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Image Perception

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Kristina Mccarthy-Martin

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Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, "I look good"? ....then.....you see a picture of yourself in that outfit and words just can't express how unflattering it really is.

 

Image perception is what you see in the mirror. Your brain tricks you into seeing what you perceive yourself to look like instead of reality. Some people have a true disorder involving distorted image perception – body dysmorphia.

 

When I was in high school, I thought I was fat. When I looked in the mirror I saw a thick chunky girl. I look back at pictures of myself at 15 or 16 and I was not fat. Truth is I looked like a healthy teenager, not like the "anorexic" ideal. This is an issue that you often hear talked about in regards to anorexics and bulimics seeing a distorted image of themselves. In movies they compare it to looking in a funhouse mirror.

 

Recently I have noticed that I have the opposite issue. When I look in the mirror, I don’t see size 22 Kristina. I see size 16 Kristina. For some reason my brain is in denial about all the weight I have gained. My distorted image doesn’t really look that bad. I see a picture and it is shocking. That isn’t what I look like, that outfit looked good on me. My clothes are shrinking in the wash, no I have gained weight.

 

See a picture here: http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/gallery/image/22606-image-perception/

 

Is image perception what causes all the funny Walmart pictures? We all wonder how people can think they look good when they look a hot mess.

 

In all seriousness, I am worried about image perception after the surgery. Am I going to see myself the same? Will I still think I look fat after I lose weight?

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I think we all have "fat" tatooed somewhere in our minds. It takes us ALL a lot of mind work. I know that I have lost 80# and to me I look exactly the same.

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I agree. I have a hard time reconcilling the clothes i am wearing with my perception of myself. i keep thinking the clothes must have 'relaxed' or streched or something because i cannot see myself as anything but large. However when i was at my heaviest i was like you and saw myself as much smaller than i was. amazing how a picture reveals so much more than a mirror.

Right now my I am struggling more with my perception than with food. who would have thought? I feel like my brain is 40 pounds behind reality and cannot catch up. I am at a lower weight than i have been in 30 years, yet dont feel all that much smaller.

good luck

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I have a hard time too. I went to find some underwear since I have not bought any since weight loss and have to roll them over a bunch. I wore a 5X. Went to dillards and the girl said you wear an X-large. I held it up and said are you sure, this is so small. I took home and sure enough fit like a glove. I still hold up clothes I get out of the closet and think I'm not going to get into that and slide right in. When does this go away?

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That is something I have always had a hard time with. I used to work at Lane Bryant, best job I loved it there. Well I had my "light bulb" moment working there while folding the jean wall that never quit!!! This is what happened, when I was in high school, I was always between a 12 and a 14 and thought I was BIG...while folding the jeans I was "in the zone", because I love to fold, and I started to fold a pair of 14 jeans(the smallest size for LB) and then folded a 22(which I was in at the time) then another 14 and a 28 and the next 14 I held up I was like OMG...I THOUGHT I was fat when I wore this size, and now look at the jeans I'm wearing and convinced my self I was hot stuff!!!! It was then I realized that my mind was messed up...thinking I was huge at a size 14 was ridiculous!!! So I am hoping that this time around, since I have been working on my mind, I hope to have a better outlook on me!!!

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