The world is but a mirror...

Many years ago a friend of mine had "sports anorexia." Anything she ate would be sweated off, as she put on her leotard and went to gym every lunch hour. She didn't see her own cadaverous cheeks or hollowed-out eye sockets. In the mirror, she looked fit, healthy and thrillingly slim.

- Jennie Ridyard

Then, one day, while exercising off the apple she'd eaten earlier—she knew the calorie count of everything—she spotted another woman working out in one of the many mirrors.

The poor creature was clearly anorexic, skin stretched hideously over bone, thighs like twigs...and then she realised the woman wore her leotard, her hairstyle. The woman was herself.

Her mind twisted the reflection into her preferred reality, but what she saw could not be unseen. She got help the next day.

The world is a mirror. We cannot look at it without seeing ourselves.