How can I tell if my body image issues are body dysmorphia?
I'm gonna go ahead and assume that there's at least one thing about your gorgeous self that you're not pleased with. Maybe feeling meh about that thing has manifested in some not-great self-talk or even led to canceling plans after trying on most of your closet. Unfortunately, that's a pretty common experience for anyone with a body living in a place with high standards, internet access, and diet culture. And if you've ever heard about body dysmorphic disorder, you've probably wondered if your own self-image woes fall into that category. So, what is body dysmorphia anyway?
If you are one of the roughly 1.9% of adults with BDD, you likely find yourself constantly worrying about parts of your body you see as flaws that aren't really noticeable to other people, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR).
While that might sound like your entire middle-school class, in order to be diagnosed with this mental health condition, you'd need to spend hours a day stressing about those physical parts of you that no one else seems to be able to see, says licensed clinical psychologist Jennifer Greenberg, PsyD, who works with people with BDD.
BDD falls under the umbrella of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (like OCD), which means those super negative and sometimes intrusive thoughts about how you look can lead to repetitive behaviors called compulsions. That can look like trying to hide or fix those things you really, really dislike about yourself or obsessively checking to see how they look to the point that it's interrupting your day, Dr. Greenberg says. You might also bring up those things to the people around you to get some reassurance that they're actually fine (not that it helps), per the DSM-5-TR.
One of the biggest differences between your run-of-the-mill crappy body image and this mental health disorder is that the thing you're obsessing over is extremely hard for other people to see, says Dr. Greenberg. While some people with BDD might be completely convinced that the thing others tell them isn't visible very much is, others could know on some level that the thing they feel is wrong with them actually isn't, per the DSM-5-TR. The problem is that no matter what side of this spectrum they fall on, the obsessive thoughts and compulsions keep coming.
If you have BDD you might also avoid social things like hanging with friends, going to school or work, or running errands. In some extreme cases, being consumed with anxiety about how you look could keep you from leaving the house, Dr. Greenberg says. When you do go out, you might spend most of that time ruminating over the things people do or say to decipher whether they were judging you, she adds.
Keep reading to learn about what causes BDD and how it's treated.
Nema komentara:
Objavi komentar