Does anyone else feel like they look different then they do?

Post Reply New Topic

I've noticed that when i see myself in a mirror or pictures, that I look and act different than my mental image of myself. It's like I'm looking at a stranger.
Does anyone else feel this way, and is it an aspie thing?

I don't think it's just an aspie thing, because I've heard other people talking about that before. It seems to be very common in people who have gained or lost weight, and carry an old image of themselves in their heads.

hmmm. interesting. I don't believe i have an old image in my head of myself, i havent really changed, i just think my mental image is generally inaccurate.
Another thing i forgot to mention is i don't recognize my voice when i talk. Maybe im just crazy lol.

actually I feel that way too.

Maybe you are in Quantum Leap.. ?

I don't feel like I look any different than the picture I carry of myself, but sometimes I don't recognize myself in a more...I don't know, 'philosophical' sense. Like, sometimes I'll look at myself and know that it's me, but I feel like I don't know me on the inside. Other times I'll look at my family or friends or pets, and I recognize them, of course, but I feel momentarily like I don't know them...like, I think in my head "How odd that this person is my sister", like it's the first time that fact had ever occurred to me.

This happens a lot when I'm in the car with my boyfriend. He'll be talking about something and I'll feel momentarily like...this isn't my boyfriend, this isn't me...like I'm living someone else's life. It's not as if I'm a complete stranger plopped into the situation...everything LOOKS familiar, I just feel distant from it.

I hope that makes sense.

The first time I listened to a recording of myself talking, as a kid, I was shocked and mortified because I had no idea I had such a deep southern accent. In my head, my voice doesn't sound that way. I have learned to drop the accent when I talk, but I still can't believe I really sound so southern when I don't drop the accent. It's kind of horrifying.

I always find myself odd on pictures, like the facial expression was not the one intended, or my complexion, proportion etc... feels "odd" , i stand out among other people, as if I was photoshopped or added afterward if you know what I mean

I think that the looking different than mental image thing is a slighter version of the sounding different than voice in own head thing. My voice sounds fine in my head, but horrific in recordings. I have to chipmunkify any recordings of my speaking or singing to be able to listen to my voice outside my head.

Whenever I take a look at one of my pictures I posted here, I always first see myself as somebody I know rather than just seeing myself as *me* and it's always a different person in every photo. The people that I get reminded of looks-wise jump in my head first and leave a mental watermark on that picture. Gah, hard to explain.

All people have problems with their voice in the recorder, there are a lot of jokes about that

Sometimes I don't feel identified with the person in the mirror, but I know that is my reflection. I think is because I don't remember my face at all, it's normal because I have problems remembering faces and I don't see my face often because of the first-person view I really wish I could see me on 3rd-person view too, I have problems dancing, I don't know how the movements look without a mirror and sometimes it's weird to watch me on tapes and notice that I didn't really do something the way I thought I was doing it.