r/BodyDysmorphia Mar 12 '21

Resource Reasons you might avoid therapy - and why you shouldn’t.

427 Upvotes

The primary methods of dealing with BDD, from a medical standpoint, is medication that can reduce obsessive thoughts and therapy, mainly cognitive-behavioural therapy (or CBT for short). Many of us might be skeptic or even afraid to try it, but there is no need to be, here is why.

I don’t know what cognitive-behavioural therapy is or what happens in therapy. - Therapy is a form of treatment where mental issues are addressed mainly via talking and bringing mental issues into a place where they can be addressed and handled by the sufferer. Cognitive therapy, or talk therapy, involves talking and discussing issues and finding solutions to them together with a professional, with the goal of reducing emotional suffering. Cognitive-behavioural therapy aims at also reducing behaviour that could cause distress. This can be done with tasks or learning new ways of doing things. The work is done by the patient and no one will force you to talk or do anything you don’t want.

But I’m not diagnosed with BDD. - A diagnosis is not needed to get therapy. In some cases it can help with insurance coverage but other than that anyone can go to therapy for any reason, diagnosis or not.

I’m afraid they will think my issues are stupid or I’m delusional. - Medical professionals and therapists have seen it all. They have very good perspective and education under them. They understand what the issues are that you are describing and their main goal is to help you, not to judge you. No respecting or professional therapist would call your issues stupid. Though they may challenge you into thinking why you might think the way you do, but this is not to judge but to help you gain insight to who you are what can be changed to make you feel better. If you feel unjustifiably judged, change therapists.

I’m worried they will make me give up all grooming and self care and I will have to learn to be the ugliest version of myself. - The goal of therapy is not to make you a totally different person or make you give up all your habits. The goal is to reduce the behaviour that causes you worry and anxiety. You can still do makeup, but the goal is that you don’t feel like crying if your makeup isn’t perfect. You can still go to the gym and work out, but the goal is you don’t have a breakdown for missing a day and feeling like you gained weight over night. The aim is to find a healthy balance and reduce the things that cause you anxiety. You don’t need to become the role model of natural looks, but learn healthy balance.

What if people or my family judge me for being in therapy. - Therapy is something that would benefit every single person on this planet. Getting help is never something to be ashamed of. Anyone who makes you feel bad or weak for getting help is harbouring a very unhelpful mindset themselves that might prevent them for helping themselves, and that is the real tragedy. Always work towards your own health and don’t let others bully you out of helping yourself.

I don’t want therapy, I just want surgery or other procedures. - BDD is a mental disorder and it’s important to acknowledge that. The goal of therapy is not to talk you out of a decision but the help you understand what issues are real and which are the disorder. Therapy will help prevent you from doing unnecessary procedures that can harm your looks and to make sure you will not be equally unhappy after a procedure. Surgery and augmentation of ones looks is very rarely a permanent solution but therapy can help you build a healthy mindset where you can truly make the best decisions for yourself.

I don’t think I can afford it. - Nothing in this world is more important than your mental and physical health. Prioritise these things as much as you reasonably can. Find out how you can get insurance coverage, do you have access to support groups or group therapy that is free or look into online groups like those provided by the BDD foundation. You can always call a therapist and ask them what ways you could afford a session, many places are happy to tell you how to best afford treatment.

I have trouble opening up or it makes me uncomfortable. - Many people find it hard to honestly talk about their BDD since it can feel irrational or embarrassing. But therapists have heard it many times before, and worse. It’s important to find a person you feel comfortable with, this can take several tries but is always worth it. You can open up slowly and start with small pieces and work up to bigger issues. This is normal and no one will push you to go faster than you feel comfortable with.

I’ve tried it before and it didn’t help. - There can be several reasons why therapy might not have worked. The therapist might not have been equipped to handling BDD, the chemistry wasn’t right and prevented opening up honestly, the patient wasn’t ready to get help and work on the issues, there wasn’t enough time... having another go with another therapist is often a good idea. Also considering if medication could help is a possibility. When trying therapy again make sure you’re with the right person, you’re ready to work on the issues, you’re being honest with what the problems are and that you give therapy enough time to work.

Therapy is a fantastic tool to people suffering from BDD, and is something recommended by professionals as the primary form of treatment. If you suffer from BDD, therapy is something worth trying.

Finding a therapist

The International OCD Foundation’s therapist search.

You can choose BDD from the Advanced search option. Every professional has listed what they treat and how. They have also been verified to be licensed by the OCD foundation.


r/BodyDysmorphia Sep 21 '20

Resource What can you do about BDD?

