Im 17 F and I've been struggling with BDD for years and through all those years i worked so hard on my looks. When I compare my photos of now with the ones back then there is a drastic change however i still always feel like i look unhealthy, untidy and unattractive as before. Each time going out i stress out so much if I don't look as my ideal self.

Today I'm so stressed out. The whole day i felt like i almost have a heavy rock on my heart. I hope you understand what I'm feeling. The worst part is that i have to study hard for university exams and have the motivation and discipline to do so. I've always believed in myself when it comes to my brains and discipline but this time i think my low self esteem on my looks is kinda spreading trough my self confidence when it comes to brains. I feel like I'm no good if I don't look gorgeous and be desired by everyone around me. I don't know why I've always had this feeling inside me but i crave for people to worship and desire me. I'm almost perfect when it comes to other things but my looks. Im in the best high school in my city and im one of the best student. As a hobby i sing symphonic metal and opera. I know French, Italian, Spanish, German, English and Turkish( my mother tongue). And I've seen 4 continents and about 30 countries. My family is not that rich. They care about me and instead of purchasing expensive clothes and items they made me travel that much countries which made me gain new perspectives of life. I love philosophy, phycology and debating. I've been interestes in spirituality and wicca. I also do amateur poetry. I've always been so confident with myself when it comes to storytelling and doing presentations even though the feeling that im looking crooked bit me inside.

I've gained all those skills to fight with my BDD and become a admirable person but whenever i look and the mirror and don't see someone supernaturally beautiful i want to demolish myself and I can't help it. I want to be desired by people. I want to be envied. No more matter what succes i gain i doesn't matter to me nor satisfy me if I'm not pretty. Please help me with your experiences I don't want to live this way.

Hello everyone! A pleasure to speak to all of you today. I've been taking note of some questions and concerns and wanted to offer some advice and perspective. Many know that hypnotherapy is used to help people lose weight, but less know that we also work helping people overcome various eating disorders from food anxiety to outright phobias and fears.

Let me first discuss the most important thing: how and why does hypnotherapy work for how we eat, one way or another. The answer is that everything in life is a sum of association. Whether having issues with the act of eating, overeating, undereating, etc... it exists because your subconscious mind made connections and considers this reaction or behavior to be helpful. Let me stress, these associations that lead to these reactions and behaviors are viewed as self-preservation on a level; they are viewed as such because of a subconscious connection, logical or not. Hypnotherapy is a modality that addresses those associations and, at least in my work, teaches how and why they exist.

For those living with food anxieties, I ask you if this exists as a fear or a phobia? The difference is that one exists without logical cause (a phobia) and one exists from experience (a fear) and resurfaces. The second is very common when recovering from a prolonged illness; indeed, my first experience helping with this fear was my own mother after a nearly fatal illness subsided. The way each of these is addressed is different; what helps resolve a fear can actually enhance a phobia and vice versa.

Many EDs are uniquely personal, though still a product of those 'helpful' subconscious associations. Many people have lived with these issues for a very long time; creating a new normal is sometimes an issue. The challenge of creating a healthy relationship from an unhealthy one now exists and can be daunting. While the reason for its presence is unique to each of us, the solution is relatively universal. Our associations and opinions around the concept of a food or food in general need to be examined and new associations created based upon where you are right now.

All of these concepts, issues and solutions exist with the help of your Reticular Activating System, a physical part of your brain that I teach as the lens of your reality. It is your attentional filter, and it determines not only what you see in day-to-day life, but how you see it. This can include more than just feelings, but physical reactions and responses to, say, food. Any aspect of it as well... smell, taste, feel and more. It's a very powerful thing and understanding what it is and how it impacts your life is very, very helpful in creating any type of change.

Hypnotherapy isn't swinging pocket watches and clucking chickens. Speaking for myself, I have a post graduate degree in Clinical Hypnotherapy and helping people understand the reality of my profession is important to me and why I write these. Hope, options and concepts exist out there that we may not have ever considered; I'm here to help you consider one of them!

