Why can anorexic individuals not see the difference?!

It is a mental thing, one will look in a mirror and see a fat person staring back ; they do not think they are "skinny" as you put it.

It's like dyslexia but for body image. They literally see a fat person staring back at them in the mirror.

http://www.eatingdisorderpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/webinar-anorexia-distorted-body-image.jpg

They definitely don't think of themselves as being sexy or attractive in any way

I understand that - but if they were to be "inspired" to become thin (even though they already are) would they not be more likely to over-train/eat really clean(obsessively) to get a more tone look rather than the...current popular look of anorexics...which I can only describe as dilapidated

i don't think it starts that way.

they'll start by wanting to look like [insert latest pop-culture hottie] but, having attained that weight, they don't magically feel confident and beautiful. they were feeling a feel good buzz from losing, so they naturally go back to that in the hope that the next goal will magically make them feel confident and beautiful. eventually the goal gets lost to the habit, every bad feeling they have about themselves [falling grades, failing relationships, childhood trauma] is filed under ''would be ok if only i looked beautiful''.

From friends that are recovering. (Yay) I 've always always understood it has having a lot to with control, they might feel they have control over any part of there life apart from what they eat so its can become an eating disorder.

I think it's called Body Dismoprhia Disorder. They genuinely don't see what you see.

They definitely don't think of themselves as being sexy or attractive in any way

Exactly. I've been recovering from anorexia since last summer. I looked horrible at my lowest weight and I was well aware of it. However at the same time I loved it - it brought me a sense of comfort and security. Counting calories, pounds, minutes spent exercising all stopped me from thinking about what my actual problems were.

Distorted Self Image projection of your brain. It's basic psychology.
Stress and depression can make you do crazy stuff...

It's the nature of the disease...it's more psychological than just not eating.

It is a mental thing, one will look in a mirror and see a fat person staring back ; they do not think they are "skinny" as you put it.

this. it also happens to "regular people" and particularly people who have recently lost a lot of weight - they often still feel fat even though they aren't. To illustrate, I went to this scince center/amusement place which is mainly aimed at kids and teenagers (they had a get-in-for-free-day. so sue me) and they had this whole section about various body images, including scarification, piercings, tattoos... and weight. There was a mirror that would move your image from super-skinny to super fat, and the idea was to hit "stop" when you thought it reached the point wher you actually were. I invariably hit stop at a heavier point than I actually was. Even though at that point in my journey I was already at goal weight and I was very happy with the way I looked, I still didn't see it properly.

Personally, that was when I realized how important it is to lose weight slowly: not only is it better for the body, it also gives the mind some time to catch up!

I've never had an eating disorder, but I have had (do have) other emotional disorders (anxiety and depression) as well as wicked bad eyesight (astigmatism and myopia).

I can draw parallels between the two. My eyesight problems keep me from physically seeing the world clearly. Everything is blurry and out of focus. My emotional problems keep me from mentally seeing the world clearly. Everything is bleak.

Just like the eye problems, the emotional problems happen gradually. You don't really notice as your eyesight gets just a little bit worse, although you may experience some symptoms like headaches. But it isn't until you go in for an exam and get new glasses or contacts that you realize just how out of focus everything has been.

It's trickier with emotional problems. Harder to diagnose, harder to treat, and it also happens so gradually that you just accept how you're feeling as normal.

First off I don't have an ED, so forgive me if I'm way off track, but the way I understand it having OCD (since a child) is that The Mind is super complex and thoughts can become distorted, usually by traumatic events or confusing events which the mind tries to rationalise. All I can say is that no matter how rational an onlooker may think, a sufferer will equally think that their own thoughts are rational, even if self harming. So for example an ED sufferer may not eat, but this does not necessarily mean this is too be thin, it could be a distorted thought about food, eating, swallowing or the process of digestion, the outcome of the act of eating etc, and what the event of eating will cause....e.g. I may choke, or I may be sick, or eating is healthy and I know my body needs it, but I do not deserve this, because of ................ The distorted thought is usually triggered by an earlier distressing event, but that event may not directly relate to food, yet food had become a fixation as in I can control the food intake, which means I can control the bad thoughts, or control the outcome.,

I may be wrong like I said I do not suffer, but as it is a distorted control behaviour, I assume it is far more complex than wanting to be thin.