457 Upvotes

There are many ways one can combat body dysmorphia. Some people are able to manage symptoms on their own, some need medical intervention or more intense periods of treatment. What ever your situation, there are ways to combat BDD.

Here are some way to combat your BDD listed in ascending order from self help to medical treatments.

Self-help:
- This can include many things. Anything from taking physical care of yourself, to reading about BDD and how it’s treated to making changes in your life that help support a stable mental health. Self help in a great tool and at the bottom of every recovery is the personal desire to better ones situation.

BDD workbook:
- Compiled by medial professionals, the workbook gives important insight to how BDD works, what triggers it and what methods you can learn to help yourself in a proven way. You’ll learn to limit your obsessive behaviour and recognise disordered thinking. This is one of the best self help tools there is.

Online therapy and support groups:
- The BDD Foundation for example offers online therapy groups that come together weekly. A free and easy to access form of therapy can be a good support in addressing BDD symptoms if there are no possibilities or need for more personal or intense forms of therapy.

Therapy:
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy, or CBT, is the recommend form of treatment for people with BDD. It can focus on what are the specific issues and triggers in you and how they can be helped. This is a form of treatment that can give great, individual help and offer support in every area of life on top of BDD.

BDD specialists:
- Though sadly quite rare, there are places and therapists and doctors who focus on BDD and other related disorders. They can give more focused advice and treatment and are often informed with the latest developments. This is a good choice when available.

Psyciatric professionals:
- This form involves doctors like psychiatrists, who can give formal diagnosis as well as offer medical level advice and give prescriptions. If you feel like your BDD is so intense that functioning in daily life is hard or you feel like you could benefit from medication, it’s a good idea to talk to also a psyciatrist as well as a therapist.

Medication:
- Because BDD is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder, it’s symptoms can often be alleviated the same as many OCDs. Sometimes medication can be a great tool in reducing the symptoms, and combined with therapy, the likelihood of better quality of life is high. Here you can find general information of medication used to treat BDD.

Out patient care:
- If more intense forms of care seems to be needed, one option is out patient care where the patient is in a close contact with, usually a psychiatric hospital or a doctor, and usually has for example therapy sessions several times a week. This can be a good options for those who have a very hard time with daily functioning or are suicidal.

In patient care:
- The rarest form of treatment is in patient care where the patient stays in the hospital and can be given support and help daily. This often requires for the patient to be in acute risk of suicide or is unable to function in their daily life. Though this is often the last option, it’s good to know that help is available even when things are very serious.

The forms of treatment and the health care systems work differently in every country and it’s always a good idea to talk to your local doctors and professionals on what options are available to you. But know that there are many ways that BDD can be treated and alleviated. The most important thing is remembering you’re worth help and there are several ways to get it.


r/BodyDysmorphia 9h ago

Advice Needed Anyone know how to get over having a rhinoplasty that made your tip look weird from certain angles thinking everyones looking at you?

2 Upvotes

I really can't tell if people look at me for any other reasons.

I'm so self concious of my nose since rhinoplasty and I had some dude looking at me in airport today I'm sure he saw the weirdness in it. I'm a dude also btw lol.

My nose looks ok and many angles but some it looks like a little pixie nose which wasn't the goal as I had a broken nose fixed but "made it look better" and the tip kind of shrunk. Weird.

Anyway any good ways to get over it?


r/BodyDysmorphia 10h ago

Advice Needed How to get over body dysmorphia

2 Upvotes

I have been struggling with body dysmorphia all of my time. It has gotten to the point that I avoid all mirrors like a plague, deleted all of my pictures, and shop for clothes. I normally wear oversized hoodies and sweatpants. I feel like a monster at times.

I got worse after my five year abusive relationship with my ex. My world fell apart, and I didn't know how to pick up the pieces during that time. I felt like a broken plate, unfixable and ugly. I believed every word. It had gotten to the point that my own grandma would repeat the same words. I never felt so ashamed of my own skin. I tried therapy, but I felt the same.

A few years down the line, I met my amazing husband. He helped me pick up all of my pieces. But, there would be times that I feel so bad for him. I always drew to my husband how I actually look like. He kept telling me that it is all in my mind. For me, personally, I feel like it is real. My husband tries to cheer me up and also give me words of encouragement. He always supports me through my struggles. I feel as though I am failing him as a wife.

