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  • Hi.

  • If you've never seen one of my videos before, you're probably really confused right now!

  • To be fair, if you have seen one of my videos, you're probably equally confused...

  • I am normally very pro-"loving your body"

  • -or at least not hating your body.

  • I was born with multiple disabilities that should make me dislike my body.

  • By the time I was 21, I weighed six stone and people told me I should definitely hate my body.

  • Because obviously being too thin is the worst thing in the world, right(?)

  • But no, I'm pretty sure that I was dying was more important,

  • but sure, go ahead, keep focusing on my weight!

  • Goodness, if I had a pound for every time someone just ignored my medical needs

  • because they were distracted by my face, fashion, or weight...

  • Riches!

  • But that's kind of what this video is about.

  • Without the money.

  • Sadly.

  • In this video, I'm gonna get all mushy and honest and open and tell you about the thing I hate about my face.

  • Yeah...

  • I would also like to thank the sponsor of today's video, Lost Island,

  • a fun new mobile game I've become obsessed with

  • because I have a condition that means I have to lie on the floor a lot and can't do much except for play games on my phone.

  • It's a blast puzzle game aimed at adults with literally hundreds of levels.

  • Believe me, I've been playing for a while and they're still going

  • but unlike the more generic lining things up games Lost Island actually has the story

  • In the game, you are the new owner of a beautiful island and it's your job to turn it into a paradise.

  • You can renovate, decorate and transform it into the home of your dreams

  • plus there are ancient artefacts to discover along with gold and treasure

  • AND you're aided by your pet seal and

  • And Ellie, the adventurous archaeologist, who is a redhead

  • So....

  • [cheer]

  • But this is no ordinary island and as you renovate it weird things begin to happen

  • dun dun dun!

  • What could it all mean?

  • Da da da!

  • Well, obviously you have to play the game to find out. I'm not going to give it all away

  • I've been playing this game for a few days and something I really like is that there are two ways to play

  • You can play through the story, which is very calming, you can follow the narrative...

  • or you can just play really quickly through a number of puzzles by touching the play button in the lower right hand corner

  • and save the stars to use in the story later

  • each level increases the difficulty

  • but they don't necessarily become so difficult you want to give up...

  • so that's a win for me and

  • Also, you can always play on by using all those extra coins you're going to get by clicking my link in the description!

  • It's really fun to play and I am excited to continue updating my Island

  • You can download Lost Island right now for free by using the link in the description down below

  • You'll be supporting my channel and get 7 lives and 700 coins

  • Which let's be honest is actually something I could really do with right now

  • because I had spent my coins making my island fancy

  • As you get up to those hard levels, the extra lives will also really come in handy

  • Ya back today's video

  • so... hmm....

  • Yes, I mentioned the thing that I

  • Disliked about my face and...

  • and to explain I'm gonna have to take you back in time a little bit

  • So I started getting migraines when I was in my early teens

  • I think they just started as headaches really...

  • just a kind of generalised aching pain...

  • at the same time I was developing scoliosis or curvature of the spine.

  • So my doctor just sort of thought that these two things were probably related

  • and the scoliosis was causing the headaches.

  • It was just a constant pain though and it...

  • it became my normal

  • Sometimes it was worse and sometimes

  • some blissful times it felt as if the clouds had cleared my blue sky and

  • suddenly I could see without the haze across my vision

  • think clearly without dragging my thoughts from black sludge of my brain

  • and it would hit me that this was normal

  • this was what other people's brains felt like

  • but then the pain would seep in again steeping up from my shoulders or stabbing its way into my burning eye sockets.

  • By the time I was 14 or 15, I was getting full-on migraines, visual disturbances and everything.

  • if you've ever wondered what a migraine aura looks like

  • This is as close as I can get on final cut

  • Weird no,

  • I thought this was normal

  • or just because I have tiny eyes in a throwback to very strong Central Asian genetic ancestry.

  • NO.

  • Apparently that's an aura migraine

  • Who knew

  • but then as I explained in my 'becoming visually impaired' video,

  • I had the worst migraine of my life

  • Kind of had a stroke and lost the vision in one eye and the feeling in the left side of my face

  • I would here insert a picture but I was too busy trying not to die

  • My parents thought it was a bit morbid to take one

  • so

  • just know that the left side of my face was floppy and it had no feeling

  • I couldn't talk out that side of my face or smile or feel when someone stuck a pin in it

  • Which doctors love to do

  • repeatedly

  • it's a thing

  • Once the whole drama was over and I was stable and not going to die

  • I still couldn't move this bit of my face

  • and it just didn't look like my face

  • and it freaked me the hell out

  • Okay...

