[Rsquared]

Maybe it's my physical insecurities attaching to more mental ones or something but there are times, sometimes days at a time where I tend to just feel completely disconnected from what I see in the mirror, and not just days where I feel ugly or something. There's a certain look in my eyes that spooks me, perhaps just looks more intense than how I imagined based on what I actually feel. I don't have any personality disorders or anything like that but I guess if you're familiar with Heroes it's kind of a much more mild Niki moment? I know I'm really putting myself out there to be called all kinds of crazy but I was just wondering if anyone else could relate since it seems to provoke a lot of introspection afterwards.

[Dinah]

I do sometimes, yes. I feel this way about pictures as well because I can have a very severe expression that I'm not always aware of. Sometimes I'll inadvertently glance at my reflection and think, "I look...intense today. Hmm." It's normally on those days when I've felt distracted by something, though, or really drained from social interaction; like, I'm too preoccupied with my internal world to even pay attention to how I'm coming off to other people. Sometimes I'm surprised by how fatigued I look after prolonged conversation. A few of my friends joke that even when I'm in the most pleasant mood, my eyes become distant and I adopt an angry countenance when I temporarily detach from environment mentally. It's awful when I'm reading a book. Haha.

[Phaze228]

I feel more intense than what my natural demeanor puts off..I actually hate looking at myself in the mirror when I'm angry because I imagine looking like some beast, but I just look like always do, expressionless or semi-comical looking. It's hard to stay pissed when your own face makes you laugh.

[MrFlaneur]

This is one of those weird threads where I think to myself "holy-shit, it's not just me" - wonderful. Yeah, I don't like what I see in the mirror, it forces me to give other people the benefit of the doubt based on first impressions.

[Jill Hives]

I do feel a definite disconnect sometimes, but I don't necessarily feel weird about it.

It's like when I see my physical body in a mirror or other reflection it seems more just like a biological vessel and nothing more. I don't feel particularly attached to it.

[Kisai]

Ever since I was a child, I would look at my reflection and feel that it wasn't my real face.

I still don't know where my real one is. A little something in the eyes gives a tiny similarity of something barely remembered.

[deckard]

On the occasions I bother to give it a thought, yes. Envisioning the inner processes, skeletal structure, knowing it too is 'me' yet I don't identify strongly with
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either.

It might have something to do with commentary on my appearance since I was a child. Something they were seeing goes unnoticed by myself. Self consciousness becomes a double bind when it's evaluation is realized to be more than your sole domain, is my experience. And then to witness those inaccuracies raises more questions. The true 'I' is all pervasive? Enter spooksville, when giving it further thought.

[illustral]

So is this an I-didn't-realize-I-looked-so-intense-today thread, a body dysmorphia thread (clinical or otherwise), or a somatic alienation thread?

[DeaconSyre]

I've found that looking at myself in the mirror feels strange and I feel like I'm not seeing myself properly. Many others here have said the same.

The solution: look at a reflection of a reflection of yourself.

I think it's just a weird reaction the facial recognition parts of the brain has because you can't not look yourself in the eyes perfectly when you're looking at your direct reflection (which is something you never get when looking at other people).

[Oros Ull]

Yeah I know what you mean. I forget that I’m a human sometimes. So when I look in the mirror I am always a little startled to see a man looking back only to realize “Hey, that’s me!” I don’t think of myself in that context at all. My physicality very rarely presents itself as a priority to me so I don’t really consider how I manifest in reality a whole lot. Most of my thoughts are too wrapped up in abstracts for me to care. The only time I’m aware of my appearances is when I’m surrounded by onlookers.

Has anyone here ever tried the Aura trick? Go up to a mirror and without altering your gaze pick an eye and stare directly into it. If you lose eye contact even for a second you will have to start over. But if you stare after a few minutes your body will degrade into brimming bits of multicolored light and stuff. It’s really cool; they say it’s your Aura. It’s really just your brain trying to fill in gaps because you are receiving an image of yourself thru your peripherals or something like that. But it’s still cool.

[Tito]

	Originally Posted by DeaconSyre To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I've found that looking at myself in the mirror feels strange and I feel like I'm not seeing myself properly.

It probably feels strange because it was not suppose to be like this. We were suppose to go through life not knowing what our faces looked like (or even much of our bodies).

Then came the invention of the mirror and, well, let the identity crisis begin!!!

[roninpro]

For the most part, I've gotten used to my own image in a mirror. There are still some days, however, where I literally scare myself with my reflection! I'm not sure what causes it.

[ModernLit]

i like avoiding mirrors in general. people make judgments based on what they think you look like *all the time* and it annoys me. i feel like too much of how i see myself is how other people see me, so i'd rather just carry on as i see myself, others be damned.

[PRBori]

Nope, afterall it is only an illusion displayed by my brain neurons... plus I'm beautiful inside and out. I might hate my look in pictures, but I am who I am. Perfection is hard to achieve and I have no desire to kill myself trying to achieve it.

[iso]

I experience this. I have never felt connected to my image. I believe it is natural.

[Nightmare]

Originally Posted by Rsquared To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Maybe it's my physical insecurities attaching to more mental ones or something but there are times, sometimes days at a time where I tend to just feel completely disconnected from what I see in the mirror, and not just days where I feel ugly or something. There's a certain look in my eyes that spooks me, perhaps just looks more intense than how I imagined based on what I actually feel. I don't have any personality disorders or anything like that but I guess if you're familiar with Heroes it's kind of a much more mild Niki moment? I know I'm really putting myself out there to be called all kinds of crazy but I was just wondering if anyone else could relate since it seems to provoke a lot of introspection afterwards.

