Starting an SSRI (Lexapro) for My Body Dysmorphic Disorder

I am reading a wonderful book, if not the only real book on the successful treatment and management of BDD.

It is called Understanding Body Dysmorphic Disorder by Katharine A. Phillips.

It has been helpful. It has given me both clarity and confusion. Sometimes as a BDD sufferer the hardest thing to do is to differentiate what is real from what is a delusion.

This is where it is good to have a third party.

Treating BDD with an SSRI

What the book definitely recommends is beginning treatment of your BDD with an SSRI.

There are many options and the studies she presents are from her own practice and are limited.

But she makes a convincing case for the use of antidepressants and reports significant benefits, in the realm of 85% response rate with the addition of an SSRI.

With that I decided it was time to give it a try.

Choosing the Right SSRI

Honestly, looking at her data they all seemed appropriate, most of her studies were based on a rather small sample size. But the choice seemed to come down to two.

1. Lexapro
2. Celexa

These are both generic and good inexpensive options.

With both medications, the point is to start low and then increase the dose based on the response. Usually, this can be done at two-week intervals and should be continued for 12 weeks regardless of the perceived benefit. As long as there are no really bad side effects. I will talk later about augmenting these SSRIs or changing to a different SSRI. But for now I just want to talk about my experience.

Beginning Lexapro 10 mg daily for the treatment of Body Dysmorphic Disorder

So I started treatment of my BDD with Lexapro 10 mg taken first thing in the morning.

I started exactly 7 days ago.

I wish I could say I felt like a million bucks, but I really haven’t noticed much difference. The thing that makes the difference is sleep. Which to be honest during my recent “attack” has been hard to come by.

So, to overcome this I also started taking 10 mg of Ambien (Zolpidem) at night. Last night was the first night I took the Ambien and I feel so much better. Simply relaxing my mind and finally getting some sleep did more for my mood than anything.

I don’t particularly want to take sleep medications, but if you are up at night worrying about your appearance I would highly recommend the addition of either a cheap generic sleep aid such as Ambien (Zolpidem) or if your anxiety is out of control maybe a benzodiazepine such as Diazepam at a dose of 5 mg.

The anxiety is the hardest part for me to overcome. I am fine at home and while I sit here and write, but outside in the daylight when I am around people it is hard.

I haven’t talked much about what has made things so bad  recently, but it involves a recent accident I had, that caused a rather significant scar on my left cheek. This coupled with my underlying disorder has sent me over the edge. I will talk a bit more about this in the future.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop a line in the comments section.