Signs of Body Dysmorphia You Might Not Realize You Have

Most people think body dysmorphia only looks like someone staring in the mirror all day, picking themselves apart, but that is not how it shows up for most women.

For most of the women I work with, body dysmorphia is quieter. It hides inside dieting, inside comparison, inside the constant feeling that something is wrong with your body even when no one else sees it.

That distorted relationship with your body is one reasonsfood feels so complicated.

Here are four common signs of body dysmorphia that often go unnoticed.

1. You avoid mirrors… or you check them constantly

Some people avoid their reflection altogether. They don’t want to look at themselves and they don’t want to be reminded of their body.

Other people do the opposite. They check every mirror, window, and phone screen. They scan for flaws, they look for proof that something has changed or gotten worse.

Both behaviors come from the same place: your body doesn’t feel safe. When your body feels like something that needs to be monitored, controlled, or hidden, it creates anxiety that often drives emotional eating and dieting.

2. You fixate on one “flaw” that no one else sees

Maybe it’s your stomach, your arms, your face or your thighs.

To other people, you look completely normal, but in your mind, that one feature feels huge and It feels like it defines you.

This is what body dysmorphia does, it takes a neutral body part and turns it into a story about your worth. That story fuels shame and shame fuels overeating, restriction, and the constant desire to change yourself.

3. You constantly compare your body to others

You see someone online or at the gym, in real life and your brain instantly says, “Why don’t I look like that?” “I should look like that.”

or “I’m failing.”

Comparison is one of the most powerful drivers of disordered eating and when you believe your body isn’t good enough, you start using food as a tool to punish, control, or escape it. That’s not a food problem, that’s a relationship-with-your-body problem.

4. You avoid photos

This one is incredibly common. You avoid being in pictures, you dread family photos and you cringe when someone pulls out a camera. It’s not because you don’t want memories, but because you don’t want to see yourself. That is not vanity, that is pain. It means you don’t feel safe being seen.

You are not broken

If you recognize yourself in any of this, I want you to hear something clearly: You are not weak, you are not shallow, and you are not failing.

You learned to see your body through a distorted lens and that lens can be changed.

Healing your relationship with food always starts with healing your relationship with your body because when you stop fighting your body, you stop needing food to cope with the war inside your head.

You don’t have to keep living at war with yourself.