To respond to some comments:
I think we can "accept" our height but it would be around age 40-50+ and married which at that point height objectively doesn't matter that much as like you're pretty much set in your career and going to be geriatric in a decade and retired. And at this age you don't really give a fk about anything anyways. Cue the stereotypical grumpy old man
I also think you can "accept" your height if you decide to be a monk and meditate for 5-10 years. Which at that point you pretty much accepted everything are no longer integrated into society nor are neurotypical.
So for the general person I think you can try to accept it, but if you have truly suffered height neurosis to the point of even considering LL and being on this forum,
there is a very low chance you will actually "accept it" and remove that height insecurity besides like I said before, you're a middle to late aged man in which you don't give a crap about anything anyways. So i very much agree with extremis.
My own personal thoughts:
Before I discovered LL/before I found out about Stryde and this forum:
My long term life progress would be:
I would try to be succesful and everything but ultimately with the mentality that everything I do will have to be
compensation IF I want to feel "good". And in the end, I feel like I would probably be stuck in the "Love and Belonging" section in the pyramid below. Sure I may have alot of things. But i'll feel like it's all compensation assuming I want to maximize my life. I was living in a sense of fear for the future. I didn't really know my path- my path was whatever increased my status and wealth solely for the purpose of compensating for height. It was fear. It was depressing. Listen- I don't judge if you revolve your life around money and "buy" your way into relationships and happiness. That's fine. But it's not something I personally like or enjoy.
How this pyramid works is you start at the bottom and go up. The top (highest) section is the ultimate goal. You finish each section below before you can advance and go up by one.
After I discovered LL/before I found out about Stryde and this forum:
My long term life progress would be:
Man, I cannot even put this into words. A sense that I can self-actualize- just the possibility is what mattered. (Yes, whether I actually self-actualize is up to debate as majority of people eventually don't and just settle just by virtue of human tendencies to be lazy). But the sense that I have a possibility to self-actualize, and in the pyramid above, fulfill the
"Esteem" section completely. It changes EVERYTHING for me. I know I was on the verge of tears the first day I read an LL diary which was a Stryde and this became my short-term life mission. Earn as much money as I can to get LL in the future. But more importantly I knew I would no longer have to live as a "short" person. Being the smallest kid or one of the smallest in my class for a majority of my life, this was a feeling that was so relieving. Height neurosis haunted me. And the feeling that I can kill height neurosis- it meant everything.
As for my immediate reactions after discovering LL
I know immediate in the short term after I discovered Stryde (and hence for the first time considered this surgery),
I accentuated my height neurosis. Increased it quite a bit. Everything revolved around height, much more than But after a few months of being hooked on height and everything, i sort of created a mindset that is of a "normal stature" person and felt alot better. Instead of focusing on being short, I focused a little more on everything else as if I was already taller and didn't think about height at all. I assumed that I would "already" get LL and it doesn't really make logical sense to continue weeping about "staying short." It's weird I know. (I know covid definitely had to do with this, as I didn't go out much and didn't compare or do any BDD things so I could reflect more myself.)
The idea of "I will stay short forever, I am so sad" was completely decimated once I discovered this surgery (Stryde). It changed my mindset revolving around life for the better, besides the first few months where my height neurosis increased (like I said before already). It's irrational that I couldn't before, as with neurosises in general, but after discovering LL I finally feel a sense that I can have a normal life.
You can hate Paley all you want for his prices but I am just grateful he brought LL to America and eventually helped developed internal nails.
Summary:
Without LL, I would continue to be insecure and/until my fat wallet forced others to "like" me. Everything would revolve around compensating and superficial things like money. At least until I had a wife. Which probably would be a gold digger, and even if they genuinely liked me, I didn't like myself. So self-hate. I would live a somewhat normal life.. and... Self-esteem would probably be OK, but being
OK is essentially not okay.
With LL, I can finally have a feeling that I will do my own thing. Do my own thing. Love myself. Genuine relationships in the future. Fu*k the money. Self-actualization. Self-esteem will be that of a normal person without the -100 stat of being short.
Self-esteem will truly be molded by something that I can control now instead of height. (Yes, getting LL doesn't mean you will be a "happier" person by no means- but it removes height insecurity, and for right-minded people who have their priorities right and rational ideologies- they will enjoy life even a little more.)
I would like to finish this by saying height isn't everything, yes that is true. However, when you have low self-esteem due to your own height, no matter how irrational, you may as well feel like it is everything. It is not everything, you can most certainly have a normal life and career in terms of physical things. But when you are insecure, that is the worst feeling ever. Everyone who has ever been insecure of a body aspect like looks, weight, voice, etc, knows what I'm talking about. Mentally, it can be everything.