Body Dysmorphic Disorder Research Paper

What Is Body Dysmorphic Disorder?
People check their physical appearance on a daily basis, and it is acceptable to do so because this is how society has set the stage, “appearance and first impressions matter”, for this reason, many people become concern on their image that leads to excessive concerns. People with body dysmorphic disorder, previously known as dysmorphophobia, are concern about any a minor defect or an exaggerated defect that they made up in their mind. The concerns that people present in their physical appearance conflict with their every day life because they are not able to carry out with their normal daily activities and acquire low self esteem which leads to avoidance of social interactions. People that suffer from …show more content…
Most likely people that are diagnosed with BDD suffer from anxiety disorder, this is explained because of the anxiety they present when checking on the mirror for their appearance or constant repetition of brushing hair, checking the mirror, brushing their teeth or any type of repetitive activity to fix their appearance (Phillips, K. A., 2011). Along with BDD, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may be diagnosed on the patient too because they acquire an obsessive and compulsive behavior to fix their appearance. Obsession would be the unwanted thoughts that lead to repetition of the patter or behavior that is acquired to correct the defect. Anxiety then takes over and the behavior becomes repetitive and constant, this behavior is also known as compulsion. (Phillips, K. A., Gunderson, C. G., Mallya, G., McElroy, S. L., & Carter, W., 1998). An example is the woman that had many plastic surgeries, this was an obsessive strategy she acquired and led to obsession to perfect her non-existing deformations. Another disorder associated with BDD is depression. This is because people have a persistent low self-esteem with their appearance and feel like they are not worthy. They often lose interest on everything else that is not their physical appearance. In addition, if the imperfection that is identified by the person suffering from BDD is overweight, then …show more content…
Most of the people with BDD are not treated with psychological treatment, they undergo cosmetology surgeries to change their image and what is not pleasing for them. After they practice surgery on them, they are unhappy on the outcome because it is set in their mentality already. Many of the body changes are unsuccessful because the patients try to drastically change their image because they are not content and believe that their “defect” is extreme (Phillips, K. A., 1991). The patients with minor deformity are typically more successful in the surgeries but are not guaranteed to be satisfied after the surgery either. The surgery may have been effective but the patient picks up on more defects after the surgery because they will not be satisfied with their body even after many attempts to change. The more surgeries a patient undergo the chances of being unsatisfied increase. It is very difficult to help people that suffer from BDD because they believe that there is no possible treatment for them and their negative thoughts about their body are always going to be present. The best therapy to treat BDD is the approach of making the person face the places and activities that are often avoided and also to reduce the pattern they adopt to hide their deformity. The successful treatment that does not deal with changing the body image but the habits is the cognitive behavioral therapy.

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