Anorexia Patients Perceive Their Bodies As Bigger, Others Accurately (STUDY)
#Thinspiration #Anorexia #Bullying -
The main effects in this article suggest there’s some degree of Social Comparison Theory at play.
Remember, this is an Ego-Syntonic disorder, meaning that the people who have it tend to think what they’re doing is preferable and/or conducive to their body image goals. Depression and Panic Disorder, however, are Ego-Dystonic, because nobody WANTS to be depressed or have a panic attack each time they enter a busy intersection resembling a tragic car wreck.
Thus, the CNS may not be *updating* because the person may not want to know how unhealthily thin they have become. At the same time, they can accurately estimate the weight of other people because that’s who their CNS (specifically, medial pre-frontal cortex) is using in its comparison.
The overestimation of their own body & the accurate estimation of others’ is the discrepancy their mPFC uses for justification of their behavior - which makes it Ego-syntonic, i.e. preferable, desirable.
This contributes to it having the highest mortality rate of any disorder. This is why people are resistant to give up the behaviors, going so far as to *FAKE GAINING WEIGHT* (e.g. using duck tape to attach dozens of quarters to their stomach when going to see their doctor, just so it’ll look like their gaining weight again).