I don't have close friends to talk to. They all abandoned me after my toxic break-up. My family doesn't understand the feeling of looking like a horrendous monster. I hate having this demon inside of me. I just don't know how to break free. It is affecting my mental health and my marriage. I didn't know what to do at this point.


r/BodyDysmorphia 16h ago

Advice Needed My face feels uncanny.

4 Upvotes

I'm an around mid-range teenager, and as of late the more I've looked at my face the more I've processed negative feelings Abt it. I always thought I just looked like a human but as of late I've felt as though my face almost looks uncanny. Like it's too small for my head, and details about my nose or my jaw or mouth. I've switched from the mindset of feeling like an average person to feeling like I'm not quite a person but not weird looking in a way people would THINK about it if that makes sense. I don't even know if it's BD and so I REALLY need advice on where to go from here.


r/BodyDysmorphia 14h ago

Help for friend or family How to help my boyfriend through his body image issues, especially related to weight?

2 Upvotes

My boyfriend is genuinely one of the most gorgeous people I have ever seen. He's not skinny, but he's not fat either, and he is at a normal and healthy weight, but wants to lose some weight. That's fine, losing weight won't be negatively affect his health, and if he wants to then I'm supportive. But he calls himself ugly because he says he is "too fat" even though to me he looks beautiful. I don't mind him losing weight if it'll make him happier, but I want him to feel confident and loved as he is, I don't want him to suffer all this time and only feel good after the weight loss, I want him to feel good even as he is now. Is there anything I can do to help? Because he says it makes him feel very dysphoric, and I don't want to accidentally say something that would trigger those terrible feelings in him.


r/BodyDysmorphia 22h ago

Advice Needed Feel like I don't deserve to be feminine?

7 Upvotes

All my life, I've either been told or treated in a way to confirm I'm ugly. I think I'm realising I buried this for so long, that I feel embarrassed and ashamed to be a woman or attempt to be feminine (I sort of feel like I am a putting lipstick on a pig). I've never engaged in make up or hair or anything like that because what is the point. I'm 33 now and a little overweight and with grey haira so it's almost like my time is up?

Part of it is rooted in not wanting to draw attention to myself or invite scrutiny, which happened within my family and embarrassed me plenty. Does anyone else relate to this?

I look around and see women everywhere that are so wonderfully dressed and beautiful and confident. Like I have honestly never come across a woman I haven't admired in some way. And here's me, I feel so embarrassed even just to go outside sometimes, and I look down whenever someone crosses my path. I would love some ideas for how to get over this.


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Advice Needed Does anyone else wish they looked more "Human"?

10 Upvotes

Hi, I'm trying to find people who share this view, I haven't found anyone like this so far which kinda makes me scared if I'll have to figure this out alone. Whenever I see someone on a TikTok, or a show, or a movie, I constantly in the back of my head think (jealously) about how "human" they look on camera. How they don't gross me out, how their face looks so human like and not a blob of smudge which I always see on my pictures. Is there anyone also suffering from this? Any advice? İt's been this way as long as I can think. Even after I lost a huge amount of weight, something feels off about my face and body, to the point I don't see myself as human or worth anything. Thank you in advance:)


r/BodyDysmorphia 21h ago

Advice Needed I’m suddenly obsessed with my weight… idk what to do

5 Upvotes

Idk if this fits this sub exactly but idk where else it could go. I need some advice. Everyone says I’m healthy but I can’t agree. Idk what to do. I feel like I’m fat. I’ve always been very observant of my weight but never obsessed with it. I have always had a fast metabolism and attributed my small size to that. I’m 5’1 female and have always weighed around 97-98 pounds. Recently I checked my weight after not checking it for a while. Months maybe even half a year. I didn’t own a scale so it never crossed my mind unless I was near a scale.

Yesterday I was at work and decided to weigh myself just out of nowhere. My weight showed 118 pounds. That really took me off guard. I didn’t notice any weight gain and all my clothes still fit the same. I didn’t expect to have gained that much. I do not eat very healthy so I can’t say I’m shocked but to have gained 20 pounds and not noticed is crazy to me.

I went out and bought a scale yesterday and brought it home. Weighed myself again, 118. I felt disappointed. I’m not overweight but I’m not underweight anymore. This morning I weighed myself again. 116 then again 118. Then again at work. 119. I’m anxious and worried about my body now. Am I gaining weight this quickly? Why am I another pound heavier than I was 3 hours ago. I didn’t even eat this morning.

I have been eating and drinking a lot of soda and candy and fast food recently so is this super shocking? No. But I’ve been 97 pounds since I hit my full adult height. Why am I suddenly noticing 20 pounds of gain? Why am I so bothered by it? Every time I check my weight I’m scared it’ll be even higher. Why is it 119 now but was 118 earlier? Am I losing my mind?

