Are anorexic females clueless, in denial, or just plain frauds?

There is just power in numbers. Most likely these women feel comfortable saying things that they might otherwise only think to themselves, when they believe there are others who will understand their thoughts. Also, there is a culture among those with eating disorders that focuses on “thinspiration,” which is more or less visual or verbal encouragement to keep losing weight.

Are you sure your “Cum Boom” isn’t anorexic?

It is a mental illness. They aren’t clueless, in denial, or frauds. I’m sure there are some frauds out there, but pretending is often the first step towards being. While sufferers know they are too skinny, they still think they need to lose more. Making light of a situation is a classic coping mechanism – it doesn’t take away from the illness in the slightest.

Fat > Super skinny If I can see your lower rib cage while you’re standing, i’m going to throw up and you’re gross.

They are all very, very sick. Their body images are distorted as is their thinking.

If I were you, I would remove them as friends.

I think the people who embrace their anorexia are taking the pressure from the media which originally inspired their desire to be thin to the extreme. Like @JmacOroni said, there’s power in numbers, but also safety in numbers. By surrounding themselves with other people with eating disorders and by creating personas for themselves, they’re able to fool themselves (at least temporarily) into the mindset that they’re not sick.

It’s like an admitted alcoholic who surrounds him/herself with other binge drinkers, partying all the time and embracing their illness.

People with eating disorders are, like @FireMadeFlesh said, suffering from a mental disorder. They’re not clueless, frauds, or in denial. Because of their disorder, they honestly think that thinner is better – a severe anorexic can look in the mirror and, rather than see the ribs poking out, they see only the fat that they imagine is still there.

And they’re not all female. I know a man who suffered from anorexia for years, and while he didn’t take it to the extreme with respect to the “fan base” out there, there are men that do.

It’s a mental thing. There was a girl I knew in high school, who was incredibly intelligent, and personable, and outgoing… but she was anorexic. She said it was a way for her to have control, and it makes total sense (to me at least). We have control over so little in our lives, but you can absolutely control what you do with your body.

Eating disorders also closely linked to depression, which for the most part, is due to an imbalance and not a personal choice. It’s completely plausible that these girls really have convinced themselves that they do not have a problem. There are days when I feel like I am huge, when I’m actually probably quite thin, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone to convince me that I’m not. I think that if they’ve got the idea in their minds that they are fat; then it is not unrealistic to assume that they will overlook the unhealthy consequences associated with their disorder. Afterall, when addicted to things, it’s not unusual to make up an excuse to justify your behavior or overlook the consequences.

I’m probably going to get flamed for this… but back in junior high I remember several occasions in which girls would just one day show up to lunch and be all “I’m not eating today!” like they had just decided to become anorexic and wanted everybody to know it. I was very cynical towards it and saw it as attention seeking. I still think that’s probably what it was, because after a while they seemed to just “grow out of it,” which I’m pretty sure is not how the real disease works.

If someone is bragging about it on Facebook I tend to think they’re probably looking for attention. Correct me if I’m being close-minded but I was under the impression that most people who actually have eating disorders try to cover it up. That’s not to say that ALL anorexic females are “frauds” – but you probably don’t know about the “real” ones. I have the same attitude towards cutters. Please don’t think I’m a heartless prick.

@Mariah – You’re exactly right, and you’re not at all a heartless prick. Some girls do pretend to have a real eating disorder when they’re just looking for attention. Unfortunately, the fact that those “frauds” exist takes away from those people who really are sick.
I can’t speak for cutters, personally – I know one recovered cutter and she went to great pains to hide it.

Anorexia is a disease and you can die from it if it’s not treated (e.g. Karen Carpenter) However, I think all of us probably have some distortions about the way we look. In college we had to find our ideal weight using our wrist bones as the focal point. According to that, I was 30 pounds under my ideal weight. I thought that was nonsense. When I was 30. I reached my ideal weight, and that was fine. Now I’m 10 pounds over and it bothers me because I’m not “ideal.” Hah! But now, when I see pictures of me from college days, I can see I was too thin. You couldn’t have convinced me of that then.

I don’t think that pretending that you self injure or pretending that you have an eating disorder is a cry for attention…. it is a cry for help.

You have a strange demographic of friends. I’ve only ever known one anorexic female and she had a serious condition she couldn’t control well. She knew she was unhealthy and she worried but she would be more ill to try and eat “normal” than was her regimen. Her image of her physical body wasn’t real and I don’t mean it wasn’t realistic but that she truly didn’t see in the mirror what anyone was seeing. She wasn’t in denial, she was medically/mentally warped and terribly afraid because she couldn’t control herself. I have no idea what ever became of her.

Has anyone ever tried to suggest to an anorexic female that she maybe is a little off kilter on her thinking? If you alude even in the slightest that he had a problem upstairs mentally you better be in riot gear with a shield in front of you because the rotten eggs and tomatoes they will hurl at you they don’t want anyhow.

For someone that appears to practically obsess over womens’ body image issues, I would have thought by now that you would have a better understanding of how the thought process can sometimes become so toxic… that the reality is nearly impossible to see.

@JmacOroni For someone that appears to practically obsess over womens’[sic] body image issues, I would have thought by now that you would have a better understanding of how the thought process can sometimes become so toxic… that the reality is nearly impossible to see. First off I don’t think or dwell on it any more than other issues like why we American waste so much food. I certainly didn’t tell them gals ”Starve yourselves then post your pics to see who can be the most boniest this week”. And I can imagine but never quite understand why women make such a big issue over it other take control and do what scientifically works.

