B.D.D subject (body dysmorphia)

Anonymous

Well-known member
I suffer fom BDD, it started when i was 11 and bullied at school for being ' so damn ugly'. That led to me not socialising then that in turn led to full blown socialphobia.
I did used to go out but now it's sort of like social phobia kicked in now./
Does anyone else here suffer with B.D.D which has affected your life in to social phobia.

ps: does being told your ugly or bullied make you a us a B.D.D suffer?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_dysmorphic_disorder
 
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Anonymous

Well-known member
what B.D.D is

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a distressing and impairing preoccupation with an imagined or slight defect in appearance, is an "OCD-spectrum disorder" that appears to be relatively common. BDD often goes unrecognized and undiagnosed, however, due to patients' reluctance to divulge their symptoms because of secrecy and shame. Any body part can be the focus of concern (most often, the skin, hair, and nose), and most patients engage in compulsive behaviors, such as mirror checking, camouflaging, excessive grooming, and skin picking. Approximately half are delusional, and a majority experience ideas or delusions of reference. Nearly all patients suffer some impairment in functioning as a result of their symptoms, some to a debilitating degree. Psychiatric hospitalization, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts are relatively common. While treatment data are preliminary at this time, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) appear to often be effective for BDD, even if symptoms are delusional. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is another promising approach. While much remains to be learned about BDD, it is important that clinicians screen patients for this disorder and accurately diagnose it, as available treatments are very promising for those who suffer from this distressing and sometimes disabling disorder.
 

Anonymous

Well-known member
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a syndrome characterized by distress about imagined defects in one's appearance. Though categorized as a somatoform disorder, BDD is marked by many characteristics associated with social phobia (e.g., fear of negative evaluation) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (e.g., intrusive thoughts about one's ugliness, checking). In the present experiment, we tested whether BDD patients exhibit selective processing of threat in the emotional Stroop paradigm as do anxiety-disordered patients. Relative to healthy control participants, BDD patients exhibited greater Stroop interference for positive and negative words, regardless of disorder-relevance, than for neutral words. Further analyses suggested that interference tended to be greatest for positive words related to BDD. These data suggest that BDD patients are vulnerable to distraction by emotional cues in general, and by words related to their current concerns in particular. Results suggest that BDD may indeed be related to anxiety disorders such as social phobia.
 

Remus

Moderator
Staff member
No worries

I know alot of SP people with this illness (though not myself), if no one minds I'll stickey this thread as its a pretty important topic for the support forum
 

Anonymous

Well-known member
yes i suffer from most of the symptoms u described. damn i didn't realise there was actually a word that descibed what i have. i always thought that just having social phobia was not exactly all there is. to me having negative thoughts about my looks is more embarassing than admiting that i have SA, cause i think now that it prob contributes much to my having this phobia, but not completely. for me, prob childhood isolation+being shy+BDD+genes=social phobia/anxiety.
 

Anonymous

Well-known member
yes i suffer from most of the symptoms u described. damn i didn't realise there was actually a word that descibed what i have. i always thought that just having social phobia was not exactly all there is. to me having negative thoughts about my looks is more embarassing than admiting that i have SA, cause i think now that it prob contributes much to my having this phobia, but not completely. for me, prob childhood isolation+being shy+BDD+genes=social phobia/anxiety.
 

GettingThere

Well-known member
Thanks for the in-depth replies, very informative.

I can relate to the problem myself. Growing up I was the fat child in my class. I shed that as an adolesent but then I was constantly teased about my nose (which was larger than most but broken as well). It was life-altering stuff of the worst kind. Children are such an enigma - innocent and loving, nasty and hurtful. When you know that every single day when you go to school that someone (usually more than one) will tease you about some feature of your looks, I would think that it would be almost impossible not to develop emotional issues.

