What to do when your photos don't look like they are yours?

Looking at your own photo and wondering if it is really yours...does that ever happen? Oh yes, it does. If it ever happened to you, you know how jarring it is. What do you think is happening here? You know for a fact that the photo is yours yet the person in the photo (you) doesn't look like you.

This could happen when the edits have gone haywire, too many wrinkles and blemishes gone and that you don't look like the person you have always known. This could also happen if you don't like what you have become in reality and your mind shouts, 'no!' In either case, what you see doesn't agree with the subjective reality you constructed in your conscience, in your own mind, your self image about how you look.

The way we see ourselves is not how exactly we look (or how others see us as) - we are talking about a perceptive, mental construct here. Our mind is a fabulous thing that constructs an image from not just reality (that it does use partially) but also from memory, our perception of ourselves, our state of mind at the time of reckoning and perhaps other factors too - our own mental image of ourselves is a dynamic living image, not like a photograph at all. But a camera sees you the way you are. Now it is up to you to believe it is you, either on your own or with some help.

You need help to the extent to which your self-image is dissociated from the reality. More realistic you are more readily you identify your own photo and identify with it. If you can't identify your own photo, you are either living in your own past image or a future image. A photograph as we have seen here can be a great test of how we perceive ourselves.

The question with which I started this post is rhetorical, or is it?