Trouble looking in the mirror

And not just the cliches!

I don't really recognize myself. I know the face in the mirror is me, but I don't feel any connection to the reflection. I can't really describe it. The only time I look in mirrors is sometimes to put my hair up or put on mascara but those times i'm only looking at my hair, or my eyelashes. I can't seem to look at my reflection as a whole... I get really weirded out by the whole experience of knowing you're looking at yourself yet unable to comprehend it.

anyone else? or can anyone guess at what might be going on??

I see my brother's face! gross. people often said we look alike, then they go, "no, REALLY, you guys REALLY look alike, ODD for a brother and sister!" yeah we heard you the first time. I
have his same weird complacent expression, which is fairly expressionless. The same "don't let mother see you blink" face. I happened to go to the bathroom before and after T today, and now that you mention it, I noticed I looked pretty AFTER T. I think because I "borrow" T's smiles and beauty and love. I will know i'm cured when that pretty face becomes permanent? Like we used to say as kids, when my face freezes that way!

I see parts of my face. It doesn't fit together. I see eyes that don't understand and a mouth that can't speak up. Where am in there?

I experience this as part of my dissociation. It's sort of a combined depersonalization/derealization type of thing. So, in depersonalization, I don't feel real. My arms seem very far away and like they're not attached to me or being controlled by me. My voice sounds foreign and I feel unconnected to what I'm saying, like it's not me saying it. My body feels like it's on autopilot. Now, when you add the sensation of derealization, that the world around me isn't real, like I'm walking in a dream or a house of mirrors, and I look in the mirror, the effect is compounded so that now I don't even recognize my own face.

It's a very disconcerting feeling, but can be a normal reaction to stressful situations. It's our mind's way of protecting us from some external threat. Sometimes, though, this mechanism can get out of whack and be present without any real threat.

Sometimes grounding skills can help bring you back into your body. Talk to your T or pdoc about it. Your experience may be from some other cause, but that's where I'd begin to look for answers. Your pdoc can help rule out other causes.

Hope this helps.

I am older..67.....the face in the mirror for me is not the same as I feel in the inside. Inside I am younger, smart, simply just me.....! I can see why older people become invisible. We don't always look that hot yet inside we are that same 20 years old woman, the thirty year old woman or whatever....now its time for me to focus on other things....makeup helps but the wrinkles stay.........

I know you didn't mean this but I wanted to share this because the outside is so different then the inside sometimes isn't it?

I completely know this feeling. I am about 70 pounds smaller in my head.

Of course, that can change, but it's as if my mental self-image is stuck on the nice lean silhouette I used to have before I started grad school, stopped working out, and had countless depressive months in which I sleep more, eat more, and do less.

But I know I'm overweight, so I convince myself, OK, I'll work out and eat less and then I'll feel better and be more fit. But because I'm somehow stuck on this internal self-image, I never follow through on these plans. It's as though thinking about it is enough, but really, it's not. And I don't usually see it in the mirror either - but then again, I don't spend much time in front of a mirror.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia

Thanks dragonfly, I didn't think to connect dissociation with the derealization/depersonalization in that way. It makes sense since that's part of what landed me in the hospital the last time. I should talk to my T, but in my sessions i usually have something else going on

I just have a very difficult time looking at myself in the mirror, and try to avoid it whenever possible, because I think I am so freakin' ugly.

I just cannot look at myself in the mirror.

I have a mirror problem, too. I don't look the same in my head as I do in the mirror at all. The only thing the same is long hair and female. My fact is all wrong, and my body.

I'm overweight by about 50 pounds, but in my head I'm still that small person I used to be. That's one thing. But... my face has always been wrong, even when I was younger and thin. I've never really associated with it. It reminds me of how when you hear a recording of yourself you think "is that really what I sound like?"

I'm at a point where I can look at myself in the mirror, even if I feel I'm looking at the wrong face.

If this is something that resonates with you, you may be interested in looking at a book called Feeling Unreal. It goes into the experience of DP and DR in some detail and some of the stories may help you understand what you're experiencing. I would still bring it up with your therapist.

Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Unreal.../dp/0195170229

I can't believe that you think you are ugly! Isn't that you in the photo? You are very attractive and I'm not just saying that!

I know this is an old thread, but I don't recognize myself in the mirror. I look like an alien and all distorted. Once I looked in the mirror I looked like a monkey. For other people sometimes I don't recognize my own family. They might be aliens as well of shapeshifters. Once someone came to our house recently and I've seen her many times, but the last time she was here her face was shifting all over the place. My world doesn't look real, sometimes it actually "glitches." I know I'm fat. It is hard to explain, but I have always had trouble recognizing people. It just got worse though. I know I'm on the Internet though. I've had depersonalization and derealization for a long time now.

I had gained abourt 25 pounds, that is a lot for me since I am 5'1" (almost) I knew I gained weight, but it wasn't me, I would hide from the mirror. Now I am back to high school weight, its me again!!! ..... Pretty strange...

I'm fat. Thank you Depakote and zyprexa. Its not the real me in the mirror. I avoid it at all costs. That means washing my hands in the public bathroom I avert my gaze and all.

I know what you mean. It happens to me when I am normal to depressed. I can't explain it. I don't want to look. I feel very uncomfortable. It probably isn't the same , but I can relate.

When I look in the mirror I see someone
that looks like a monster or evil. I really
don't know why either. I've always felt
that. I think I am a freak. Can anyone
identify?