i think you are showing empathy... its not so selfish... everyone has different coping skills... i admit i dont know much about the eating disorders... although i may have one myself since i simply dont eat very much, i just have a general distaste for eating... its not about any body image or anything though...
i know that these girls that see themselves as fat and ugly and things that they are clearly not are suffering from an illness just as well... their perspective of themselves is skewed and they probably try to punish themselves...
just as my perspective of myself is skewed because of my hardships... i feel dirty, i feel less than... i dont feel equal to others because of my experiences and abuse... and i admit that i dont entirely understand the motives behind my own self harm... i really dont...
all i know is that it is a coping mechanism that started at some point... and for whatever reason it helps to cope... i have read that some people try it, but it doesnt work for them and they dont get addicted or whatever... but for some the release is so strong that they just keep going back to it over and over...

you have your own set of coping skills... there is nothing wrong with that, everyone copes a little differently... to each their own right? its sad that sometimes people resort to this type of thing... but sometimes i guess all other options have been exhausted...
it doesnt mean that you should feel bad about yourself... it just means that you may have developed healthier coping mechanisms... or maybe not even healthier ones but just different ones...
for example, i could never bash my head... i love my brain, i am an intellectual and i try to protect it with everything i have... even though i have substance abuse problems that probably do harm my brain... i have smacked myself long ago but i just dont get the same response from this other method...


it is saddening... to see these things... i would suggest not looking at this though... because it does hurt your heart.... you are empathetic and dont want them to do that...
but there is not really much we can do to help as individuals... they need professional help to help develop healthier coping skills and to get away from these self destructive type of behaviors...

with the thighs... it can be easier to hide i guess... it may be something to do with how they view themselves, because to them they appear to be ugly and fat and all of those distasteful things... thats how they see themselves, so i guess maybe they just try to punish themselves for it... maybe in the areas that they see the worse...

i dont understand this thigh gap thing that is going around... honestly i like a healthy thigh and butt defined... i dont know why its becoming so prevalent to have no butt and no thighs, but i guess its a psychological thing... and it spreads, when a girl is raised seeing all these boney models and told that they are pretty and beautiful then they start to think that they have to look like that to be beautiful too..?
its messed up... because alot of these girls are really beautiful, they just dont see it...

i guess what im trying to say is try not to look at that stuff... because it will cause distress... and since we suffer with depression and stuff we dont need more triggers...

you should try to take your medication regularly... skipping the medicine and stuff will not help but make things worse... i try to do my best with medication even though i dont want to take it, and i often forget to... but its important to keep routines... going through withdrawals and reintroducing medication into your system is just gonna mess things up... will make the medicine not work because your body will start to recognize it and discard it as some foreign thing that it doesnt want or need and wont use it to help...

it hurts me that anyone does these things too, but i know that they are hurting... and its not that they want to hurt themselvs so much as to they just want to feel better...
i know it doesnt make sense...

try to take care of yourself... we have to becareful with these things that we expose ourselves to... i know you feel empathy towards them, but hurting ourselves by looking at what they are doing isnt going to help... i wish i had answers for it, i know how it feels because i feel the same way when i look at myself.. but just have to try to be understanding and treat ourselves better...

sorry if none of this makes sense, this subject confuses me too... and im drinking a little so maybe my mind is even more foggy than normal