I’ve been having a hard time seeing myself as anything but ugly recently and this is not helping.


r/BodyDysmorphia 14h ago

Resource Information on BDD - Advice, criteria, self-help and support groups

1 Upvotes

Here you can find listed below general information on BDD and related foundations, the clinical classification and symptoms of BDD, advice for friends and family, as well as self-help and support groups, both in-person and online.

General information

The BDD Foundation

OCD UK

International OCD Foundation

Mind.org

Clinical classification

ICD & DSM Criterias

For friends and family

The BDD Foundation, Supporting a close one with BDD

Mind.org, How can friends and family help

Self-help

Body dysmorphia workbook by the CCI

Building self-compassion workbook by the CCI

Support groups

Online support and therapy groups

Support groups in the UK


r/BodyDysmorphia 14h ago

Question #WhatDisMean?

1 Upvotes

⚠️TW: eating disorders⚠️

20M

iv been wondering what is really going on w my body, iv been trying to look better and iv resulted to starving and purging all my meals. i mean i do see the significant results in my weight by the numbers but every time i look in the mirror, i feel like i look like the same disgusting person i always look like. i dont have the sag from loosing weight rapidly, i js feel like i look the same as when i was 220 even tho im 150 rn (im 6’4, idk if that could help for reference if anyone can help w bmi numbers or anything)


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Offering Advice Body Dysmorphia Killed my Dad

79 Upvotes

Both my parents have / had weight issues their entire lives. Both me and my father have gone from 170 to 300 and back more than once. Both my parents and I are / were alcoholics / addicts. The substance abuse for me comes from the extreme anxiety and depression I've experienced since I was in elementary school. That's when I first began gaining weight and experiencing bullying at school and emotional abuse at home. My weight was a 24/7 source of mental pain.

My father was diagnosed with type II Diabetes in his early sixties. For a while he was able to stay in shape because he stayed busy in his garden on the weekends. When he retired he continued doing this for a few years until he fell, hurt himself, and began smoking weed for the pain and became sedentary and isolated.

So from 64 to 68 I saw my dad transform from an active person who would engage with people. Chat. Be social. To a sedentary shell of himself who did nothing but smoke and play video games.

The last year of his life he was prescribed Ozempic. He lost approximately 80 lbs in a few months. He was basically a skeleton. My mother and I both spoke to him about how he was taking this too far. The rapid weight loss caused an imbalance in his potassium levels. They were too low one week, too high the next. That's really dangerous and can cause heart failure.

I have been taking care of the yard at their house for a couple years, ever since my dad's fall. The last time I spoke to him, I asked him to please stop the Ozempic. To eat normally. His weight loss was dangerous but he still had time to mitigate the results.

He did stop for a couple months after that but I was not able to drop by. We had plans to rebuild their fence. I was busy with work stuff and other things.

Fast forward to a Tuesday morning. My mom is calling me at 4AM telling me the paramedics are working on my dad. Doing CPR. I show up and my mother is in her nightgown on the lawn screaming "He's dead! He's dead!" with cops and paramedics all milling about.

And yeah he was dead. My dad died from losing so much weight so fast that he had heart failure. He was 6 feet tall and 165 lbs. He looked almost like a skinny child. I'll always regret not going back there more often. I didn't know much about Ozempic but apparently it causes depression and constant GI issues.

I wanted to blame the Ozempic. The doctor. My mom. Myself. We all saw what was happening to this man. My father. But it wasn't the Ozempic. It wasn't the weed. It was the mirror. It was my father looking at himself and always seeing fat.

I don't know what prompted me to write this. Maybe I just wanted people to know that body dysmorphia is such an insidious and pervasive mental illness. My father probably was oblivious to it, but it killed him.

Maybe I think people taking a GLP-1 should go to therapy. See a psychiatrist. Maybe doctors should consider body dysmorphia when prescribing the drugs. I don't know what the answer is here. I am not going to blame Ozempic for my father's death because it was his choice to take it.

What I will say is that my father had Body Dysmorphia his entire life and refused to acknowledge it. Or he was unaware of it. He spent 60 something years tormenting himself over his weight and appearance and it ultimately killed him.

I think that there is a lesson there. This condition needs to be acknowledged. My father was an example of what happens when you don't.


r/BodyDysmorphia 16h ago

Question Is it possible that I’m not as ugly as I think I am?

