Help i have fat photo phobia!!

[Greengardenpixie]

Right, i am a 12...and when i see myself in the mirror...i look ok. Not wonderfully slim just average. Everytime i look at holiday snaps i depress myself...i look SO fat in them i could weep and go on an urgent diet and fitness kick [ not all bad then!!]. Why do mirrors deceive me? Or do the photos deceive me?
When i then look back on photos...i look at them and think i dont look that bad!! What the hell is wrong with me???
Anyone else hate photos of themselves or see themselves differently???

Photos deceive you. I am exactly the same! I look in the mirror and think I look fine then see photos and think WTF????

Sooo glad you posted!! Was beginning to think i was the only one. My brother said a life without mirrors is a contented one. Maybe he is right! Maybe i obsess too much but i just dont get it. I think i look ok in the mirror and then i see myself in a photo and think OMG!!

I think when we look on the mirror we unconsciously compare ourselves to people in the street and we look ok.
When we see photos we unconsciously compare ourselves to women we most often see in photos (so size 8 or less models) and we don't look like them.

I am exactly the same, look fine in a mirror, hideous in photos. I think the other thing about it is angles, photos show us angles of ourselves that we wouldn't normally see and that's sometimes surprising, and not in a good way generally!

I think you have hit the nail on the head museumum

Don't they say the camera adds 10lbs or 20 in my case?

I avoid cameras for this reason and only look in the full length mirror once a day to make sure I'm covered and my skirt isn't tucked in my knickers

It really kind of upsets me and doesnt help my self esteem when i do this regardless of the reason.
I look in my full length mirror and think now.. i look worse than this!!!
Maybe it is what museumum says...maybe i should avoid cameras and limit how often i look in the mirror [ er not that i look that much!] but should do it only once.

Avoiding cameras seems a bit drastic though, photos are keepsakes and aids to memory, of nice times and days out. Who wants to be the one always missing from pics with our friends or families?

It helps to know that i am not the only one though!!! :)

I'm as bad as anyone, but I try to ensure that my self esteem isn't linked to just how I look (on pics or irl) especially as I now have a daughter and don't wNt her to be like that

Littlemoocow..you are right...and thats why i do get photos of me and my children :) Although remarkably my dh is never in any! I think its his turn!!