Once upon a time I was fat. When I got out of the shower one day and could not see my toes or my junk because there was too much of me in the way I could have whined about it, ignore it, denied it. What I did was take action to do something about it. I didn’t try to convince everyone I was normal and they were just skinny, or try to bamboozle them into thinking me and all my weight was healthy.

Don’t whine about ”I hate being this or that” then relish in it or reject help when you say you want it.

@Hypocrisy_Central – Sorry, but I have to agree with @JmacOroni that you do seem to dwell on women’s body issues and sex, weight, etc.

There are chubby dating sites but are there any boney lovers (anorexic dating) sites you ever heard of?
Women watching porn what is the draw or appeal for women to view it?
What level on the IQ scale denotes not being smart enough to consent to sex?
What subject matter do you think the MPAA has more disdain for, gratuitous violence, graphic cussing, or a close up of a woman having an orgasm?
Can beauty be quantified or is it arbitrary by nature to the group or society you are in?
Women, do you think like a man or think like a woman thinking like a man?
Tale of 3 women; anorexic, obese, and fit, why did they turn out so different?
If a hooker manage to buy a ticket and win a lotto, would she give up hooking?
Is the amount of self-respect and confidence a woman display tied to how much skin she shows or doesn’t show?
Are teen boob jobs about confidence or something else?
Do you believe the prostitutes are easier victims of crime because they often live under the radar?
Liposuction and body sculpting is it an accepted means to an end or still just for fat people?
Which heels make a woman the sexiest?
Why shouldn’t there be a “Fat Tax” for the overweight?
When is or isn’t the right time for a woman to report a rape?
Are there other industrialized nations out there as “nipplephobic” as the US?
Isn’t the guy + big boobs love affair a Madison Avenue scam?
Do most women really have such distain for Daisy Dukes or am I missing the words of its fans?
If boob size is important to women why shouldn’t it for men?
Why the big flap over prostitution when sex is but a mere commodity anyhow?
How come beauty pageants and bikini contest for fat women can’t be found?
How old is “too old” to wear a mini if you are in shape?
By remaining silent are some women de facto enabling rapist?
Why is seeing all of the breast more evil than seeing most of it?
What is your mini skirt wearing rule(s)?
Why do women who pass the pencil test bother wearing bras?
Why do you suppose Victoria’s Secret commercials, models are in heels most of the time and the other bra maker commercials they are not?
How fit is “fat but fit”?
Teen plastic surgery wanted by mom to further daughter’s career, good, bad, or who cares?
Dress like a slut or behave like a slut, which would you lean to more?
How old do you have to be to work at Hooters and Bone Daddy etc?

Just a sampler.

@Seelix A lot of those examples you brought up (and who else did you compare too question wise?) many have nothing to do with women body issues or hang ups. Many of those that do are a societal hang up because the question came from a blurb on the evening news, a magazine I thumbed through while I had to wait at the checkout line, or conversations of other women I know. If a person’s questions focus 70% on video games and computers that person can be accused of focusing or obsessing on teenage nerds? But let me add some light on your quite impressive list of some of my great works:

There are chubby dating sites but are there any boney lovers (anorexic dating) sites you ever heard of? The greatness of Facebook you can hear from those you might never have otherwise. Many on there who’s message reached me preaches that the thinner you are the better and more perfect you become and thus more desirable. I knew this to be a folly but in all fairness I had to test it out. Looked for sites that cater to anorexic dating, if the demand was there (and they were right) then it would have been easy to find. I was testing an idea they preached not my own.

Women watching porn what is the draw or appeal for women to view it? If women loathed porn as many claim there would be no question here. I have known women personally that watched it. I know why the men I knew watched it but why would a straight woman watch, because she wanted to see naked men? And if so, why? A lot of the men were really not Disney Prince handsome. Has nothing to do with a woman’s body.

Can beauty be quantified or is it arbitrary by nature to the group or society you are in? What is true beauty? There have been reality shoes about it, news shows stories about it. NightLine even covered it. I am not the only one wondering about it. Time magazine even covered it….shame on all those news people and journalist to even question it because it tumbles all the way back to women (salt

If a hooker manage to buy a ticket and win a lotto, would she give up hooking? Not really a body issue or a sex issue. It is more like a future choice or career issue, but seeing it is a profession many can’t fathom why any woman would choose out of choice it would beg to think the logical conclusion is if she won the lotto she would escape her pimp (if she had one) and this life most find repugnant. Has nothing to do with sex or women body image. Sorry most prostitutes happen to be female.

What is your mini skirt wearing rule(s)? Had more to do with age, fashion and societal expectations. I read some online news blog thing that was bashing Mariah Carey for being caught by the paparazzi out somewhere in a mini dress and they were thinking her too old to be dressed in a dress so short. So, I asked what other Flutheronians thought on that because my powers of clairvoyance was not working that day.

Teen plastic surgery wanted by mom to further daughter’s career, good, bad, or who cares? Lets see….NightLine covered it, 20/20 did also as well as ABC evening news and What Would You Do recently. Again my powers of clairvoyance failed me to I had to ask real people what they thought about teen plastic surgery especially if the teen thought (or her parents) thought she would gain a leg up by doing so.

I could go through the whole list to punctuate why they were ask and how many has nothing to do with women’s body issues or an obsession with it. The obsession seems to be with what I ask and how.

How many questions have I asked and how many dealt with cars, politics, other subjects? I have asked over 550 questions of which you point out 40ish and not all of those were correctly categorized. Makes you wonder what those other questions obsessed over? Ummmmm…..?

They are sick in that they do not vaule themselves enough to “care” for themselves in a healthy way.
They seem to measure themselves on a false set of values.(beauty by industry standards).