Morning! Minus the brilliant academic mind and fairy-tale romance

so much of what you say just strikes a chord with me. First, I think one of the drawbacks of a forum like this is it sometimes intensifies our natural inclination to compare ourselves unfavorably with others...what/how much they do/do not eat/weigh/exercise, yada yada.
About the not seeing what everyone sees...I know for a fact that what I saw 99% of the time and what others saw was simply two different images - for a long time both during and post weight loss. My internal image (which superimposes itself in the mirror) is slowly coming closer to matching reality...but for a long, long time there was a
huge gap. I would (at a size 5 at the time) be in the middle of ironing slacks for work, look at the waistband and have this sudden irrational panic-y thought "no way these are going to fit me" and have to stop ironing, try on the pants and remind/reassure myself, that the fat chick I saw was in my head. And everytime I got a compliment I felt uncomfortably like a fraud - as though I was projecting an illusion of thinnes (does that make sense?)
I finally had to accept (for myself) that having a eating disorder and being body dysmorphic are just firmly intertwined - it was only when I was able to put food firmly in the context of nutrition vs. weight control that I could look at my body objectively. I guess the take-away message is that, as strange and horrible as it feels, as exhausting and at times all consuming as it feels to do the mental work to get past it, it's not forever, it does pass and it can be overcome. Then you get to enjoy all the great aspects of your life - which will be just that much better without the food/body image issues. Just keep hanging in there.