SEEING IS NOT BELIEVING –
May 26, 2023 – “I don’t ever see myself the way other people see me. There’s never a point in my life where I loved my body, never ever,” Fox said in a video interview with Sports Illustrated. “When I was little, that was an obsession I had of like, ‘But I should look this way.’ And why I had an awareness of my body that young, I’m not sure.”
A discrepancy between how someone perceives themselves and how others see them is a hallmark symptom of body dysmorphia. Also known as body dysmorphic disorder, it’s “characterized by excessive preoccupation with an imagined defect in physical appearance or markedly excessive concern with a slight physical anomaly,” according to the American Psychological Association.
What people actually look like — or how attractive they are — often has little to do with it.
“If this person had, like, a very visible scar or other physically noticeable deformity, that’s not what we’re talking about,” said Ramani Durvasula, a clinical psychologist and author based in California.
