I don't see it.

"No one likes me." "I have no friends." "She always stares at me." "They were talking about me behind my back." "I don't connect with anyone."

Impaired central processing of emotional faces

I certainly noticed that when my daughter's illness was worst (nutritionally and weight-wise) she misinterpreted other people's emotions pretty wildly. The same friends who were unkind, the same teachers who were unfair, the same situations that were once poisonous - changed when she healed. (I don't think they changed - I think it was her brain, and the altered way she reacted to people.)

Comments

  1. I find it interesting how all of these responses are so isolating in nature. Aside from the physiological component, these emotions and feelings all serve to push one further and further into an eating disorder. If no one likes you, then its much easier to self-destruct.

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  2. I read this via another post and wondered if researches have repeated the tests with 'recovered' patients. It would be an interesting test. Did the researchers base their observations on patients that are still suffering from an?

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  3. Much of the research carried out by the Institute of Psychiatry (Maudsley) and in particular by Bryan Lask of the UK has been done on weight restored patients. It has shown similar distortions of cognition. Of course whether that means that the researchers have found the genetic/brain CAUSE of eating disorders or whether it just proves that the CONSEQUENCES of starvation in terms of damage to the brain last well into recovery is a hotly debated subject.

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  4. Rachel - you are so right. Cruel illness. Yet knowing the burden that the patient is under while ill makes it all the more miraculous and admirable to watch a person recover. I'm so proud of what my daughter has done.

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  5. I observed my daughter cycle through this inabilty to interpret others and herself twice. When she began the refeeding process it was clear when she had reached a point of physical healthiness as her ideas, thoughts and emotions evidenced a great deal more clarity and reality. The realization of isolation is now an issue we can openly discuss and this helps her not to go to that lonely, undeserving place.
    I, too, am very proud of the steps my daughter has taken in recovery.

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