Body Dysmorphia Disorder: Breaking Free from Poor Body Image

“I have body dysmorphia disorder!” I remember as a massage therapist, I had one client who was nothing but skin and bones.

He had BDD, but I didn’t know it at the time. How am I supposed to massage muscle when there is none? I did the best I could even though I felt uncomfortable.

Body dysmorphia disorder: breaking free from poor body image. So, what does body dismorphia disorder mean?

At length, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a mental health condition in which you can’t stop thinking about one or more perceived defects or flaws in your appearance — a flaw that appears minor or can’t be seen by others.

But you may feel so embarrassed, ashamed and anxious that you may avoid many social situations.

Therefore, your perceived flaw and the repetitive behaviors cause you significant distress and impact your ability to function in your daily life.

Body Dysmorphia Cause

Body dysmorphia disorder: breaking free from poor body image. At any rate, the exact cause of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is unknown, but it’s thought to be caused by a combination of environmental, psychological, and biological factors. Some factors that may increase the likelihood of developing BDD include:

Genetics. Consequently, you may be more likely to develop BDD if you have a close relative with BDD, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or depression.
Childhood trauma or abuse. As well as, experiencing trauma can significantly alter your brain functions, which can ultimately lead to dysmorphia. This could include teasing, bullying, or verbal abuse concerning appearance.
Perfectionism or comparing yourself with others. Comparatively, messages about body image from media, films, social media, and adverts can have a negative impact on body image and self-esteem.
Chemical imbalances in the brain. Even more, abnormal levels of brain chemicals, such as abnormal metabolism of serotonin and dopamine, may contribute to BDD.
Other mental health conditions. Also, some people with BDD also have another mental health condition, such as generalized anxiety disorder, an eating disorder, or depression.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder include:

Firstly, being extremely preoccupied with a perceived flaw in appearance that to others can’t be seen or appears minor
Strong belief that you have a defect in your appearance that makes you ugly or deformed
Belief that others take special notice of your appearance in a negative way or mock you
Fourthly, engaging in behaviors aimed at fixing or hiding the perceived flaw that are difficult to resist or control, such as frequently checking the mirror, grooming or skin picking
Attempting to hide perceived flaws with styling, makeup or clothes
Constantly comparing your appearance with others
Additionally, frequently seeking reassurance about your appearance from others
Having perfectionist tendencies
Seeking cosmetic procedures with little satisfaction
Lastly, avoiding social situations

By the same token, preoccupation with your appearance and excessive thoughts and repetitive behaviors can be unwanted, difficult to control. They are so time-consuming that they can cause major distress or problems in your social life, work, school or other areas of functioning.

Hence, you may excessively focus over one or more parts of your body. The bodily feature that you focus on may change over time.

The most common features people tend to fixate about include:

Firstly, face, such as nose, complexion, wrinkles, acne and other blemishes
Hair, such as appearance, thinning and baldness
Skin and vein appearance
Fourthly, breast size
Muscle size and tone
Lastly, genitalia

Complications

Body dysmorphia disorder: breaking free from poor body image. Complications that may be caused by or associated with body dysmorphic disorder include, for example:

Firstly, low self-esteem
Social isolation
Major depression or other mood disorders
Fourthly, suicidal thoughts or behavior
Anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder (social phobia)
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Addionally, eating disorders
Substance misuse
Health problems from behaviors such as skin picking
Lastly, physical pain or risk of disfigurement due to repeated surgical interventions

Body Dysmorphic Disorder Treatment

Body dysmorphia disorder: breaking free from poor body image. Furthermore, treatment for body dysmorphic disorder often includes a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and medications.

Cognitive behavioral therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy for body dysmorphic disorder focuses on:

Firstly, helping you learn how negative thoughts, emotional reactions and behaviors maintain problems over time.
In addition, challenging automatic negative thoughts about your body image and learning more-flexible ways of thinking.
Learning alternate ways to handle urges or rituals to help reduce mirror checking, reassurance seeking or excess use of medical services.
Lastly, teaching you other behaviors to improve your mental health, such as addressing social avoidance and increasing engagement with healthy supports and activities.

