My body image concerns started at a young age when I struggled with acne, but my lack of confidence began way before this.
I remember a friend of mine in grade school making some off-handed comment about a generic Yankees baseball cap I was wearing and I felt self conscious for months.
I felt the same way about my hair, my clothes, my personality.
My grandmother may have had BDD.
She didn’t like to leave the house, she walked with her head down and she never would take photographs.
I never made much of this until the other day, I started to think about where my BDD may have come from, and if this could be an inherited trait.
I started to worry about my children.
Depression appears to have a strong genetic component possibly multiplied by a factor of 3 if you have a close relative with the condition.
What about Body Dysmorphic Disorder? Does it run in families?
Because BDD is not talked about as much and those who have it tend not to share their concerns, or identify it as such, it’s inheritance patterns are likely to go unnoticed.
This I am sure will change with time.
Last year, I swore there was a girl at my gym with BDD, or maybe I was simply trying to find somebody else to relate to. But I picked up on certain patterns.
She would obsess over mirrors and seem to avoid them at the same time. She was fit, but self conscious, she appeared a bit nervous and anxious. I saw myself in her.
How much of this did I put upon her to make myself feel better? I will never know, but it is the first time I realized that I may be able to spot people with BDD.
So I started looking.
It is hard to find, many are models, lawyers and doctors, people you would never suspect to have it.
Can you spot people with BDD? Can you see it in yourself? Do you suspect a family member of yours may have had it?
photo credit: Pulpolux
his is a wonderful book! Written by the Director of the MGH OCD and Related Disorders Program, and Founder of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Clinic, this book offers individuals suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder with critical tools to understand BDD and to bring their disorder under control. The step by step approach detailed in the book is exactly what is needed for patients and clinicians alike. I have enthusiastically been recommending it to all of my clients who have BDD, and to colleagues interested in learning more about it. This book offers new hope to the millions of people worldwide who live with this troubling, but treatable disorder.
i have been suffering from BDD since i was in nursery i always knew i hated everything about me and it got worse when i started school i would avoid going swimming and would forget my swimming costume on purpose but when i moved schools i had to go swimming and i was so anxious and wouldnt come out of the locker room it was the worst feeling ever i have always had the need to change everything about me and i still do it all the time my face body hair i nit pick everything about myself i detest everything i see and i do think BDD runs in my family i know my mother used to hate her face due to her freckles and would bleach it out and she nit picks a lot of things about herself too as well as my little sister worrying thing is i dont want to pass on this trait to my future children