Body shaming is the act of mocking a person’s physical appearance. Body shaming is one of the aspects that kills one’s self-esteem and plays a role in suicidal activities.

I am a 19-year-old female. I was also a victim of emotional and mental abuse.

During my primary days, everything was fabulous. The issue formed when I entered the secondary academic level. My facial appearance (big four front teeth with yellowish stains, which made it hard for me to close my mouth,) sidelined me from enjoying my secondary days.

Some of my schoolmates acted strangely towards me, because they were unable to adjust my facial appearance. Their mocking, teasing, discrimination, judgmental and comparisons (comparing me with scary looking animals) began to create mental trauma and self-doubt.

I suffered from dysmorphophobia for five years. Dysmorphophobia is a mental disorder characterised by obsessive idea that some aspect of one’s own body appearance is severely flawed. I was a mirror user for several times a day, aiming to prove whether people’s comparisons were true or false.

A confident, talkative, energetic, kind, humble and social soul was turned to a lazy, quiet and indoor soul. Smiling and laughing became my biggest enemies. Due to a reduction of self-esteem, I was driven away by fear to take part in class debates, sport fields, doing speeches and study groups.

I got tired of people’s negative reactions. I brainstormed a few ideas on how to clear yellowish stains on teeth. Because the nearby public clinic is disadvantaged, there is no dentist in the facility, so visiting a dentist was out. I did an online research and implemented four different homemade mouthwash secrets. I tried them and they gave me poor results.

In the year 2020 on the second month, self-appreciate, self-serve, self-motivate, self-respect and self-acceptance from home cured the inner scars. With the development of body positivity and acceptance, that is God will. My long lost self-esteem and confidence was regained.

I am a happier individual…

Tell us: What have you accepted about your body, which was hard to do before?