by Kristi Caporoso
It is commonly known that one of characteristics of people suffering from anorexia is a distorted mental image of how their body looks. Even when their bodies are withering away and dangerously skinny, people with anorexia still look in the mirror and see someone who is overweight. However, not everyone knows how this belief interferes with their daily unconscious actions. While these images clearly interfere with the way the person thinks, it has also been discovered that they interfere with the way the person moves. Someone suffering from anorexia not only believes that they are larger than they actually are, but also carry themselves as if they are larger. Moving around their world on a daily basis is affected by how large they believe themselves to be.A recent study revealed this by testing both healthy participants and those with anorexia. The test consisted of each participant walking through a door, and observing when they rotated to get themselves through the space. The test showed that participants with anorexia rotated when the door space was significantly wider than their shoulders, compared to when the healthy participants rotated in relation to their shoulders. This confirms that those suffering from anorexia not only believe themselves to be larger, but make daily physical movements that reflect this fictitious size. This recent discovery shows just how pervasive this distortion really is. Those with this eating disorder truly believe what they see in the mirror, since their unconscious actions reflect it when they move.
Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/05/31/distorted-body-image-in-anorexia-can-affect-movement/55442.html