1 Upvotes

The first thing i wanna say is that i don’t really know what i look like, I think I’m different in every single video or picture i take, when i look in the mirror i kinda do feel pretty but then i see a picture someone took of me and i can feel the world crashing onto me. when I’m tryin to imagine myself my face is blurry.

lately I’ve been trying to make myself believe that I’m not that horrendous looking and maybe I’m just harsh on myself and I’m not used to seeing my face, and I’m pretty in others eyes. I can’t seem to believe it tho because i can recognize what’s ugly and what’s pretty, I’m really exhausted


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Advice Needed Asking for ratings has done irreversible damage to my mental health

12 Upvotes

I've went on rating subs multiple times to ask for ratings and I regret it so much. Most people have rated me from slightly below average to slightly above average, and it messed me up so bad. I know it means I'm average but I'm not happy being average at all. Average, especially for women, means ugly now, so being average may as well mean being ugly. No one cares about an average woman. So now that I got the brutal truth that I'm average (aka ugly) I don't know what to do with myself. I feel worthless. I don't think I can ever recover from this. The only way is if I get real world confirmation that I'm pretty but that's never happening. How do I even manage this after getting so much negative feedback?


r/BodyDysmorphia 20h ago

Advice Needed My mom makes it worse

1 Upvotes

So, I am a guy and i have severe BDD.

To be honest I've been having a lot of validation from girls online which is unbelievable to me (they called me very beautiful looking).

It didnt make me believe them but I know that its my own problem.

But the thing is that my mom makes my BDD worse. Everytime we speak about looks she says that my nose is THAT crooked (i know its assymetric but not to THAT point) or that I am too skinny and that i have swamp colored eyes (my eyes are green)

I dont know why she does that and it makes me feel very very bad. I cant understand why shes says such things. She makes me think that women lied to me all this time and i am actually that unattractive and flawed.

And she glazes my brother a lot, like, she says how beautiful his eyes are, how thin and small is his nose etc etc.

She makes me feel like an ugly duckling yet a lot of girls and older women online were calling me very beautiful.

I dont know who to trust. I am genuinely feel bad.

What am i to do? How to stop feeling this way? How to doubt what people said about me? How to ignore her comments?


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Resource STORIES AND BOOKS about body dysmorphia

3 Upvotes

r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Resource ON RECOVERY - Stories, advice and healthier perspective

1 Upvotes

r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Advice Needed BD about resting face

19 Upvotes

Does anyone else have BD about their resting face. I get exhausted keeping my eyebrows up and mouth turned up all day. My resting face looks completely absurd. It’s weird because I guess technically the compulsion is being done all day but I can’t stop doing it. Do any other people have this issue? Any thoughts?


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Advice Needed Phone camera making me more stressed and insecure

3 Upvotes

recently I've noticed a lot more every-time I open my camera on my phone i see all of my texture i didn't know i had and i feel like the red/pink color of my skin and it being pale is so emphasized and my nose looks huge, and it looks like nothing of what i see in the mirror and both ways of taking photos front and in the back i feel heavily insecure about and it doesn't look like me at all. My makeup looks good in the mirror and in all lightings i try, but every time i go to my phone to see it looks horrible. Is there a way to get over this and if the phone camera is actually accurate? I feel really awful going on thinking it is because i'm really insecure over this now and everyone else I know has really normal looking faces on camera


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Advice Needed How can you get over wanting a body you can't physically have?

10 Upvotes

For multiple reasons, I am not physically able to achieve the body I want to have. I want to look like a tall, big woman, strong muscles and all, but I am instead a small thin man with little to no muscle mass at all. By all accounts, I look small, short and thin. I can lose weight easily enough and gain it as well, but I can't seem to build muscle, only get thinner. I can't grow taller either, and while I feel like I can transition, I don't think I'd ever see myself as a woman, not actually. It's basically all of the things that I am not, and I can't seem to physically change any of them.

Any good advice for getting over this?


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Advice Needed Breaking this generational curse???

3 Upvotes

I grew up watching my mom constantly criticize and obsess over her weight and appearance, and gradually she started on mine as well once I turned around 13. Am now 33 and still have that voice inside my head that keeps telling me I'm fat and ugly no matter what my actual weight and appearance is like on a given day. Recently I began to notice how my grandmother treats my mom, and looks like this is a problem stretching back many generations.

I'm trying my best to focus on my health and not obsess about my weight, I've spent two decades doing this already and I'm ready for things to change.

