Why did bethany storro

Breaking her silence: Bethany Storro is appearing in front of cameras for the first time since admitting that she made up a story about an attacker throwing acid in her face. Illness: Ms Storro says she suffers from body dysmorphic disorder, a mental illness that made her hate the way she looked.

Three years later, Storro - who still bears the scars from the incident - is breaking her silence in an ABC News interview , appealing for forgiveness and hoping for a second chance.

She says that she had an undiagnosed case of body dysmorphic disorder, a preoccupation with a small flaw on the face or the body that may or may not actually exist. Unable to cope with her mental illness, she decided she would melt her shortcomings away, with a cocktail of caustic chemicals, including drain cleaner. Storro told the network: 'It was like fire to my face. I was so happy. I thought I found the answer. But then the pain became unbearable, and she says she couldn't bring herself to commit suicide.

Instead, she panicked. Coming clean: Storro says she threw acid in her own face in an attempt to end her life. Disfigured: Ms Storro was forced to appear in court in wearing a protective mask while her face healed from the burns.

What am I going to do now? Storro decided drove away from the park, shouting. When someone approached and asked if someone had attacked her, she saw her way out of the situation, creating a story about a fictional woman who threw the chemical in her face as an unprovoked attack.

She admitted that she enjoyed the attention, telling the network: 'At that moment I felt that I was cared for and I mattered. The will to go on: When the pain of the acid became unbearable, Storro says she couldn't bring herself to commit suicide.

Guilty: Ms Storro admitted she lied and served community service after pleading guilty to charge of false reporting of a crime. Storro pleaded guilty to making a false statement to a public official and was sentenced to community service and ordered to continue mental health treatment.

Prosecutors dropped theft charges stemming from donations she accepted that she couldn't pay back. Earlier this year, Storro published a book about her experience, 'Facing the Truth,' which explains how body dysmorphic disorder drove her to harm herself. Face the Truth is currently selling at Amazon. It is published by the self-publishing company CreateSpace. Staring into a mirror today, she says she's getting better every day, telling ABC News: 'I'm still me.

Her story: Bethany Storro fooled the nation in when she claimed she had been attacked by a woman who splashed her face with acid. Police set off on an intense search for the alleged attacker, but soon began to suspect that Storro had faked the story. A Vancouver Voice reporter interviewed witnesses who were in the park where Storro was allegedly attacked and they said Storro was alone when she dropped to the ground and started screaming. Storro told ABC News that she never intended to blame someone else, but said she began to believe her own lies, and relished the attention she was getting as a result of the widespread media attention.

Storro held a news conference shortly after surgery, with her head wrapped in gauze, and was booked as a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," but canceled the appearance. After two weeks during which police investigated the story, Storro confessed that she had lied.

Her parents, Joe and Nancy Neuwelt, did not know about her deception or the severity of her illness. Storro said she never reached out to them for help.

Storro pleaded guilty to lying to police and was also charged with three counts of second-degree theft after going on a shopping spree with donation money intended for her recovery.

The theft charges were later dismissed after Storro repaid the money and spent one year at a mental-health treatment facility in Washington. According to police reports, Storro told detectives that she applied drain cleaner to her face thinking the vapors would kill her; if she survived, she would at least get a new face.

Asked whether she still feels that was her motivation, Storro said Friday that on Aug. The youngest of three siblings and the daughter of Joe and Nancy Neuwelt of Vancouver, Storro said that when she was 15 or 16, she withdrew from her friends and started spending hours in the bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror and examining what she perceived as flaws in her face, hair, hands, arms.

She said she would think, for example, that she had a growth on her face. I also think it would be really great to help other people, too, if they are having problems like this. Wheeler said after Storro leaves Elahan Place, she will likely live in a group home before she lives independently. She expressed gratitude to the community, which responded to her at first as a victim but still showed support when her lies were exposed. After the interview, Wheeler said Storro, who is partially deaf and can read lips, can see when people, who think they are being discreet, are talking about her.