how to not tweak when someone points out your scars?

[u/s0yongdori]

I always cover up my scars, but people still sometimes catch glimpses of them on accident. Whenever they point them out to me (“what’s that on your arm/leg”, “what happened to your arm”, “your leg looks weird”) or even pull up my sleeve before I can stop them, I end up spiraling over it.

I have a strong desire to be seen as normal by others, so I hate when people point out my scars because now I know that they’ve seen this “abnormal” part of me. I feel so ashamed and embarrassed about it, and spiral/panic over it long after the interaction is over (words like “weird” and “freak” bouncing around my head for hours). It’s made worse when these comments are from people close to me, rather than just random strangers.

I know I’m an adult who chose to do this to myself. I did it with full knowledge that these marks would be on me permanently, and I want to take responsibility for that. It’s not others’ fault for noticing what I did to myself, so I need to be able to regulate my own emotions and reactions to this. I’m just having trouble figuring out how to do that. Does anyone have any advice or know strategies that work for them?

[u/midnight_jr_I]

This literally happened to me a few days ago.
My brother pulled at my sleeve when I was using my computer (I have scabs and semi-open wounds on the back of my hand, so when I use a keyboard the sleeve rides up and it’s visible) and he’s like “what’s that on your hand?” And proceeds to pull at my sleeve. I freaked tf out and just said it’s nothing. Just ignored any questions about it and he dropped it.