Body Dysmorphic Disorder

[Fionat29]

Does anyone else have trouble seeing themselves as they really are? I've lost over 2 stones and am in size 10 (English) jeans for the first time ever but I still look in the mirror and see a fat woman! Why is that? Anyone else doing that?

 

[LittleSis]

At the moment I look in the mirror and see a fat woman because I am....

However as I've said before when I lost over 4stn on LL I could not except I was slim!! No idea why! Even know when I look at the before and after photo's, the person in the after photos isn't me!!!!

I think we are so used to seeing ourselves as bigger we just can't take in whats before us???

I have to say..You look great in your photo

 

[AmandaT]

I sometimes have the opposite, I look in the mirror and think I look ok and then I see the pictures and realise actually how big I have become, its like I cant accept the weight I have put on and still think Im the thinner 19 year old I once was.

 

[Fionat29]

Oh wow! So I guess it works both ways then? I didn't realise.

 

[Initiative]

Sometimes I see myself as ok and others i don't even need to look in the mirror; just looking down at my legs or stomach I see them as they used to be. I'm actually the thinnest I've been since before I was a preteen... well for the normal size of someone that young. I was up to a size 16 and now I'm a solid 8 working my way towards 6... but to still see myself as that large still? Kinda crazy.. even to me when I realize I'm not really like that anymore.

 

[TTfan]

Hi Fiona, yeah I know exactly what you mean and have exactly the same problem. The really funny thing is that before I started my diet I used to look at myself and think I was basically thin but carrying a couple of extra pounds, now 3 stone lighter I look in the mirror and see an obese woman looking back at me. It's getting slowly better with time but it's taking ages for my brain to catch up.

For what it's worth, you look amazing in the pic you posted in the cc forum.

Any maintainers out there who could give us advice or tell us how long it took their brain to catch up with their weightloss?

 

[shrinkingannie]

Before I had my first child I was slim having lost three stone and I felt the exact same. But I did find it improved with time and my brain gradually caught up. It started with getting a glance of myself in a shop window and seeing a slim body or jogging I'd see a slim shadow - I really started to focus on these snippets of feeling and looking slim and gradually my brain followed.
Well done on your amazing achievement tell yourself constantly that you are slim and gorgeous and your brain will eventually agree!!

 

[Fionat29]

I hope you're right! Lol! At the moment, it's too warm to wear the new size 10 jeans that I bought so I'm still feeling fat! Ha Ha!!