Body dismorphia-before and after surgery?

Yes, both things are extremely common.  

One of the things I sometimes do with clients who are doing additional counseling prior to getting psych clearance for surgery is to take a picture of them and then ask them to look at 4 pictures of OTHER people of various weights (with faces blurred out) and identify the one that is closest to their size.  I then show them the picture of themselves.  Almost invariably, if they pick incorrectly (and they usually do) they pick someone who is smaller.

At some point before I got to my goal weight, I saw a photo my mom had of me from the year before my surgery and I burst into tears and asked her if I was really as big as I looked in the photo and she said "yes".  

It also took me until about 5 years post-op to STOP having those weird laundry-folding moments when I would look at my jeans or a shirt and be certain that they suddenly shrank a LOT.  Now, when I occasionally pull out my "before" jeans, sweater, or dress, I find it hard to believe that those pieces of clothing actually used to fit me!

Lora

Good advice. After I had reached goal, I used to have a friend point out people in public who were my size. It helped me put my size in perspective.

I did the same thing with my mom. I also used to go to an outdoor mall here so I could compare my reflection in the store windows to that of other people in order to get that perspective.

I still pause when folding laundry and am convinced I've shrunk all my clothes. I even hold my breath when I put them on I wonder if they will fit. So yes, completely normal. 

Now I find I don't recognise myself in the before pictures. 

That reminds me of when I was a teen my overweight friends and I would see another heavy person and ask each other if we were that big.  I really did not have a perspective.

I was skinny until I hit puberty, right when I went from grade school to middle school (Jr. High then).  I was eating as much as before but over the summer I gained about 50 lbs.  I remember going clothes shopping and buying things that were size 16 in women's and I thought that is how it worked, you go from a child's size to a woman's size, not that they were any bigger.

Honest to god, if it weren't for all the torturing and teasing and my mother's constant remarks I wouldn't of even known I was heavy.  I weighed all of 135 lbs!  I did develop stretch marks then so I knew my body was bigger but I thought it was normal.

That was when my mother dragged me to Weigh****chers because she was so horrified to have a fat daughter.  From WW it was off to the diet doctors for pills.  At 13 :(

I think the worse thing was my mother's embarrassment about my weight.  I felt like such a failure.  That is why I never mention my kids weight to them.  I know how damaging it can be.

I am so sorry you had this experience.  

Wow that is so sad.... My 2 grand-daughters are overweight and I try not to embarass the youngest who at 13 years of age is close to weight which is 232 pounds.  When she visits for the summer I try to make sure I watch what I say to her so that I will not hurt her feelings because she knows she is over weight and does not need to be reminded....what I do is try to encourage her to eat this and not that without making her feel bad about her choices.....she is a closet eater....

I had surgery in 2001 and still have that problem. Someone said to me today,' well you are so tiny' I look at then like they are crazy.?i think my 'mind' will always be 287

I never believed I was MO, in my minds eye I was always average, now I am average and my clothes seem big to me.  I guess our mindseye adjusts as we shrink or the fact my boyfriends mom is a size 0 or 00 makes everything look big in comparison.  I went to my surgeon a few weeks ago and we were discussing weight and I said that I would never be a size two and he made a face, like being that small was a bad thing.  He said a healthy normal weight is so much better then too small or too big.