Recognizing yourself

I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this..

When I look in the mirror, it doesn't look like I feel I should look. I know it's me, it doesn't feel like anyone else, nothing like that.. It just doesn't look quite right. (this I realize is pretty common with DID because of derealization/depersonalization)

But when Lianne is out in the body and she looks in the mirror - it looks right to me. The reflection looks like I feel I'm supposed to look.

The same goes for pictures - when I see pictures of her it will generally look "right", while if the picture has been taken of me, it won't look "right" that often. Ironically, to her it doesn't look like what she looks like in her head at all.

I don't really understand why it's like this. It's kinda strange..
Anyone who can relate?

(I'm not worried by it - it's just strange is all)

We have the same problem. Well...it's not really a problem, but it's bugging us sometimes. When I look in the mirror, the image looking back at me doesn't feel like it's me, even though I know it is. May also said that it's caused by the depersonalization.

Yeah - that feeling I know is very common. I'm sorry you experience it, too.

I think the weird part for me though - is that when Lianne is out, it look right to me when she looks in the mirror (e.g when we are co-conscious and she is the one in the body). I wonder why her expression is the ones I recognize as "how I should look". It's strange.. Isn't like that with any other alters I'm co-conscious with..

I hate it when I look in the mirror my face never quite feels like my face. Sometimes when I look in the mirror someone yells what are you looking at or you just don't recognise yourself.

It bothers me a lot to admit this, but sometimes I catch just a glimpse of Jason in the mirror, and that's the only time I recognize the image as being truly me. So I avoid mirrors
Geoff

I'm sorry you're the same way.

Thank you for telling me though. I was starting to think I was the only one

I used to avoid mirror too, but *trigger warning for anorexia* after working so much on the anorexia, part of that was being able to look in the mirror again and see what was actually there (which I still don't, but it's better) *trigger warning end* so now I'm able to look - but not often does my face bare the expression I know as "mine".

Thank you

We have the same thing. When J is out, it all seems correct. Except we've gotten fat and she doesn't like to be out much because of that.
How we try to fix it is by putting a small mirror right next to me on my desk, confronting myself. I don't know if it's the best or the nicest option but it seems logical to me to train myself to recognize this body and face.

Probably is better.

As I wrote about before, we have had to look in the mirror a lot - and yeah, it has helped a bit actually. Still doesn't look like I prefer/think I should be, but it isn't as uncomfortable as it used to be.

Kinda glad I'm not the only one at least.. Hope you get used to it though

Lots of us have this problem. I rarely feel like I look like me, even when I'm able to dress as myself and stuff like that. What bugs me and a few of the other older ones is that the only ones who seem to "fit" this body best are a few of the teens- L.C., Kyra, Rebel, and somewhat Luna. It seems very hard for me to look my age, look like myself, and feel my age, even when I want to/try to. But with L.C., she just throws on her clothes and bam! She looks 16 and close to herself (the hair's not black like her's is, and I don't think her eyes are the same colors as the body's, but it's only little stuff like that). Kyra throws on her clothes and bam! Instant 13-yr-old (well, ok, maybe she doesn't look that young, but she is easily able to look like she's 15, so that's pretty close). Rebel throws on her clothes, and what bugs a lot of us is that she seems to be the "closest fit" to the body, and bam! Instant 18-yr-old, so convincing that no one would think we were anything else/any other age. And now that we've lost weight (unfortunately, mainly due to the twins' anorexia), Luna even fits the body a bit ok, the biggest differences being she's short, like 5 ft tall, and the body's 5 ft 7 in tall, and she has long black hair where the body right now has chin-length brunette hair.


The only one that's able to really do a decent job of looking her age other than those teens is Rain, mainly because she usually ends up looking older than her or the body's age (which is fine by her). Sometimes, if I dress similar to how she dresses, I'm able to look like my age, but I usually still don't feel like I look like me entirely. I've felt like I've looked like me before and looked my age and such, but it's rare.


-Cassandra

I avoid mirrors because of this. When I sometimes look in the mirror I see other people kind of overlapping my own face, I can still see me but overlaying me is a completely different face.