“When I looked in the mirror, I saw gaping pores and deep craters, and when I interacted with people, I couldn’t focus on conversation,” says Ashlea Perry, describing the intrusive thoughts about her appearance that tormented her throughout her twenties. “My internal dialogue was always the same: ‘They’re staring at my face. They think I’m hideous. Why are they even talking to me?’ It consumed my thoughts.”
Perry, who is now 44, is one of many sufferers of skin dysmorphia, more commonly referred to as acne dysmorphia in the US, where she lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. “Years later, a friend found an old photo of us – taken before Photoshop and filters existed – and I was stunned,” she reflects. “My skin looked normal – good, even. I asked former classmates about it, and they told me they never noticed my skin being bad.