I eventually had surgery to straighten my nose and it is no longer an issue. I have also grown a hell of a lot personally in good ways although I would have to say that there is still some scarring.
 

black_mamba

Well-known member
Hmm. Not sure about this one. I seem to have most of the symptoms but wouldn't say I was delusional about the problem.

Like GettingThere, I've changed my appearance a little but am still left unsure of myself.

I was so obsessed about trying to figure out why I was unpopular at school, and often the blame lay on the shape of my nose...all the girls had cute little upturned ones and this, I assumed, was the key to social success.

...heh, maybe I was delusional. :?
 

LilMissTragic

Well-known member
Yep I understand this one. I was bullied too and was told day in day out how ugly i was. When people tell you the same thing over and over you do tend to believe it. So, how do you know wether or not you are ugly?. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I know but I also know I'm not classicly pretty. How do you cope with looking in the mirror and not liking what you see?. I myself just walk away from it. I always tell people that if they don't like what they see then they shouldn't look. So, I also apply this to myself.
 

GettingThere

Well-known member
There was a hit song for an artist called Janis Ian in - I think - the '70's (I'm realllly showing my age here!) which was a painful look at her experiences of growing up in a world where she was not considered pretty.
Actually, when revisiting the words of this song again just now it rather saddens me a bit - it is not a happy song. Although a male I can relate to it to some extent.

The song is called "At Seventeen";

AT SEVENTEEN
(Janis Ian)

I LEARNED THE TRUTH AT SEVENTEEN
THAT LOVE WAS MEANT FOR BEAUTY QUEENS
AND HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS WITH CLEAR SKINNED SMILES
WHO MARRIED YOUNG AND THEN RETIRED
THE VALENTINES I NEVER KNEW
THE FRIDAY NIGHT CHARADES OF YOUTH
WERE SPENT ON ONE MORE BEAUTIFUL
AT SEVENTEEN I LEARNED THE TRUTH

AND THOSE OF US WITH RAVAGED FACES
LACKING IN THE SOCIAL GRACES
DESPERATELY REMAINED AT HOME
INVENTING LOVERS ON THE PHONE
WHO CALLED TO SAY - COME DANCE WITH ME
AND MURMURED VAGUE OBSCENITIES
IT ISN'T ALL IT SEEMS AT SEVENTEEN

A BROWN EYED GIRL IN HAND ME DOWNS
WHOSE NAME I NEVER COULD PRONOUNCE
SAID - PITY PLEASE THE ONES WHO SERVE
THEY ONLY GET WHAT THEY DESERVE
THE RICH RELATIONED HOMETOWN QUEEN
MARRIES INTO WHAT SHE NEEDS
WITH A GUARANTEE OF COMPANY
AND HAVEN FOR THE ELDERLY

SO REMEMBER THOSE WHO WIN THE GAME
LOSE THE LOVE THEY SOUGHT TO GAIN
IN DEBENTURES OF QUALITY AND DUBIOUS INTEGRITY
THEIR SMALL-TOWN EYES WILL GAPE AT YOU
IN DULL SURPRISE WHEN PAYMENT DUE
EXCEEDS ACCOUNTS RECEIVED AT SEVENTEEN

(INSTRUMENTAL)

TO THOSE OF US WHO KNEW THE PAIN
OF VALENTINES THAT NEVER CAME
AND THOSE WHOSE NAMES WERE NEVER CALLED
WHEN CHOOSING SIDES FOR BASKETBALL
IT WAS LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY
THE WORLD WAS YOUNGER THAN TODAY
WHEN DREAMS WERE ALL THEY GAVE FOR FREE
TO UGLY DUCKLING GIRLS LIKE ME

WE ALL PLAY THE GAME, AND WHEN WE DARE
WE CHEAT OURSELVES AT SOLITAIRE
INVENTING LOVERS ON THE PHONE
REPENTING OTHER LIVES UNKNOWN
THAT CALL AND SAY - COME ON, DANCE WITH ME
AND MURMUR VAGUE OBSCENITIES
AT UGLY GIRLS LIKE ME, AT SEVENTEEN
 