Similarly to what someone else said, someone with a true ED probably does not post pics of their body, as they are most likely not to be confident in their own body image.

i was never diagnosed, but as a child i believe i was anorexic. my mom has a photo of me at the age of 7-8 in which my legs were bones. gross. but at the time i honestly saw myself as fat. i thought i had several extra pounds and wouldn't eat much because i believed i was adding to the fat. looking back, there wasn't any.

not sure what happened, my folks divorced which brought a drastic location change, and i didn't look at myself so much anymore (maybe it was grief? who knows.) anyway, i was a normal weight throughout high school and ballooned after high school. particularly as an adult, i got huge (6'2", 308 at my heaviest). i think i saw myself as smaller than i really am. again, distorted view of my mirror image. i'm hoping to lose weight and see myself as i really am, but i'm keeping present in mind the possibility of going overboard (or minimizing the fatness) again. i plan to start a photo journal to keep tabs on myself. and to be encouraged by any changes.

anyway, it is pretty much not seeing reality and images as they are. as the person is. the image is distorted by the belief. (i must be fat/i can't be that fat)

isnt that like asking why cant a depressed person just cheer up?

^ Exactly!
Eating disorders like others have said are a mental health issue.

So I in no way am judging anorexics, but I am simply asking this as I am trying to find more information/maybe some personal experiences who could explain this to me.

Why is it that anorexic males/females can not see the difference between a healthy body weight (whether is be strong, ripped, toned - whatever) and the unhealthy body weight (bones, rib cage, lack of muscle). Like...I guess do anorexics find the unhealthy look "sexy" or "in" or "desirable"?

I don't know, I just think that if a picture of a body that is toned/muscular/thin were shown (Lets just use jillian Michaels, because i love her) VS. a body image of lets say an anorexic body...would an anorexic prefer to look like the healthy-thin person or the unhealthy-thin person...any thoughts?

I was in a treatment facility for Anorexia when I was 16, I have recovered very well...just one relapse at 18.

You have to remember that Anorexia is a mental illness, and that all of us have various degrees of Body Dysmorphia. We don't see ourselves as we are. We would find Jillian Michaels' body and the unhealthy skinny body equally desirable...because it's thin. Thin is thin. Toned is toned. Bones are bones. I do not have the body to weigh less than like 135. I have child-bearing hips and hold all weight/fat I have in my hips, butt, thighs. When I was 114lbs with protruding hips bones, sunken cheeks, an overly-defined clavicle, and a huge gap between my thighs when standing up, I didn't see that.
Looking back at pictures now that I'm in recovery I can see who scary thin I was at the time. But at the time, when I looked in the mirror, I saw Rosie O'Donnell. I still struggle a bit and receive therapy for the Body Dysmorphia (BD) aspect of things. It's difficult to get treatment for BD.

It's also a lot about control. Most ED sufferers have been victimized in some way, and one's body and eating habits is the ultimate thing you have control over. I was raped when I was 15 and diagnosed Anorexic at 16. Coincidence? No. The majority of sufferers have a story similar to mine. My body was violated and during the attack, and loooong after, I felt disgusting and that my body was taken from me (I was a virgin when this happened). My eating habits and how I looked were 2 things that could not be effected by him or anyone else. Sometimes I believe my illness started as some sort of f****d up self-punishment or discipline that grew into this'd unyielding need and obsession to be thin. My psychiatrist believes that after my attack I began starving myself as a way to make myself unattractive and undesirable to men, but you can theorize all day about one's subconscious actions.

Just remember that Anorexia, Bulimia, and EDNOS are no less mental illnesses than Schizophrenia or Depression, and that unless you've endured it and are a survivor it's something that you will never truly be able to understand.