I would be phased, too, if I looked in the mirror and saw those eyes as well. Yours are striking and wreak of intensity.

Though, I can't say that I experience this phenomena personally; probably due to the fact I am constantly criticizing myself when I look in the mirror.

[Rsquared]

	Originally Posted by Siso To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	It probably feels strange because it was not suppose to be like this. We were suppose to go through life not knowing what our faces looked like (or even much of our bodies). Then came the invention of the mirror and, well, let the identity crisis begin!!!

Such an interesting thought...I guess that makes how quickly babies and animals adjust to mirrors even weirder. I wonder though if we wouldn't become obsessed with something else that we could see, like our hands. Now I'm just thought rambling
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---------- Post added 07-02-2012 at 01:13 AM ----------

	Originally Posted by roninpro To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	For the most part, I've gotten used to my own image in a mirror. There are still some days, however, where I literally scare myself with my reflection! I'm not sure what causes it.

On the days I don't feel connected, there's the same reaction at first. It's just like something isn't transferring, either I don't feel what I see in the mirror or how I feel isn't reflecting and it's a really bizarre scary moment. Like someone else is in the mirror almost.

---------- Post added 07-02-2012 at 01:18 AM ----------

	Originally Posted by Nightmare To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I would be phased, too, if I looked in the mirror and saw those eyes as well. Yours are striking and wreak of intensity. Though, I can't say that I experience this phenomena personally; probably due to the fact I am constantly criticizing myself when I look in the mirror.

wreak of intensity
I've been trying to type how I feel for a few minutes now about that combination of words and it's not working. I guess as a linguistics major who pretty much has a crush on language, seeing wreak used outside of something to do with smell is pretty cool. But it completely fits what you're saying too. I just have a lot of feelings about words and sentences that are strung together nicely. Sorry.

[Zhen]

Originally Posted by Rsquared To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Maybe it's my physical insecurities attaching to more mental ones or something but there are times, sometimes days at a time where I tend to just feel completely disconnected from what I see in the mirror, and not just days where I feel ugly or something. There's a certain look in my eyes that spooks me, perhaps just looks more intense than how I imagined based on what I actually feel. I don't have any personality disorders or anything like that but I guess if you're familiar with Heroes it's kind of a much more mild Niki moment? I know I'm really putting myself out there to be called all kinds of crazy but I was just wondering if anyone else could relate since it seems to provoke a lot of introspection afterwards.

i always feel this so I take pictures to document myself through time because I often look at them and don't recognise myself or see sooooo many different people...cos I always look different at different times and in different moods- it does quite creep me out to not recognise myself as the same old person visually.

[Typhon]

Generally I'm pretty comfortable with my body image so I don't mind looking at myself in mirrors. There is a bit of a disconnect between how I think I should look and how I do look, though. I've really noticed this in dreams, since the way I look in dream-mirrors is more accurate to me compared to waking-mirrors. In dream-mirrors I look kind of a like a larger (taller and thinner), paler female form of my waking physical self. It's not a huge deal since I know I physically cannot be my dream-self and I might as well max out my actual body instead of worrying about it.

[Income]

Sounds like depersonalization or derealization, most people experience it once in their lives. I've experienced it myself, it was weird but it went away after a few weeks.

[CrudeHypothesis]

I've never experienced a disconnect from what I see in the mirror. The person in the mirror is fun, and I play games with 'm to see who can pull the best face the instant I lose sight of the reflection.

[Rsquared]

	Originally Posted by Income To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Sounds like depersonalization or derealization, most people experience it once in their lives. I've experienced it myself, it was weird but it went away after a few weeks.

Never really considered this as I thought depersonalization only happened to me at concerts or large parties...odd to think it could just be happening by myself. When/what was the situation when you experienced it? For me, like I said, it's usually at large social gatherings. Lots of zoning out, lots of hands waving in front of my face and people saying "Hellooooooooooo!". I'll smile and laugh but be gone again a minute later.

[Coralaisly]

I look a lot different in my head from what my reflection says... I don't really look at myself in the mirror much. Even when I brush my teeth or do my hair (which takes a long time) I find something else to look at than my face and actively avoid looking at myself. I've never been very fond of what I look like, so I just don't look.

[Black Fire]

I don't look at mirrors much.

Once I had this incident in the bus. I saw my reflection in a rear-view mirror. And the thing I saw scared me. Those eyes... had a strange shine. Shining of a mad man's eyes. Very intense. When I saw my eyes, I thought that it was a look of a dragon which has only one friend - fire.

[Income]

Originally Posted by Rsquared To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Never really considered this as I thought depersonalization only happened to me at concerts or large parties...odd to think it could just be happening by myself. When/what was the situation when you experienced it? For me, like I said, it's usually at large social gatherings. Lots of zoning out, lots of hands waving in front of my face and people saying "Hellooooooooooo!". I'll smile and laugh but be gone again a minute later.

Seems like a situation where you had a lot of impressions, your mind was probably busy analyzing everything you saw and heard. So when you looked in the mirror the brain didn't connect the reflection with yourself like it usually does.

I was at home with a friend, had smoked weed recently, I walk to the bathroom, look in the mirror and it hits me (The depersonalization feeling).