Man in the mirror

My son spends alot of time in the bathroom sometimes and he’s constantly in the mirror. I’m not really sure what’s going on in there. I often wonder if he is talking to himself in the mirror. Has anyone had any kind of experience with this?

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My son does that.

He’ll pick apart his appearance mostly - he’ll criticize the tiniest feature, things other people wouldn’t notice. His current things are a couple very small scars on his face and that he thinks his hair is thinning.

I think part of it is that they think everyone else is looking at them and judging them, so they want to see what others are seeing.
Part of it could be that their perceptions are off, so maybe they look strange to themselves.

My son’s taken to looking at pictures when he was very young over the past year.

He’ll sometimes say stuff like “I was a cute kid” as if he can’t believe it now.

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Yes my son does that too. He watches him self talk and it is quite interesting although I have not figured it out yet. It is comforting to him so why not?
I’ve also noticed him being angry and looking in the mirror like it was someone else. This disassociation is part of the illness I believe.

yes. My son does that also. he is always looking in the mirror and talking about brown spots on his face and hand. I hardly see any spots. he also complains about his stomach getting bigger and his legs getting skinnier. I guess it is part of the illness… delusional…

Mine does it too. When he lived with us, I thought he was going into the bathroom to talk so we wouldn’t hear him. He is very critical of how his clothes fit and whatever he sees in the mirror rarely makes him happy.

I’ve never been aware of my son doing this, tho he is pretty critical of his body. He gained a lot of weight on other AP’s. He has lost SIXTY pounds in the last 18 months, and while still technically falls in the ‘overweight’ category, he is sure he is morbidly obese. His has lost 6 inches off his waist, and I think he is continuing to lose!

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My son too has done this, mostly now though he will look at photos of him as a little child and say " I had a happy childhood mum"
As he started getting ill before we really knew what was going on he tried to fix all the things he thought were wrong with him. He was at one point wanting to pay £1000 to get his teeth straightened, his teeth are good, no fillings till he was about 20.
He wanted hair removal creams, blackhead removers , wore a fat belt thing and shrink wrap around his legs etc when there was nothing wrong physically.

I have no idea if this has anything to do with schizophrenia, but I can clearly recognize myself in photos and in digital images (smart phone pictures), but there are times when I am surprised by what I see in the mirror. Somehow my brain is able to manipulate what I see in the mirror, but not what I see in a photo or a digital picture of me. Even a very recent photo of me or even a live video of me (like skype) looks quite different to me than what I see in the mirror. I have no idea why this would happen.

One of the first subtle changes in my son was that he started avoiding having his picture taken. He was always good looking and liked people taking pictures of him. We took a family trip abroad together and gathered for a group picture at one point. Later when we saw how dark and unhappy his expression was - well it was another one of those early things that puzzled us.

We haven’t been able to do family pictures for several years.

My son didn’t wanti to look in the mirror when he first was diagnosed last Dec and was put on meds. He would cover the mirror or open it up so he couldn’t see his reflection. Only in recent weeks has he been able to have the mirror uncovered or closed. I think it has to do with possible hallucinations but he never wanted to explain to me why he did this when I asked- so I stopped asking him about it.

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My son has a huge mirror in his room (it was in there when he bought the house.)

He covers it - then uses the bathroom mirror or the full length mirror in my room.

When I ask him about it, he’ll say he hates the way he looks.

It was unnerving at first, but now it’s just a part of his eccentric behavior & I don’t worry about it too much.

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My daughter does this and since she got a cell phone she takes lots of selfies and then spends the day editing them and just sitting and looking at them. She recently started doing different types of “looks” with make up and then post picture of herself on face book. She is very critical of her looks and her eating disorder has resurfaced.

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Yes, my son spends a lot of time in the bathroom talking to the voices he hears. The bathroom seems to be a safe place to communicate with “the voices” because most of the time we cannot hear him doing this downstairs.

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My son spends alot of time in the bathroom. With only one bathroom in the house its really annoying. He has 2 to 3 showers a day. When he is not in the bathroom he spends most of his time alone in his room. When i see him just sitting there with his eyes closed , I tell him if he is tired he should lie down, but he always says no he is just thinking. Apparently he is always thinking or in the bathroom.

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Interesting thread here. Well before he got ill (5 years before) my son refused to allow me to take his photo and also kept pictures of himself as a child around his room. I thought it was unusual but most teenagers are unusual at times. It later turned into delusional body image and finally psychosis. He’s stable now but I still see him looking at his image in the mirror alot. His self esteem really deteriorated during his teen years. I didn’t understand it at the time. I guess it’s part of this condition.

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My son also stares at pictures of himself, both past and present. And lately, he’ll just out of the blue start talking about memories of stuff he used to do, about friends he used to have. It’s so freaking heartbreaking!

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My son used to cover up mirrors throughout the house. He doesn’t do that anymore but I’m sure he was seeing something

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My son has done similar , a few years ago he thrust a photo of him as a child in his dads face saying look at this little boy, he was so happy!

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My son also spends tons of time in the bathroom…he talks and laughs to people that aren’t there. He is obsessed with getting plastic surgery-he is 26 but thinks he looks very old and his skin is ruined…he looks very young and has perfect skin…he thinks satellites are doing this to his brain and body. He also wants plastic surgery for the family so that “they” wont know who we are and he can protect us…it is so sad-part of me dies a little bit more every time I see these things…

I’m sorry for your pain. I hate this condition!
Is your son still doing and saying these things while on medication?