You and your mental health provider can talk about your goals for therapy and develop a personalized treatment plan to learn and strengthen coping skills. Involving family members in treatment may be particularly important, especially for teenagers.

Medications

Although there are no medications specifically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat body dysmorphic disorder, medications used to treat other mental health conditions — such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder — can be effective.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Because body dysmorphic disorder could be caused in part by problems related to the brain chemical serotonin, SSRIs may be prescribed. Comparatively, SSRIs appear to be more effective for body dysmorphic disorder than other antidepressants and may help control your negative thoughts and repetitive behaviors.
Other medications. In some cases, you may benefit from taking other medications in addition to an SSRI, depending on your symptoms.

Hospitalization

In some cases, your body dysmorphic disorder symptoms may be so severe that you require psychiatric hospitalization. This is generally recommended only when you aren’t able to keep up with day-to-day responsibilities or when you’re in immediate danger of harming yourself.

Body Dysmorphia Self Help

Body dysmorphia disorder: breaking free from poor body image. Nonetheless, many people find self-help materials, such as books or computer programs, useful in managing their BDD.

Self-help materials are often based on the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which have been shown to be particularly effective in treating BDD. Making small steps to accept but challenge your worries can reduce your compulsive behaviours.

Although, you may decide to use self-help materials alongside professional help, or you may use them to develop your own coping strategies. You can find self-help resources for BDD on the following websites:

Several self-help programmes are available for free via computer or via prescription from your GP. See the NHS self-help therapies page for more information on these.

Overcoming Body Dysmorphia

Some of the techniques used to help those struggling with BDD are as follows:

Challenging negative thoughts. In a word, this includes observing your distorted thought processes and working to dispute and invalidate them.
Thought acceptance. In brief, this includes developing the awareness you are not your thoughts, and that you have the power to observe thoughts as they come and go. Particularly, it includes learning that you can be present with yourself without buying into them or giving value to them. By doing this, negative thoughts have less power over you and you will have the space to able to foster more supportive positive thoughts.
Identifying triggers. Overall, this includes becoming more aware of what circumstances, situations, or environments trigger the symptoms of BDD to manifest. It also includes working towards spending less time engaging with those triggers whenever possible.
Habituation. This includes gradual exposure to difficult situations or triggers over time, with the intent of becoming less and less affected by them. Markedly, the process of habituation allows your brain to adapt to how it responds to external stimuli that may prompt symptoms of BDD to manifest.
Big-picture thinking. This involves moving away from hyper-focusing on perceived flaws. In particular, it prompts you to learn how to view yourself more holistically, and to see value in every part of yourself.

Conclusion

Body dysmorphia disorder: breaking free from poor body image. Sometimes, you can be misdiagnosed with depression, OCD, anxiety, or an eating disorder.

The good news is that body dysmorphia is treatable. Also, if you have a strong support team, you’ll probably be better off in the long run.

There’s no cure, but you may be able to find relief and better support yourself.

In short, body dysmorphic disorder is more than a struggle with body image. It is a debilitating condition that can hold you back from experiencing a fulfilling, joyous life.

If you or someone you love is struggling with BDD, your best course of action is to seek treatment so you can begin your healing journey.

Articles About Body Dysmorphia

-How I Recovered from BDD

https://bdd.iocdf.org/about-bdd/how-i-recovered-from-bdd

-Body Dysmorphic Disorder

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9888-body-dysmorphic-disorder

-Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/body-dysmorphic-disorder-bdd

Have a Good One,

Cindee Murphy, One Voice In The Vastness Of Emotions

“Looking down, she became aware of the water, which was covered with a film of calcinous hard-water particles of dirt and soap, and of the body that was sitting in it, somehow no longer quite her own. All at once she was afraid that she was dissolving, coming apart layer by layer like a piece of cardboard in a gutter puddle.”― Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman

“I look in the mirror every day, when I brush my teeth or wash my face or comb my hair. It’s just I tend to look at myself in pieces and avoid joining them up all together. I don’t know why; it just feels safer that way.

But tonight I force myself to look at the whole thing. And suddenly I see how the bits and pieces add up to someone I’m not familiar with, someone I never intended to be.”― Kathleen Tessaro, Elegance