I’ve seen a few people on instagram. Before they become anorexic they were a little, and I mean just a little, chubby. I also noticed many of them had disproportionate bodies and mainly had a lot of fat in the head area. So they keep the weight off to make their head or other part skinny. Yet it makes them look like aliens and many of them think it’s normal or it looks good but it’s damnnnn creepy . It’s usually girls btw. It’s even creepier when they think they look good. Idk why but you can tell a chubby person who become slim by looking at them. Their face looks a bit weird or disproportionate. It’s like endomorphs will always be endomorphs except with less fat in their fat cells but you can tell they were fat before
because of body dysmorphia. one of the worst parts of an eating disorder is that it’s NEVER good enough, so the satisfaction (the whole thing with anorexic girls showing off their bodies you mentioned) aka the honeymoon phase wears off VERY quickly.
the whole illness is a paradox. there’s no point in questioning why they feel a certain way; the point is, they DO, whether the ED was triggered by physical factors, trauma, or a need to control. also, healthy bodies are triggering to ED sufferers because the overwhelming majority of ED clinics and health professionals only see it as a legitimate problem when your BMI is dangerously low, or you actively restrict your intake. nobody with an ED cares if someone tells them “you look like a dying piece of shit”, it only fuels the disorder because it validates the pain.
eating disorder sufferers are also usually perfectionists and have very damaged self esteem. there isn’t a magic number or goal weight you get to and think, “i finally look skinny!” it’s never good enough, until you’re dead.
tldr: eating disorders are MENTAL illnesses. it’s kind of like asking a junkie “how can you keep doing this even when you know you’re killing yourself?” it’s an addiction to a controlled, sustained self harm.
What?
You clearly know nothing about anorexia lol I’ve had it years ago (like 10 years ago) and it was never intentional. it was never about how I looked. and it definitely wasn’t to “keep weight off”, I was in a very bad place mentally and each day it became harder and harder to eat. I eventually became very underweight and was hospitalised. I never took photos of myself or did it for vanity reasons. I just hated myself and my life, it was almost like self harm.
Also your face/head will always look huge if your body is very underweight. your skull doesn’t change size lol