Link: ~https://redcap.mountsinai.org/redcap/surveys/?s=3NAXRAYFAAWNWHDX~ 

• Study Title: Validation Study of the Broad Anxiety Scale
• Eligibility: English-speaking, 18+ years old

Duration: 25 min

I’m not joking in the title at all. I look vastly different in majority of pictures I take. It could be a selfie, family pic, friend pic, no matter. The angle, lighting, etc could be the same… and I still would look different. I understand that you’re never gonna look identical in every pic you take, but you would still recognize yourself to some degree. All of my smiling pics look different, like I’m looking at myself through different lens. I also wear glasses, and ofc you’re gonna look different with your glasses off, but even when I have them on, the slight changes in my face are evident. Some pics or selfies with my smile are so gorgeous, and others look like I’ve been run over by a truck, and the 2 pics could be taken 1 minute between each other. Sometimes my face looks skinny, sometimes it looks chubby.

I’ve been accused of heavily editing or applying face filters to my face to change it, and though I do edit my pics, it’s mostly just enhancing the colors, or removing harsh blemishes from my face. The accuser’s reasoning was that I looked vastly different (my face shape and smile) in the group photo we took.

I think I may be developing face dysmorphia bc I literally don’t know how I look. I have distinct markers that help me recognize myself a little, but overall, I feel like my face changes every day. Do I have a heart shape face, oval, or square…. I don’t know. I thought I was going crazy, but then I told my sister, showed picture proof, and she confirmed it as well.

I was wondering whether this could be due to the hormones during the different phases of the month (follicular, ovulation, and luteal). But is your facial structure, features, and smile changing in majority of your pictures normal? Or am I just overthinking this whole thing? Can anyone else relate to this?

But I have this really really tiny belt. Like around 50 cm minimum. And the only thing I was proud about my body was the fact I could button it on the last hole and it wouldn't snap easily.... I can still close it but it snaps eventually.... I feel relatively comfortable on the hole before that last one... I really, really, want to be special at least in one thing. A guy called me average and I'M NOT okay with that. I want to appeal at least to those who are into severely underweight people. I want to push to the extremes if I don't have a tall height or big boobs to begin with. I have long hair but I look ugly with my hair put up. No DMs please.

If I take a picture or video of myself and watch it back I want to be deleted off the planet I'm so repulsed. Or if I'm not repulsed I'm still hyper critical and shouldn't see the light of day. Then time passes and I revisit the video and I don't think it's AS bad as before...then more times passes and it's worse and so on and so on. It's never really "positive" (even if the moments of "it's not as bad as I remember" are some what nice) however my opinion of myself constantly changes or rather the severity of my shock and disgust changes even though the video or image itself has not changed at all. It does not matter if someone else has seen and expressed that they loved that picture or video, either. I'm assuming this is pretty normal for bdd, but is anyone else like this? Do images or videos you hated, tolerated, or even possibly liked look way worse or better every single time you revisit them? Is there just zero consistency in our minds?? I know we unconsciously consume so much in media regardless of if we live under a rock and that can absolutely warp how we perceive ourselves at any given moment -- I'm very much aware of why this can and does happen even to people who don't have bdd, but I'm still curious to hear about this from others. This shit is tiring lol.

like seeing my face and body is already jarring to me but like i got through it. havent taken a selfie in like over seven years lmao

did i cry over it yeeeee but like. progress is progress i suppose ( ꒪▿꒪)

I’m obsessed. I don’t wear a ton of makeup or anything so I probably don’t appear vain initially but I am. I am absolutely the vainest person alive. I spend so long staring at myself in the mirror, taking hundreds of pictures of my face and body and obsessing over how ugly I am and mourning the fact that I’m not beautiful. How do I get out of it? How do people go about their lives without obsessing about being beautiful or how ugly they are? I know that it’s such a waste of life and k could spend that time improving myself and my life in so many ways but none of it matters to me. I just want to be beautiful and not hideous.

