This latest theory on the forum revolves around the assumption that personal experiences are accurate. The perception is 100% accurate in its reporting to the brain. It is at this point that I would hesitate to go any further with the theory. I am very certain that this notion of infallible personal perception and judgement cannot stand critical scrutiny.
Under the influence of powerful stress hormones or fear chemicals the perception is always hijacked. An anorexic fearing fat will not see themselves as painfully thin even when confronted by the evidence that is plainly seen by everyone else.
A person in the grips of height vertigo will often report the sensation that the room is spinning, although they clearly know that it isn’t.
These examples of other fear based disorders prove without doubt the ability of the perception to be fundamentally flawed and unreliable.
So for someone to believe they have accurate perception while feeling the fear of BDD cant be considered a reliable fact. We have enough personal accounts to know that the perception of ugliness is felt, but never to my knowledge, validated by anyone else. This is the nature of all BDDers and is part of the cluster of symptoms that make up the disorder. This is why the word perceived is in the definition. Perception is not reality and is not accurate often. You can check countless examples of youtube feeds of people with BDD to see dodgy perception.
So what does this theory offer and why would it be proposed given the weak assumption it is based on. Well, the trajectory of the thinking provides the clue. If your perception is accurate then you must reach a conclusion you are ugly. The conscious brain reaches this conclusion as a solve for the doubt and uncertainty that is felt. That doubt and uncertainty about how one looks is constantly being generated as worry in the BDDer’s brain. Making a judgement that confirms ugliness is a way to give certainty and beat the fear of nagging doubt.
But you can’t wrestle a fear to the ground to kill it. You can’t root it out at the core. You can only tame it with softening your realisation. So although the conscious brain can come up with this answer for doubt, the subconscious will not accept it. It is not what the subconscious knows to be true about you. So solving the dilemma of doubt in the negative space is likely to end in a roadblock. You will have to double back to where the first mistake in logic was made. Otherwise your solution will not be acceptable to what the larger part of you knows to be true. Your subconscious will not allow you to swallow a lie.
Your own emotions are a better guide to whether what you are telling yourself is true or not. Your perception is not good at telling you truth. If it doesn’t feel good the thought is the wrong thought to think. So listen to your own inner guidance. If it doesn’t feel good stop yourself thinking it. Don’t talk up something you fear. It will never feel good.
You are all wonderfully made and worthy of love and respect. It feels good to remind yourself of that. You suffer a lot with BDD not knowing this as your reality. It is really helpful to know your perception is the problem and not the way you look. You have your own lie detector that you can listen to all the time. Try to listen to what your emotions tell you. You can't lie to yourself without your emotions letting you know strongly.