Dear Shoob:

You are welcome, good to read from you again. As you pay more and more attention to the ways in which you do not love yourself unconditionally (the ways you criticize and reject yourself  in a variety of contexts during the say), as you then correct your thoughts and offer yourself unconditional acceptance, and as you engage in  positive interactions/ relationships with people who offer you the acceptance that you need-  you will learn to accept and love yourself unconditionally.. more and more so, over time.

“I would love to hear more about your experiences with body dysmorphia and OCD as well (or was it also related to your tall height which you mentioned previously?)-

Regarding my experience with OCD: it started in  my first decade of life, I think, it was very pronounced in my teenage years, went on to my 20s and 30s (diagnosed in  my 20s, got on an SSRI medication for OCD in my late 30s, got off SSRIs 17 years later), and I no longer suffer from it since a few years ago as a result of what I refer to as my healing process. My OCD included lots of Obsessive thinking and many Compulsions: rituals that I performed to relieve the distress that accompanied obsessive thinking.

Regarding my experience with body dysmorphia: I was bothered by being too tall to my liking, but I was also bothered by lots of other things about my looks when I was a teenager and onward. After I started to gain weight for the first time in my life, when getting close to 40, I went on diets and over-exercised so to lose weight.. and at one point on I viewed myself as overweight when I was of normal weight, and went on to lose more weight until I was underweight. This has been going on long enough for me to receive the diagnosis of anorexia. The idea of being overweight still distresses me, but I am not anorexic.

“Ah, when you say healing on tiny buddha,  is that providing help and guidance to others”? (i.e. giving to others helps your own mental health)“- no, my healing on tiny buddha is about learning about myself and about others. The more I learn about others, the more I understand myself, and .. the more I understand myself, the more I understand others.. due to the fact that as humans we have a whole lot in common. For me, learning is synonymous with mental/ emotional healing.

anita