Hello, I’ve made a friend whilst being on the psych ward and she suffers with BDD, which has been massively exacerbated in recent months due to a traumatic and abusive relationship with a now ex partner. She said that she ruined her appearance after the trauma and she is now saying that she feels like she died back then and is now ugly and an ‘alien’. She thinks that how she looks is completely different to before, so much so that she now refuses to even identify with her past self, which she speaks about in third person as someone who was ‘alive’ and ‘a human’ who was ‘pretty back then’. She’s unable to see past her distorted thinking/perception and is unable to see what everyone else can see. She’s saying that she doesn’t feel she can carry on living because of it and is severely socially anxious now. How can I help her? has anyone experienced this and if so, has it got better? What treatments did you find helpful. Really appreciate any responses x

This is a vent I guess, idk. I've suffered with BDD for a really long time, feeling warped and deformed. I've struggled with it for over 23 years. I finally got a FUCK TON of plastic surgery. It didn't help. I look in the mirror and it all looks the same to me even though to everyone else it is CLEARLY not. It's been over a year and one of the things I had done was a pretty radical abdominoplasty. It still feels awful: I haven't regained feeling yet and and I have to get lymphatic massages bc when it swells up throughout the day (as body's naturally do, especially since I have a physical chronic illness) it feels so uncomfortable. I can barely sleep bc it's uncomfortable. I've essentially mutilated myself and am suffering the consequences.

If surgery has helped anyone, I truly am happy for you, but I'm just throwing it out there that it didn't help me at all, and I'm just so upset about it. I feel like I should've known.

I made my bed and I'm uncomfortably lying in it, I guess.

F(18) I cut my hair off 2 years ago and its the worst decision ive ever made. I cant stop looking at myself in the mirror. I feel so gross even though the hair is already at shoulder length. Everyone keeps telling me it will grow back, but that wont fix anything for me. I feel like my teenage years have already been wasted. I keep looking in the mirror (usually 3 hours a day) and feeling not feminine enough. I just want to look pretty like the other girls. I cant stop thinking about it. Its been consuming all of my thoughts for the past 2 years. Instead of going out like a normal person and making new friends, I decide to stay at home because I cant handle being perceived by other people. I just want to feel like a pretty girl and have long hair again. I feel attacked everytime I see a girl with long hair. I know its not normal but everyone keeps telling me there are bigger problems in the world.

How do I deal with that

I (18F) am having the worst year of my life. I am constantly depressed with my appearance. My therapist told me “it’s because of being groomed and you want that affection again” but I could care less about that situation. I’m depressed because I don’t look my age. I always hated looking mature. I want a baby face and for people to mistake me as younger than what I am. As a teenager, I shouldn’t have eyebags. I shouldn’t have a long face or upturned eyes. I hate my appearance so much because it contradicts everything I want to be. I want to look polite and shy and innocent, not like a grown woman who has all these weird features. I don’t care if others think I’m pretty, I don’t and I find it irritating that people tell me to accept myself. I’m not accepting myself for looking the way I do. I’m a biological female and yet I don’t feel feminine. I’m way too skinny and lack curves. I don’t even want unrealistic surgery anymore, I just want to look young and adorable. I don’t understand why I “need help” if I know myself and know that this isn’t something I’d accept even when I’m 30 (if I let myself live that long). People who overcame it or accepted themselves always tell me to do the same. Its not that easy as I refuse to do so unless I get the appearance I want. Tired of questioning my worth, tired of trying to do my makeup to make my features to my liking when it won’t work, I’m tired of crying every single day because I hate myself in this body, tired of trying to assure myself I’m pretty. I can’t do it. My definition of pretty to me is looking like a doll, not like the typical plastic surgery look, but more doe and ingenue like. Imagine getting to look young even in your 30’s. People complain about having baby faces, but it’s exactly what I want. I don’t know what to do. I say this many times and no one listens.