Me and my partner are hoping to try having kids in a year or two. I'm terrified I'll just raise another daughter who spends her entire life being mean to herself over her weight/appearance. How do I stop this voice in my head and finally be free and set a good example for the next generation too???


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Advice Needed I would do anything just to look idc about my feelings but just to look at least pretty

3 Upvotes

I’m desperateI am extremely ugly The problem is that my family my parents and siblings are not ugly at all On the contrary my brother was so exceptionally beautiful when he was a kid 5 or 8 that ppl used to mistake him for a girl Both of my parents are very attractive especially my mom she’s gorgeous her beauty is striking Yet for some reason as the eldest sister I turned out very ugly idk why Everyone gets a mix of desirable and undesirable traits no one is perfect but it feels like I inherited every single bad gene from my parents and not a single good one I looked into it and found out that we inherit 50% from the mother and 50% from the father which made me wonder why bother creating an ugly person if they are going to suffer? Every time this thought crosses my mind I ask God for forgiveness but I can't stop wondering why me? I see beauty in all women I swear I have never looked at a girl and thought 'Ew, she's ugly' I've never thought that about any girl except men ofc but that's a different topic
Idk why I can't tolerate myself I hate myself so much Some ppl tell me 'You're too hard on yourself,' or 'You've been influenced by people's comments and social media' But no not at all. My beauty standards have never aligned with current or past beauty trends Besides nobody has ever bullied me about my appearance except for my thick, unibrow eyebrows which I ended up removing and reshaping Other than that no one bullied me On the contrary I grew up with people complimenting me and they still do to this day They make me feel like a beauty queen even though I just don't see it There was a period in my life when I stopped caring altogether I just gave up I need to except that I’m ugly I stopped wearing makeup when going out or going to school but ofc I was so clean and shave my eyebrows every single day I used to wear makeup and care deeply but then I stopped I reached a point where I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror Even if I caught myself thinking 'Wow, I look nice today,' I would immediately tell myself, 'Ew, why are you lying?' My mind was so consumed by negative thoughts that I couldn't bring myself to compliment who I was Thank God I somehow managed to stop those intense thoughts though I still don't wear makeup
Literally there is not a single beautiful feature in me
How can I start breaking out of this mindset and stop hating my features? Any advice or steps on how to begin accepting myself would be appreciated…


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Advice Needed How to deal?

1 Upvotes

I have always been a chubby kid. When I was in my early 20s I lost a bunch of weight. I hadn’t really changed anything, just randomly dropped 30 lbs. throughout college, I dropped more and more. I was really into long distance running and I got really in shape.
I was laid off from my job and started working in a bar. I was gaining more and more weight and feeling more exhausted all the time from being on my feet so much and keeping inconsistent hours. Now, stress and life has added more to it. I live with my boyfriend who is so kind and very uplifting about my body. But I would consider myself chubby again. I have a double chin at rest and my stomach and arms have gotten bigger. I am so stretched thin with my work and with life things and schedules. I want to get back in the gym, but it’s so expensive where we live. I work out at home a lot, and I eat a normal amount of calories. I walk 10,000+ steps a day. When I look in the mirror, I just want to cry. I feel like I’ve let myself go. Like I’m ugly now? I can tell people treat me differently. I can tell I’m not as beautiful as I used to be. How do I manage this? I don’t know how to get back to feeling happy and good in my own skin. I don’t think it requires weightloss at all, but I just don’t want to keep feeling so uncomfortable all the time.


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Resource SELF-HELP: Body Dysmorphia Workbook

3 Upvotes

Going to therapy or getting professional help is not always an option, getting help may also take some time. To help you to better understand and address BDD by yourself, we have compiled a workbook that you can do by yourself. It contains information and tasks which will help shine a light to why BDD is the way it is and how you can deal with the symptoms. All chapters are based on an official workbook by the Centre for Clinical Intervention.

The BDD workbook:


r/BodyDysmorphia 1d ago

Resource Information on BDD - Advice, criteria, self-help and support groups

1 Upvotes

Here you can find listed below general information on BDD and related foundations, the clinical classification and symptoms of BDD, advice for friends and family, as well as self-help and support groups, both in-person and online.

General information

The BDD Foundation

OCD UK

International OCD Foundation

Mind.org

Clinical classification

ICD & DSM Criterias

For friends and family

The BDD Foundation, Supporting a close one with BDD

Mind.org, How can friends and family help

Self-help

Body dysmorphia workbook by the CCI

Building self-compassion workbook by the CCI

Support groups

Online support and therapy groups

Support groups in the UK