Tami Roman On Body Dysmorphia: "I Always Feel Like I’m Overweight"

When reality star Tami Roman first stepped into the public eye, it was as a young adult appearing on "The Real World". She drew attention for being open and honest about her struggles. In one particular episode, she shed light on body image issues after making the decision to wire her mouth shut in order to lose weight. However, it wasn't until years later that she would finally be able to put a cause to her body image issues.

“Body dysmorphia is something I was diagnosed with later on in life. I didn’t know that I had a disorder. What I knew was that I abused laxatives, I starved myself, I was throwing up food,” she says.

Roman, whose recent weight loss prompted concern from fans on social media, got candid in a recent "The Breakfast Club" interview about her struggles.

“Every day is a challenge. If I see my clavicle and I see bones that’s great to me but to you, you’d be like, 'Tami, you need to eat something'. I have body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). I didn’t realize that I had it for most of my life until I was diagnosed with it in 2008,” Roman shares.

Although Roman wasn't officially diagnosed until 2008, she's been dealing with the mental disorder since she was 13.

At times the reality star may feel like she has to stop eating, other times she may feel like she’s very hungry and needs to eat.

“What happens with that is the way I look at myself and the way people see me are two different things. I think about myself as My 600-Lb. Life. No matter how I look to people, when I look at myself, I can always pick something apart. I always feel like I’m overweight,” Roman adds.

For Roman, her desire to lose weight is different than the average woman. “This is different because there can literally be nothing wrong, but I will find something. With the average woman, it’s like ‘well i think I wanna lose a few pounds’, but if they don’t, they’re OK. But with me, it’s like no, ‘I’ve got to lose the pounds because I see this fold on my wrist right here,’” she explains.

Even though Roman's recent weight loss raised concern, causing her to deal with negative comments, the 52-year-old took it as a compliment.

“Here’s the thing. When I feel I look good, people will comment and say, ‘you’re too skinny,’ ‘you look like a bobble head,’ ‘she needs to gain some weight.’ All of that in my mind is a compliment. They’re viewing it as, ‘girl get your life together, I’m seeing bones,’ and I’m like, ‘Really? Oh my god, I look like a crackhead? Thank you,’” Roman shares.

Roman shares that for many people living with BDD, "...it’s either hereditary or genetic or comes from a negative experience where your self-image has been annihilated.” For her, the turning point was when she began pursuing a career in modeling at 13 years old when a modeling agent ripped her apart. At the time, she weighed less than 120 pounds and was 5’9.

“She literally stood me in front of a mirror and said, ‘You’ve got back folds. You’ve got fat over your knees. You need to do something with your chin. Your breasts are sagging,” Roman told ESSENCE in 2021. “And I went home that night and from that moment, every time I looked at myself in the mirror I could find something wrong with myself.”

This led Roman down the path of obsessing over her weight. "...People don’t realize, that’s why I got my mouth wired in 1993, to be skinny when I was already skinny,” Roman told ESSENCE.

Roman also has Type 2 diabetes, which makes managing her weight even harder. "...You couple that with the disorder and it’s a hard thing to manage,” she said. “People don’t understand what it is to be a person with this disorder, particularly dealing with the weight issues.”

Managing body dysmorphic disorder

According to the Cleveland Clinic, about 2.5% of women and 2.2% of men suffer from body dysmorphic disorder. These numbers may not seem high, however, they’ve increased dramatically among younger people, due to factors such as social media.

Symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder include:

Worrying a lot about a specific area of your body (particularly your face)
Spending a lot of time comparing your looks with other people’s
Spending excessive time looking at yourself in the mirror — or, conversely, avoiding mirrors altogether
Making an excessive effort to conceal perceived flaws
Picking obsessively at your skin to make it “smooth”

If you or someone you know is battling body dysmorphia or any other type of eating disorder, you can call or text the National Eating Disorder hotline to get help.