Narc Parents and Body Dysmorphia?
At a very young age, my parents decided I was HUGE. I was always tall and skinny for my age but they labeled me as a “really big girl” and my golden child sister as tiny. We were less than two years apart and looking back now, we didn’t have a crazy difference in height or weight. It was just a typical narc parent lavishing all of the positive labels on the golden child and negative labels on the scape goat.
One of the most humiliating moments was when my parents decided I was so big, I needed to get my clothes from Lane Bryant. I was in the seventh grade, maybe 5’6” and 120lbs. It took three employees at Lane Bryant to get it through to my parents that nothing in the store would fit me. I had a normal preteen body and had no business being in a plus size store for adult women. I left in tears and they left so confused that I wasn’t the overweight gigantic preteen they KNEW I was.
Laughing comments like, “I’m not saying you are fat, but you are just a REALLY big girl” were almost daily. I’ve struggled with ED almost my entire life because of this and will forever feel shame over my body.
Does anyone else have parents that pick and poke at their body? Body dysmorphia by proxy?