Anonymous

Well-known member
hello! i went through school thinking i was the ugliest girl on the plannet, not sure how it started, i had a couple of coments from people in my year about my ears, i used to get called gizmo (dont laugh!) anyway i started to wear loads of make up and always wear my hair down, i started becoming so self conciouse i carried a small mirror around every were with me and was constantly checking, sometimes i would get so upset thinking i was a freak that i would pannic when anyone looked at me!
what made it all worse when i left school i had an awful time when i was severely bullied and was called all kinds of names anyway a few years on and things are alot better i dont worry about the way i look so much, i have a fiance, though it has left me with scars i am completely social phobic, my fiance has no idea, the hell im living in, constant worry about events we need to go to and friends we need to see, but hey i havnt got BDD anymore!
 

GettingThere

Well-known member
Thats great to see guest, I am pleased for you. I too have moved on to the point where I will joke about my looks at times when once I could never have done that. It is good to know that the passage of time can be a healing thing for us.
 

Sealed

New member
:oops: My first post on this forum.. Here we go. 8O
I've been suffering from SP quite a while, and it has always been the main issue for me. But it is not till recently I discovered that not all people with SP think they're so ugly that looking in a mirror hurts. My therapist says that BDD is very similar to SP, they overlap in certain areas. So, it's kinda hard to tell where the SP ends and the BDD begins. (He agreed that I definitely have some sort of BDD, though.) It seems that the two of them often appear together.
I'm probably not as affected by this as many others. Most of the time I hate my looks, but sometimes I can stand staring back in the mirror... I don't think of my appearance constantly, just a lot.
AND THOSE OF US WITH RAVAGED FACES
LACKING IN THE SOCIAL GRACES
DESPERATELY REMAINED AT HOME
Yeah, I can relate. :roll:

Glad to see that some of you have gotten better, that's nice to hear.
 

Waybuloo

Well-known member
Re: B.D.D subject

B.D.D said:
I suffer fom BDD, it started when i was 11 and bullied at school for being ' so damn ugly'. That led to me not socialising then that in turn led to full blown socialphobia.
I did used to go out but now it's sort of like social phobia kicked in now./
Does anyone else here suffer with B.D.D which has affected your life in to social phobia.

ps: does being told your ugly or bullied make you a us a B.D.D suffer?

I've never been told i'm ugly or bullied by it but i've been told i look disgusting and that has followed around with me for years.

I can't look at anyone nad have them look at me without thinking they think i look disgusting and wanting to hide so very bad.

Sometimes my therapist makes me challenge my thoughts a bit but after a while i always come back to this fear, and it is inevitable the next time i face someone i would feel the pain. It is not like something imagined, it is there forever. I've tried to accept it and jsut surrender to teh fact i have to live with looking gross until i die, but it is so damn hard to ignore.
 

SocialRetahd

Well-known member
I am ugly, but I am working on it. Earlier today, I lost hope, but my dad told me about different surgeries that can correct my face a bit. It's funny how quickly my mood changes based on little things such as these.
 

Generical

Well-known member
I dont think i have bdd but i do have a huge insecurity with my hair.......any mirror, reflective surface.....puddle lol will look and judge my hair, it never looks right, i guess i should just accept it. 20 mins of trying to get it to look right in the mirror and no joy, end up losing my temper! suprised i havent broken the mirror.....Ha. Its worst at work (have to wear a stupid hat, which messes up my hair even more) at lunch or end of the day i have to pretend to go to the toilet and check in the mirror to make sure it doesnt look extra retarded lol pretty funny really.

Anyways i think its just an insucurity of mine and is probably common, although i do hate it when people notice i stare in each mirror and think its due to vanity, i will promptly explain my hair looks shit lol. Being a red head probably doesnt help either.......but i see other red heads with decent looking hair so i dunno
 
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