each body part and the functions it performs
• Looking in a mirror and practicing objectively describing your body
• Doing a loving-kindness meditation focused on a certain part of your body
• Mindfully moving your body in a slower form of exercise, such as yoga
• Practicing mindful breathing and following each breath into and out of the body

7. Set Boundaries Around Triggering Conversations

Successfully setting boundaries around triggering conversations can help you and your support system understand expectations of one another. For example, you may have friends and family that are not triggered by conversations about body size or weight. However, if these conversations are triggering for you, it is appropriate and important to respectfully request your needs from others.

Here are some options for what to say to set boundaries around triggering conversations:

• Thanks so much for supporting me lately. I was wondering if one way you could support me is by not talking about weight or body size in front of me.
• I feel scared when you talk about calories in food. Could you limit those discussions with me?
• I feel frustrated when you discuss weight and body size in front of me. Are we able to limit those discussions?
• I feel okay when we talk about losing weight in general, but not when we use specific numbers.
• You have been an important piece of my recovery process. Do you think we could limit some of our conversations about food and dieting? They have been hard for me to hear.

8. Explore Body Neutrality

Sometimes, being body-positive is simply too big of a jump for someone who struggles with positive body image. In these cases, body neutrality can offer an approach that is less pressure and easier to perform. Body neutrality is focused on cultivating a nonjudgmental and objective approach to feeling neutral about your body. Strategies might include focusing on body functions rather than appearance, practicing describing body parts objectively, or stopping engaging in talks about appearance.

9. Focus on Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating is an anti-diet approach to a relationship with food, which is focused on cultivating and honoring natural hunger cues. Individuals who struggle with restrictive eating habits and view thinspo content likely also struggle with acknowledging and honoring hunger cues.

Studies indicate intuitive eating is associated with improved psychological health and improved health indicators other than weight.⁹ Strategies for intuitive eating include making food choices that honor both taste preferences and hunger cues, getting in touch with hunger and fullness cues, and shifting focus from exercising compulsively to moving for enjoyment.

10. Take a Break from Electronics

Thinspo content can only have a negative impact when viewed by a user. Taking a break from social media, or even your phone and computer entirely, can help you avoid the temptation of viewing thinspiration. It may also help you avoid accidental viewing of thinspo content when you are trying to focus on recovery. Practice filling the time you would spend viewing thinspo content on more body-positive coping skills like affirmations, intuitive eating, or practicing body neutrality.

How to Protect Your Child From Thinspo

Children are particularly vulnerable to thinspo content because the parts of their brains dictating healthy choices are not yet fully formed. If a child is exposed, they may suffer psychologically, emotionally, physically, and socially. As a parent, there are specific strategies you can take to manage the content your child views and hopefully protect them from the negative influence of thinspiration.

Here are some tips for how to protect your child from thinspo:

• Monitor social media use: There are apps designed to help you monitor your child’s use of social media. You can also have certain limits to what apps and sites your child is allowed to use, possibly limiting their ability to access thinspo content.
• Encourage privacy: Encourage your child to understand what privacy means and specific ways to protect your family’s privacy. Examples might include encouraging them to never reveal personal information such as their location, home or school address, or pictures of family.
• Discuss boundaries: Help your child understand healthy cyber boundaries. Encourage them to know what pieces of information are okay to share and what pieces of information need to be kept confidential. Help them practice how to tell someone else they don’t want to share something personal.
• Diversify your child’s social media following: If you child is allowed to follow social media accounts, ensure that they are following a variety of body positive accounts. These accounts might include educators, activists, or therapists who post age-appropriate content that values all body representations and sizes.
• Encourage communication: Help your child practice communicating their emotions using I-feel statements. Encourage them to communicate with you right away when they see or experience something “scary” or “confusing” on social media.
• Model a healthy body image: Children learn best by modeling and representation. Cultivating your own healthy body image and expressing positive feelings for your and your child’s body can help them understand how to develop strong self-esteem.

When to Seek Professional Help

Thinspo can deeply impact a person’s mental health and harm their relationship with their body and food. It also increases a person’s risk of developing disordered eating or an eating disorder. If you or a loved one is struggling with the harmful effects of thinspo or are showing the early signs of an eating disorder, seeking professional help is important.

An online therapist directory is a great way to find a therapist in your area who specializes in your specific concerns. It is important to take your time when choosing a therapist because trusting your therapist is crucial for therapy to be successful. Remember that trust can take some time. It’s important to give your therapist a few sessions to determine whether they’re the right fit.