Obsessed with one side of my face

With my BDD, i can't get over my obsessions and things are going downhill. I have this problem where I'm constantly checking both sides of my face and measuring the features to see if they are equal. When i turn my head to the left, that side of my face is thinner, smaller, my nose is straight and pointed, my cheeks are sharp, my eyes are on the same level and the proportions look fine. However, when i turn my head to the right, that side of my face is fatter, bigger, my nose is curved and wonky, my cheeks are fat, my eyes are not on the same level, my eyebrows are wonky and the proportions look completely out of place. When i decide to actually go out, i am constantly planning how to position myself so that nobody is viewing my 'ugly' side. I hate photos, but when i do take them it's always of my good side. The other side looks like a different, uglier person. When people are on that 'ugly' side, i feel extremely self conscious and avoid looking at them. I hate it so much. It's gotten to a point where i've missed 50% of school because i hate being on that hideous side where everyone can observe and see how different it is from my prettier side. Thing is, it's like I know i'm not imagining it because i've taken photos in secret to observe the differences between both sides and there still is a major difference and is exactly the same to what i see in the mirror. I don't want to tell anyone because i feel like they will notice it and see me as someone else.. even though i know people can see it. It's really weird! Ive told my mum about it, and she's observed both sides and doesn't see a difference but i know she's lying. She is my mother afterall. If pictures prove it, then it must be there?

sounds like you are talking about symmetry. my face has a slight difference in symmetry on the right side vs. the left side. one eye is a bit bigger, and one side of the face seems a bit differently shaped than the other. when i was a little kid on the school bus one of the other kids made fun of me saying "you know one of your eyes is bigger than the other?". i think its common for people to have a small degree of asymmetry in their features. i sure do. you probably notice it much more than other people. i dont worry much about the asymmetry in my face, but i do look a lot worse from the profile (head turned to the side) so when pictures are taken i try to look straight ahead.

Actually, it's very rare to have a perfectly symmetrical head.

You know that the left hemisphere of the brain controls the the muscles on the right side of your body, and the right the left. Each side also serves a different purpose, the left being language, logic, the right being creative, visual, etc...

But with the muscles, the face definitely applies, the right side won't look exactly the same as the left side, due to the different "personalities" of the two sides of the brain.

So yea, you're right, you do see a difference because there is a difference. The thing is, everyone shares this. Now, whether you define it as "ugly/pretty" just reflects your self-image, not fact or anyone else's opinion.

My question for you is, why do you look at yourself in such a negative light?

I feel you..

My left side looks different from my right side. I took pictures of me on my left side I look good but when I took pictures of me on my right side it looked quite different. I ask my sisters if my face look different they say no, but when I look at the mirror 3 way mirrors where i can see 3 sides. My right side looks totally different from my left side.

U r mother is right... ur face is symmetrical frm both sides... The problem is ur mind... Its BDD, the already preocupied image which u r seeing, either in mirror or pics.... pics do no differance, they show u wat ur mind wants thm to show....otherwise y would u avoid ur pics taken.

I too have this problem..
My 3/4 profile from my right side is not too bad looking, my eyebrow looks nice, the skin is tighter, less acne, my nose is straight, my eye opens wider, my cheekbone is more pronounced..however..the 3/4 profile on my left side is just an uglier version. I have more acne, the skin seems to be lacking elasticity, my cheekbone is barely visible, my eyelid is a lot bigger, my nose has a bump, part of my lip is lacking pink pigment on my left side as well...I always used to think that my right side represented all my good attributes and my left side represented me when I'm feeling a little nervous or awkward or whatever. I've been reading online stuff and it tells me that that can actually be true, which is super weird...It drives me insane that I look different from both sides, I just wish I'd have a symmetrical face..It doesnt even matter if its the ugly side of me just as long as both sides would look the same. I also feel super self conscious when people are talking to me on my left (ugly) side and I try to avoid sitting to the left of people...I think about this TOO much, and lately I've been trying to find the good in my left (ugly) side because I know what I'm doing to myself is not healthy..The only advice I can give you is work your ugly side and pretend its your good side...I've been trying to use the same kind of energy I have when I'm talking to someone on my left (ugly) side as when I'm talking to someone on my right (pretty) side. It's sort of helping...I guess blabbing about it on this forum isn't helping the problem go away, but I just wanted to let you know you're not alone out there. Its a horrible problem and I've also showed my family but they just say I'm crazy...I dont believe them. but...I'm totally agains't plastic surgery so I guess I better start getting used to it, right? This goes for me as well: don't worry too much about it, it's worse in our heads because we spend so much time in the mirror analyzing it. Try to accept and forget about it and hopefully one day we will be able to appreciate both sides of our face!!

