Living with Body Dysmorphia: Understanding the Disorder and Finding Help
Body dysmorphia, also known as body dysmorphic disorder, is a mental health condition that affects 2% of the global population. It is characterized by excessive preoccupation with an imagined defect in physical appearance, or markedly excessive concern with a slight physical anomaly. Actor Megan Fox, a 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue cover star, recently shared that she is one of the 5 million to 10 million people in the United States affected by body dysmorphia. In this article, we’ll explore what body dysmorphia is, what it isn’t, what causes it, and how people can find help.
What Body Dysmorphia Isn’t
Body dysmorphia is commonly mistaken as an eating disorder, but that’s not the case due to some distinctions. People with eating disorders are preoccupied with a distortion in how they perceive their shape or weight. Body dysmorphia, however, generally centers around an imagined or real feature.
What Causes Body Dysmorphia
There isn’t a sole cause of body dysmorphia, but there are some contributing factors. Researchers have suggested that the brains of some people with body dysmorphia might have “abnormalities in processing visual input when it comes to examining their own face.” Body dysmorphia sometimes occurs at the same time as anxiety. Social media can also contribute to body dysmorphia as there is a lot more social comparison to what other people look like. Having family members who evaluate, validate or love themselves or others based on appearance can also play a role. A perfectionist mindset intensifies this view.
Living with Body Dysmorphia
The effects of body dysmorphia can extend to all aspects of life — social, occupational, and financial — especially if the disorder worsens over time without treatment. People with body dysmorphia also have “checking” behaviors, which can look like spending lots of time looking in the mirror and taking countless selfies and assessing those. Compulsively looking in the mirror can ease fears about how people think they look or help them see if a perceived flaw is still there or has worsened. They think the feature is abnormal or ugly. People with body dysmorphia might isolate themselves out of shame or from spending too much time worrying over their appearance. They can also burn out their social support by constantly seeking reassurance. Spending so much time analyzing their appearance can result in often being late to work or not doing schoolwork. Some people put themselves in financial peril by buying cosmetic products or procedures, incurring debt for themselves or their families, and sometimes doing so in secret because of concerns of what might happen if people knew.
Getting Treatment for Body Dysmorphia
Body dysmorphia can’t be cured, but some effective treatments are available. One preferred by many experts is cognitive behavioral therapy. A person’s distortions or thoughts are believed to drive this behavior, so therapists work on the person’s distortions and go from there. Since body dysmorphia is in the same category as obsessive-compulsive disorder, treatments for OCD, such as “exposure and response prevention,” could also be helpful. When undergoing such treatment, a person with body dysmorphia doesn’t get to look in the mirror much or take selfies. A history of trauma would require trauma-informed therapy as well. Some of the therapy may also be very educational — on sort of the images that we see out in the world and how unrealistic they are. Researchers have been looking into brain chemicals, such as serotonin, being a cause of body dysmorphia, so antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs can also be helpful in treatment. If you can’t find a mental health professional specializing in body dysmorphia, try working with someone who has expertise in OCD or eating disorders.
Conclusion
Body dysmorphia is a complex disorder that can have a profound impact on an individual’s life. It is important to understand the distinctions between body dysmorphia and other disorders, as well as the contributing factors that can cause it. While the disorder cannot be cured, effective treatments are available. Seeking help from a mental health professional with expertise in cognitive behavioral therapy or OCD can be a good starting point for those struggling with body dysmorphia.
- Body image disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Psychotropic medication
- Self-esteem and confidence building
News Source : Kristen Rogers
Source Link :Body dysmorphia: Definition, symptoms and treatments/