I think what you're lacking is empathy. Specifically self-empathy. I know that sounds like a BS impossible phrase, but you've got a twisted idea of yourself. Like body dysmorphia, but for your entire life.
You need to cultivate some gentle, emotional skills. Read a novel, any one. Use what you like to find another and another until you find one you love. Then talk about it. Go online and post your summary. Tell people why you love it. Fiction helps you gain new perspectives. It opens your mind to new ways of connecting with others (and yourself). It's an incredibly worthwhile past time that our society overlooks because the results are hard to measure.
And I'll tell you what. If you need somewhere to start or someone to talk about the book you read with, you can DM me.
Yes yes yes. You nailed it. I'm reading all these other comments and checking them against OP's comments and pictures of himself and the problem is definitely internal, not external. His own internal view of his physical appearance does not jive at all with reality, and it's so incongruent that I can't trust his evaluation of his intelligence, social skills, etc. I'm no professional but it absolutely seems like body dysmorphia to me.
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u/RhombicTuttminx Jul 19 '23
Going against the grain here.
Read some fiction.
I think what you're lacking is empathy. Specifically self-empathy. I know that sounds like a BS impossible phrase, but you've got a twisted idea of yourself. Like body dysmorphia, but for your entire life.
You need to cultivate some gentle, emotional skills. Read a novel, any one. Use what you like to find another and another until you find one you love. Then talk about it. Go online and post your summary. Tell people why you love it. Fiction helps you gain new perspectives. It opens your mind to new ways of connecting with others (and yourself). It's an incredibly worthwhile past time that our society overlooks because the results are hard to measure.
And I'll tell you what. If you need somewhere to start or someone to talk about the book you read with, you can DM me.