Feeling like i used to be unrealistically pretty just because i was younger

After turning 21 earlier this year, I started noticing things about my face I wasn't insecure about before. More specifically lines like nasal folds, and just the fear of looking old in general. The funny thing is I didn't feel like I looked old even 1 year ago. In fact people have always told me I look like a teenager. However I switched jobs and had to say goodbye to flirtatious boys and friends and so I think not being in a social environment has made me feel uglier.

People are starting to say I look older (not drastically, but people used to say I looked 16 and now it's 19-21+.) I feel really ugly and I really want to appreciate my good looks while I'm young, but the feeling of looking old has stolen any happiness I could feel about my looks. I literally want botox and to hide away, even though not long ago someone offered me a modelling job, and people tell me I'm pretty.

Idk what my problem is. It's like I have this unrealistic standard of beauty only for myself and I wish I could shake it off but It feels impossible. I look in the mirror and see an old witch and always subconsciously angle myself to look worse so I don't forget what I'm insecure about.

The irony is that I act like I used to look so much better, but I've had wicked eyebags ever since grade school, and I've had faint lines for a few years. My skin has cleared up amazingly and in ways I think I probably look better than I ever have. Yet it's like I can't get over feeling like I've lost some sort of beauty spell. I never thought I was that good looking either. I know subconciously I'm ok looking but even when I was younger I had 10000 insecurities I don't have now. I was diagnosed with Body Dysmorphia when I was 16.

HOW can I stop feeling so old when I'm only 21, and HOW can I appreciate my looks and stop feeling so outrageously ugly and flawed?

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Comments ( 6 )
  • S0UNDS_WEIRD

    Well you said you literally have confirmed body dysmorphia. Just remember that.

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  • RoseIsabella

    Wait til you turn fifty, honey!

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  • bbrown95

    I feel like this post and similar ones have been reposted (not verbatim, of course) a few times lately, just with different ages...

    But, 21 is nowhere near old, being told you look 19-21 does not in any way indicate that you look old (most people would see it as a compliment), most 16-year-olds look like children because they are, and everyone has fine lines if you look hard enough for them. I've had them on my forehead since childhood. The reality is that no one is going to stand so close to you that they will notice them, and people see the overall picture, not some tiny flaw. As for eyebags, some people have a natural crease under their eyes. I'm one of them. There's nothing wrong with it and a lot of people have it when they smile. It's very normal.

    The best thing you can do is learn to be comfortable with yourself as you are, accept that you are in an imperfect world and will have flaws, and also that your looks are not a basis for your self worth, and are not nearly as big of a deal as you're stressing over. There are many more important things in life.

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  • Tommythecaty

    You just went full retard in that post.

    ...Thank god you’re pretty.

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    • CountessDouche

      Not anymore! She's over 21!

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      • Tommythecaty

        Haha oh that’s right I forgot, poor thing, the dementia has her.

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