Pro-recovery?

One of my favorite blogs already beat me to the punch on this, but I will attempt to shed my own view on this without being a copycat, blog stalker or repeating information.

I've stated before that what helps me a lot is surrounding myself with body and food positive people, places and things.  This is particularly true on social media - I'm adding recovery warriors, medical professionals and other like outfits to my twitter, blogger and Facebook - the wealth of information I've received has been so wonderful.  I not only feel stronger, but smarter!

That said, there are some accounts I follow that quickly get unfollowed, or they remain on but I'm not sure if I want to keep them there.  Here are some examples of conflicting messages I have run across without mentioning names.

A medical professional who writes about recovery and mental health re-tweeting things about the "dangers of sugar".

A program that includes many videos and literature on eating mindfully and being pro-recovery, but publishes books on how to lose weight once and for all.

Speaking of eating mindfully, those in this camp who create rules so you can eat mindfully.  Rules and Mindful in the same sentence?  Really?

A recovery center that posts a link to a Special K ad (this one), claiming how awesome it is brands are sharing this message of being more than a size, while that same company, when going to their website, has a plan to lose 5lbs in 2 weeks (based on previous advertising campaigns, I assume it's from replacing real meals with their unsatisfying cereal).  You can't claim one is more than a number when you spew off number of pounds to lose in a numbered time span. 

National recovery programs and centers that continue to show images of scales that have landed on a number (usually 120, or just zero), or show an image of a waist being measured by a tape measure with the numbers just readable to see so you can figure out how many inches round the person's waist is which is TRIGGER TO THE MAX if you have an eating disorder!!

I realize that if one has not gone through disordered eating, an eating disorder or anything related or in between, it can be hard to recognize what messages get slipped through, or what is harmful.  For some, like the measuring tape, it just seems like a no brainier and I just don't know what to think sometimes when I come across it.

I'm so fortunate that my college (small, all women's college!) taught me to constantly question and think critically about everything, particularly media messaging.  And maybe it took a while for all that to set in, it's coming into full use now.  Just because a person, center or program claims to be pro-recovery doesn't mean they are, or that they are all the time.  This is where I can come in - I can decide why I don't feel a certain message doesn't fit with the theme and challenge it.  With the Special K ad, I did challenge the place that posted that, despite getting a disheartening response that was akin to "this is better than nothing".  Sigh

Our society won't change if we stop questioning the reasoning behind the messages.  We can't take things fed to us at face value.  In other words, if I find someone to follow on Twitter who I think may be pro-recovery, I have to challenge and question what gets put out there.  I have to educate myself on what is an effective and positive message and think why something might not be great for someone affected with an ED.  The best part is we can all do this - stop, think, question, challenge, even if we agree right off the bat, or if we disagree.