How can I (19M) help my girlfriend (19F) love herself?

Submitted by jwbrewer12 t3_125hiix in relationship_advice

My (19M) girlfriend (19F) has been extremely sad and upset about her body and other aspects of herself. I do my best to be there for her and tell her she’s beautiful and gorgeous and that I love everything about her body and her personality and all of her and I really do mean it. I love this girl with all of my heart. So it pains me so much when she can’t love herself the same way. She tells me she doesn’t think that she looks pretty, but that she knows that I think she’s pretty. And when I ask what I can do to help, she tells me there’s nothing I can do and that she doesn’t want to talk about it. So I don’t bring it up, but I know she still thinks about it constantly, about how she isn’t pretty enough and how she wants to just delete all of the pictures of herself. I just don’t know what to do, I feel helpless when I really just want to help her feel in love with herself. Any help would be appreciated because I really just want her to be happy and to love herself the same way I do. Thank you!

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poptartwith t1_je487ia wrote

Your girlfriend has BDD. Body dysmorphic disorder. Go read up on this first. I don't think there is something per se that you can do about it besides guide her to a therapist/doctor where she could be on antidepressants for a while but it would have to come through her own initiative.

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peachylolo t1_je48xk7 wrote

You should recommend therapy to her

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Creative_Recover t1_je492ya wrote

If she won't help herself then there's nothing you can do. You need to be honest with her and make her understand that her issues are upsetting you and are affecting the relationship that you have together. Emphasize that you love her to bits (Etc) but encourage her to seek therapy if her insecurity issues are this chronic. You also need to discourage negative behaviours like the obsessive picture taking and deleting because this is just making everything worse.

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IncomeFundManager t1_je4lu0q wrote

You’re not qualified to help, best you can do is suggest she talk to a professional about this

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