My unusual experience with face dysmorphia: does anyone else experience this?
I (19F) have struggled with body dysmorphia since I was 13. At first it was in the more usual sense of feeling "ugly", etc., but recently it has developed into an inability to perceive my own face. It is very difficult to put this into words, and I was wondering if anyone else experiences this. The best way I could describe it is that I don't know what my own face looks like. I cannot imagine my face, I can only recall how it looks on certain pictures. And I also have this thing where I believe I look like a different person on every picture. Like, to the point where I believe if I didn't know that the picture was of me, I wouldn't know that the person on it is me. This kinds connects to this other aspect which is thinking that I'm a "catfish" even though I don't wear heavy makeup and don't use filters: this makes me think that if I showed someone two different pictures of myself, they wouldn't be able to tell it's the same person. I don't have any other mental illnesses, and I don't actually believe I look like many different people. The way I see it is that maybe after years of hating myself, my brain stopped perceiving me as a sort of self defense. Also, I don't think anymore that I'm ugly. From outside experiences, and from looking in the mirror I can tell that I'm attractive. I don't know if this makes any sense or if anyone else experiences this. It's such an odd feeling, and I was wondering if anyone has dealt with something similar. Thanks for reading!