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Your Hypervigilence Doesn’t Mean Everyone Else Is Anlysing You
And Even If Peolpe Notice A Flaw, It’s OK
The other day I posted a photo reel of my recent holiday in Greece onto Instagram. I really liked the first picture I took of myself, but upon closer inspection I noticed I had a bit of expresso martini on my upper lip (see above!).
“ For F’s sake I thought to myself “, I really liked that picture and it was the only one I wanted to post. I knew the moment I noticed it that I was about to fixate and that’s exactly what I did:
- I wondered what others would think if they zoomed in, how they’d judge or critique me.
- I looked through other photographs, but found things wrong with them, too.
- I tried obsessively to take new photographs, but maybe you could see the obsessive desire to get another picture, so it ruined those.
Back and forth I went but eventually I came to this conclusion:
Just because I am hypervigalant and go through everything with a fine tooth comb, doesn’t mean everyone else does.
And even if someone notices, who cares?
When you’re anxiously-inclined or suffer with post-traumatic stress that impacts your ability to self-express without over-analysing…
