Body dysmorphic disorder

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Does anyone think there is a corollary with Asperger's? I was very thin as a child and my parents always commented that I was "skinny." Being the literal soul that I am, I think I took that literally, and now, even though I am 6' tall and 200 lbs ( I do around 200 knuckle pushups a day), I still feel thin. I look at my arms and they look like sticks, then I look in the mirror, and I am decently built, not sickly at all.
Has anyone else felt this way? I know body dysmorphic disorder is usually thought of in the "I think I'm fat (but I look like Nicole Ritchie)" sense. But I really think there could be a connection with my Asperger's syndrome here.

Sometimes I wonder if I have that, too.

Yea. There's some things about me physically that I hate and obsess over.

Wow, fast replies. Guess I am not the only person doing jack s**t on a Saturday night.

*shrug*
Satyrday nights are overrated.

Yes, I was called a "boner-rack" and "skeleton". I also hit puberty late and I felt like a boy surrounded by men. I think that made me very self-conscious of my body. I think it's one of the reasons why penises and exercise/bodybuilding/nutrition are one of my most intense obsessions. My stimming even involves my penis. Even when I put on weight/muscle I still thought I was skinny even though I wasn't. Even though I'm "hung", I'm still kind of paranoid about my unit. I think some of my anxiety stems from this.

Nice to know I'm not the only one. PMed.

I was also extremely skinny, five foot ten and 120 lbs at age 13. I was harrassed about it and thought that if I could change that it would be the answer to all my problems. It took a long time for me to get comfortable in my own skin, but I finally did and it lasted a long time.

Working out and good nutrition was probably my leading special interest/obsession all my life. I didn't miss but maybe 20 workouts for 23 years. At my peak I was 6' and 215 lbs. If I lost 3 lbs, I felt like I was going to be skinny again like I was when I was 13. I think a big part of it too was awareness of my body not necessarily in just a visual sense but a physical one also. The adrenaline of working out made me feel so much more in life; as I look back I think it was awareness of body that was also an equal motivator.

Anxiety can attach itself to almost anything in life. OCD is often a method of coping with the feeling of fear, even if there is nothing rational about the thing one is obsessing over. I think with ASD's we are more likely to get trapped in logical circular thinking, without the benefit, sometimes of understanding underlying emotion. I think it can be an extremely hard thing to deal with and it manifests itself in many different ways.

Many of us aren't accepted in youth, and have to find ways to find value in ourself. I think special interests/obsessions become the space that fills that void for many of us. And sometimes they rule our life.

Exercise is not a bad obsession, but it can become one if done to excess, regardless if the body says it is time to stop.

I thought I was the only one... at my worst height/weight ratio I was 6'3" 165lbs but that was during a massive depressive episode too. It was not until I hit my 30s I broke 200. Now I have to fight weight, sigh.

The other thing though was not understanding my size, even now. My 3 year old daughter and I will be sitting on the couch and in my mind we're the same height and I think I am too short... even though reality is much different.

I was an Athletic Director at a Military Base and one of the employees at the Fitness Center was freakishly big in muscular size. He had a poster behind the counter that said "I am Big". I've never seen a person with larger muscles, so I thought to myself if he is small where is the comparison to big? I think it must have alot to do with brain chemistry, perception, and maybe even structure of the brain.

Some people never worry about stuff like this, no matter what their size or shape is. My mother and father have never worried about it for themselves, always comfortable in their own skin, and have never made exercise or diet an issue for their life.

I was 5'11" and about 150 lbs. I'm currently 170 lbs. I never wanted to be too huge but I was obsessed with this guy's physique:

Is that Beastmaster?

No. Miles O'keefe from Tarzan. It was a crappy movie but I just liked the movie for his physique.

Imagine how bad an obsession like this could be for a movie star on the big screen. I read that Burt Reynolds and Sylvestor Stallone had some serious issues. Image was truly everything for them in their career, so it's not too surprising that they or many other stars would have issues.

I didn't like the idea of anyone even videotaping me all the years I felt comfortable in my own skin. I've known many other people like that. But it's not like people don't see us all the time, what is going to be different in the video.

I think it bothers people more at the idea they might have to see what they look like in real life. Maybe we weren't intended to see ourselves fully as others see us. I wonder if mirrors, cameras, and videocameras are a part of this. Before that, I guess all there was, was the reflection in water.

Yes. I see there being a link between autism - alexithymia - poor interoceptive awareness - body dysmorphia

Basically, autistic people often have a distant relationship with or disconnection from their body

alexithymia is about having poor awareness of your emotions
low interoceptive awareness is about having a poor sense of your physical body

http://www.rhul.ac.uk/psychology/news/n ... image.aspx

I'm interested because I've been Body Dysmorphic in the past.

Something that helps is meditation, particularly meditations on the body such as body sweeping http://www.archive.org/download/Vipassa ... ySweep.mp3

Same here - some comments from the past made me feel very disconnected from my body - even if I had perfect measurements, I'd never like it. Like it's some host I'm forced to live in, but neither of us like each other.



Very interesting, thanks for posting.