  • There's a very special part of your brain- it's in the temporal lobe

  • that is partly responsible for our ability to recognize faces

  • From the earliest age babies are able to recognize faces and even mimic them from just two days old

  • Obviously, they don't understand the emotions of each look

  • but they understand that it's a face.

  • In the same way that we're programmed to see human faces in everything,

  • from some coffee you spilt on the table to an old rock with what looks like a nose

  • In the same way we were designed to see that,

  • we also have really set ideas in our heads of what we look like

  • and what the people around us look like

  • My dad had a moustache until I was 3

  • a really thick bushy black moustache

  • and then he decided to shave it off

  • He took me into the bathroom with him when he did it

  • So I would still know it was him even though he suddenly had lips

  • I watched him shave off his mustache and I still freaked out

  • because my brain had a set image of what he looked like

  • And a hairless lip just wasn't him

  • well

  • It was but it wasn't

  • but it almost was

  • to such a slight degree of wrong that it completely disturbed me

  • and I chopped all the hair off my favourite doll with rusty old scissors

  • because I just couldn't cope

  • and that's what it felt like looking at my face in the mirror

  • It wasn't me

  • It was me, but it wasn't me

  • and over the next few days my face slowly began to move again

  • but it was always a little off.

  • I would smile and the right side would go first,

  • and the left would follow after.

  • Moving the left side of my face took effort at first I had to actually think about moving my face.

  • As time passed, my left side moved more but there are some things I just can't make it do

  • Yeah... no matter how hard I think about it there are just muscles on this side that I can't move

  • Trust me. I have tried.

  • I've put those hours in in front of the mirror!

  • The feeling never came back either and neither did the sight in my left eye

  • even to this day I can prick the side of my face and it doesn't...

  • Feel like anything. I don't--

  • it's like wearing...

  • I don't know--a mask,

  • a really thick mask.

  • It's really thick

  • and that was ten years ago

  • And I still can't feel this half of my face.

  • You probably can't even see anything wrong with it!

  • To you, my face probably looks entirely equal and symmetrical.

  • But to me...

  • Maybe it's because I look in the mirror and I can only see my face from my right eye?

  • Try to look in the mirror with your own face with one eye closed

  • You can see your face straight on

  • and you can see the side with the working eye,

  • but the other side...

  • well, leave it long enough and it will start to freak you out,

  • like really freak you out!

  • when I see photographs of the left side of my face. It just doesn't look like me.

  • I know it's me

  • I don't have any face blindness or anything.

  • It just doesn't look right.

  • There's a thing called the uncanny valley and it relates to humanoid robots

  • And... CGI really,

  • but I am actually going someone with this

  • So in aesthetics, the uncanny valley is part of a graph that shows human emotional response

  • I.E. likeability--

  • related to the degree of humaneness of the object.

  • Something that looks only vaguely human, cute teddy with big eyes and a smile

  • elicits good feelings

  • But once the degree to which the humanoid object appears almost but not entirely like a human increases...

  • Well then we fall into the valley

  • where these faces elicit 'uncanny'

  • -meaning the psychological experience of something being strangely familiar, but not quite right

  • feelings of eeriness, or a slight revulsion

  • -don't worry, I'm not actually revolted by the left side of my face

  • It just isn't right

  • [ding]

  • Because it isn't the right side of my face

  • You're welcome.

  • Maybe I'm just not used to seeing it

  • Maybe it's because the muscles don't work the way the ones on the right do

  • and only I can tell because it's my face

  • And I'm so used to it.

  • Whatever it is, that's how I feel... about MY face.

  • Do I still love myself?

  • Yes.

  • Do I still love my weird little face?

  • Yes.

  • Am I objectively aware that no one else probably finds my face weird?

  • Yes 100%

  • But they're my feelings...

  • and if there's one thing you should take away from watching my channel.

  • It's that whatever your feelings are

  • They are entirely valid because they are yours

  • No one should tell you how you should feel

  • Or think about your own body

  • or even anything else

  • if you want to change the way you feel about something?

  • Then go on and do so

  • find those resources, practice kindness,

  • especially towards yourself

  • But it's also okay to not love yourself all the time!

  • It's a journey, right?

  • No one expects you to get from zero to "every atom of my body is perfect" in a day

  • -or even a lifetime!

  • It's especially more complex when you have a disability and you can sometimes feel like your body has let you down

  • Just know that you're never alone on that journey, and I am here feeling all of those funny feelings with you

  • Thank you for watching

  • don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already

  • and download the lost island app using the link in the description for seven extra lives and 700 coins.

  • Ah Lord, do I wish I could download seven extra non-migraine lives,

  • that would be splendid

  • [kiss]

  • Bye bye.

Hi.

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