Do you ever look at old pictures of yourself and think "Is this really me?"

When my mom passed away I was cleaning out her house and found some old photos one of which was a photo of me at around 8 years old. When I first look at the picture I wondered who the little girl was. I had to study it closely before I realized it was me. I suffer from PTSD and I have a ruff time with memories, they just aren't there. So anytime I see a photo of myself I have to really struggle to connect with the person in the photo. It's a disjointed feeling and I often times wonder what that person in the photo would time if they could see me now.

Yes I look at the old photo and say who is that beautiful girl!LOL at 65 I have accumulated a lot of photos and it always surprises me as to how much I look like the photos in my albums. I haven't changed that much, just more wrinkles.

Old photos do sometimes make me feel that way... and they also seem to tell a story of times when I was the one mostly holding the camera. There's this guy in college and immediately after whom I don't recognize at ALL, because his "priorities" (based on the photos) seemed so different from the person I am today. Then there's a period from my mid-20s to my mid 30's where it is almost impossible to document that I even EXISTED. Over a 10-year period, maybe 3-5 photos of me were taken. I was married, and my ex RAN from any suggestion that a camera MIGHT appear... so all the photos are of houses, and cats, and places visited, and landscapes... and there's never a person present. I also don't really recognize the guy from a couple of years after we split up... this strange almost flamboyant person who went overboard in the opposite direction, trying to fill every moment with the "life" that previously hadn't existed.... eeeek... can you say "bad mid-life crisis?" Don't WANT to recognize him....

I always feel that way since I used to have really short hair before when I was in primary school and high school. I have long hair now and every time I see my old pictures, I always feel uncertain if that was really me or what. I always laugh at my old pictures because I look so darn funny or sometimes stupid in it.

hahah, , yes i sure do , , , ven thoughim 20 yrs of age now , , ,i still look back at the albums and enjoy looking them , , and wonder , wat a good boy was i at that age , , and all the fun that i used to have with my cousins , it was fun , , , i usually do that ,, , wen most of my cousins come over at my place , , , , its nice to c those images and relish them ,,,,, nice topic for discussions ......

Yes... although my appearance hasn't changed very much the way I appear in photos has... I never use to smile before, and rarely took photos. When I did I always looked awkward or uncomfortable. I also dress a lot more differently now, my personality has changed, and this is also reflected in my different photographs.

you know..when I look at my older pictures, I can believe its me..I am just proud of the person I grew up to be..the only thing I really couldn't believe is just how far I came..I dress better, I am in control of my look (back then, my mother did what she could with all this hair!) I am just happier now when I look at them then and now..

Actually its pretty funny..I dont look much different at all compared to 10 yrs ago...In fact other than being chubby now and busty I pretty much look the same as I did then LOL this pic isnt a fav of mine but tis the only one I have from back then LOL

Yes, I look at old pictures of me and wonder at the change I have taken. If someone saw me on the street they would not know it was me. I am not concerned about the change because that is all part of life. I do know some people who look pretty much the same. But me I have changed and I like what I look like both back than and now.

well, this can't be me. look at that skin! today at work a customer told me my skin was perfect and asked what foundation I was wearing.

Yes yes yes. I can't recognize myself in the mirror, and I can't recognize myself in the photos sometimes. But at least for photos, it is at least more understandable. After, they were taken when I was younger. :P

I look more less the same so it is never much of a shock. I guess i have been stagnating for decades! Sometimes I will think, 'oh, I was skinnier' or 'oh, look how tan I was', but I always look like me to me, if you know what I mean.

O god yes. I cant belive how much you can change .

yes and i have compiled them in succession. i feel happy looking at those old pictures of mine and can't hide myself comparing the past to the present look. i've change a lot from a healthy chubby baby to a slim & sexy woman hehehe. from those pictures i could make a story of myself..

I recently found a box full of old photographs, many of which were taken way back in the 1970's and 1980's. I was shocked when I saw some pictures of me, I couldn't really believe I looked, well, like a complete stranger. My hair was short, I wore dreadful glasses that made me look like a startled owl, and I looked very uncomfortable in my clothes. I have put all those pictures away in a box and put it back in the attic.

Yes, there are times when I look back at pictures and can't believe it was me. I'm not too old so I can't notice a "dramatic" difference but I am shocked at how skinny, I used to look in some pictures and makes me look like I was a stranger almost, like you said. I also have some pictures where I looked extremely happy, which was great of course but I have to say, wish I could go back to that moment. It is nice at times to see some of those pictures but also brings alot of sadness to some of the things that might have been going on in some of those moments in my life.

I look back at photos of me as a girl and think wow, why did I ever think that was cool lol. I am not the person I was when I left the UK to move overseas. Back then was a young woman scared of her own shadow, despite the mask I wore every day to try and hide that fear. I have changed a lot of things about myself, and looking back at photos of those days, I see the fear, the subservient look, the dowdy wardrobe. Not any longer. I'm now the confident person I should have been all along. I don't like to look at those photos. They're just reminders of a painful time in my life.

Yes, I have done this. I remember doing this with my first driver's license. I tend to keep them for memorabilia, and after I got my new one, almost 2 years ago, I realized I looked a lot different! I kept wondering who the girl was in my old license. LOL And to make it worse, my husband teased me about it too! LOL Oh well, I got him back good when he got his newest license! ;)

Yes I do! All the time! I look at pictures of myself when I weighed 350lbs and I say was I really ever that big? It just blows my mind that I have changed so much!

Hmmm I have captured some the finest memories in my photos, and whenever I look back at them I often envy myself for having a blast with family and friends. All the photos that I have always remind me of the goodtimes I had with Family, friends, people, colleagues somehow age never came up when I looked at them, yeah I do look at some of my college days pictures and think boy was I naive then! I have matured a lot since then but those glinting eyes of my youth reminds me of good old days! and what great memories all of us created! and many a time I end up calling friends. most of them live halfway across the world!