Op, there's nothing in your post that I have NOT done. I try to face people from my good side in public, I take pictures, I constantly look at both sides of my face, I ask people if they see a difference and they say no, and everything else. I even dropped out of High School because I was so self concious. I just couldn't take it anymore. I broke down crying in the bathroom.

I keep telling myself I'm just exaggerating, but then I take pics and look in the the 3 way mirror again, and I feel like punching a hole through the wall. Maybe I have BDD, I don't know. I've been diagnosed with OCD though.

I feel completely the same. There are days that I don't even wanna go out or meet people. My left side is better than my right side. When I am looking in the mirror I notice just a little difference, but on the photos or videos I see a huge difference between my left and right side. I also asked my mom if she notices anything different about my face she said no. My brother thought he had the same problem with an asymmetrical face and he asked me if I see the difference between his left and right side and I'm not gonna lie - don't see a difference, it looks exactly the same to me. Then I asked him to look at my face and he said it looks the same. I am so confused now... when I see my photos when I was younger my face looks symmetrical but now I see a huge difference between the sides, it is like I am a different person. I started to notice this since I was 16 now I'm 22 and it hasn't changed... will it ever change?

Relate relate relate! I obsess about the same exact thing. In fact, I always make sure to sit all the way to the right side of the room when I am in class so no one can look at the right side of my face. In some cases I have to sit more towards the left of the classroom and I feel like everyone behind and next to me are staring at how hideous I am. My right-hand profile is disgusting like a witch. my nose looks pointed down, my skull looks like a caveman's, my chin is distorted and I look like a freak of nature. The left side of my face is much more decent looking. My face is so incredibly assymetrical it kills me. I tend to try to turn my face to the side slightly even when Im talking to people straight on because I dont want them to see the bad side accidently. Its gotten so bad....

This is an interesting subject actually because the way you see the "bad" side of your face is very similar to the reason we write with one hand and not the other. While it's true our faces are not symmetrical this is far from the real reason we don't like 1 side of our face. Growing up we tend to choose a side of our body, often times the same side we write with, and turn our heads to reflect that side of our face towards us when we look into the mirror. To think about it another way is to imagine jumping off the other foot we normally do when leaping. These are not the norm for us so we feel uncomfortable and incompetent with ourselves when we do them. If you were told to go jump off of the other foot you would expect a leap that is far less than what you are capable of leaping off of the correct foot. In the same way when we turn our head the other way in the mirror we assume we will see a reflection that is far inferior to the way we normally turn our heads. Just think about it, do you know anyone who you find far less attractive when you're looking at the "bad" side of their face, and because of that they are less attractive in general? I know I don't. It doesn't really exist except with ourselves in our head because self perception is one of those funny subjects we will never truly understand. You could stand in front of the mirror for an hour showing your bad side and come up with reasons it doesn't look as good; while you will be able to pin point the differences you're seeing vs your other side, you won't actually be pin pointing why it doesn't look as good even though you think you are. It's all just a preconceived notion that you make real and nothing more. So try to relax if someone manages to photograph a picture of your "bad" side, it is truly all in your head