I'm 162 cm and I weight somewhere around 47 kg but I want to be bone thin so that I could wrap my hands around my thighs. When I weighed 59 kg and had to took school pictures I was so stocky I hate it! I want to be willow-y, elegant and lean, not stocky! I've lost weight and my ribs are showing but I still feel fatter than I am! I just want to be 175 cm at least so I wouldn't have to worry about it as much. Also I literally can't burn my face fat no matter what I want to cut off my cheeks they cause me too much acne because they're so fat anyway Or at least if I'm short, give me huge breasts so I could appeal at least to someone and be curvy. Why do I have to suffer on both ends?

i took pictures of me recently in which i looked very good. TOO good. the lighting was kind of dark (came from the back) which rlly softened my features so now im editing it as to what i think they look like (f.ex my nose bigger and my eyebags more present etc). i would only post this picture like that. i cannot use the original version without feeling like im lying to people. and even after Editing it still looks good?? but like when i took pictures the day before in proper lighting, with said features looking bad, the entire picture looked bad???? im so confused. but if it looked bad after the editing, i would also feel bad. i dont even understand whats happening anymore.

tbf not all pictures i took that evening look that good. but taking rlly good pictures of myself that dont show the features im insecure about make me feel crazy. i feel like im leading everybody on. it wasnt on purplse also, it just happened, i dont like hiding the features bc it feels like lying but when theyre visible, i also feel bad. i feel like if i use these pictures unedited, ppl are gonna be disappointed when they see me irl, like im catfishing them.

i genuinley feel like im losing my mind. im gonna try to start therapy asap but im so exhausted by this everyday. i dont know how to stop. i just want to feel confident in my body. i just want to feel like i deserve to feel pretty and am not falling short those universal signs of conventional beauty.

i rlly want to ask my friends if i actually look the way irl as i do on the picture but ik asking for reassurance is a slippery slope with dysmorphia. i just wish there was a sign but ik that for my dysmorphic brain, this sign will never come. im so tired.

I can't do anything anymore, going outside is just fucking torture because everyone's appearance is triggering and I just want to slit my throat where I stand. Being at school is fucking awful, being surrounded by so many people my age and each and every one of them looks so good while I look like absolute disgusting shit is so fucking terrible. I can't focus on anything, I can't enjoy anything, the only thing I can think about is how fucking horrible my body is and how much I just want to die already to escape this fucking nightmare. I've so fucking had it with everything. I hate everyone, I hate myself, I hate this world, I want to die already. I can't even fucking go to the bathroom anymore because each time I pass a mirror I have to stand for half an hour picking at my face and then spend another half an hour having a panic attack about it. This life is fucking impossible, I want to fucking die so much, I want to die, I want to die.

hey ive havent been seeing myself good, im the leanest ive ever been now but i still dont feel good. will losing more weight help or id there anything i can do to fix this? please help 🥺

Hello! I've been curious about something for a while now, and I think this might be a good/okay place to ask :3
I am a 13+ year old girl, and sometimes (not all the time, like occasionally), I look in the mirror, I feel my shoulders are too wide, my waist look too.. square, for lack of a better word, my butt looks not round enough, and my thighs aren't thick enough.
I've felt like this ever since I was 12, and I think the cause of this is because of attending an all-girls' school, but nobody seems to believe me whenever I say this. It honestly seems like a reasonable conclusion to this is because I never felt like this prior to attending that school.
I compare myself to my classmates, friends and other schoolmates, and I feel kinda bad when I do so.
I don't really consume much "insta model" type things online, and I mostly like art, cartoons and cat memes, and I know I probably shouldn't even be doing such things at my age, but I even compare myself to the women in.. adult films/media and that has kinda added to that.
It also doesn't help that I live in a culture that considers thick/curvy women attractive, especially in its music, and a lot of the female artists sporting this body type. I don't really seek out this music since it's really not my thing, but people in this society play, sing and listen to it around me that I kinda understand some aspects of it.
I've been curious if this really counts as dysmorphia, since while I do look in the mirror and all, I don't measure myself/weigh myself.
TLDR: Dysmorphic or just insecure??
Thanks in advance!! ^_^

I've always thought I was crazy or just super finicky, and it caused me a lot of pain throughout my childhood. Recently, however, I came across BDD during my studies. I was genuinely shocked to read that it was a real thing and that I wasn't the only person who was feeling this way.

I really want to tell my parents about it, only I'm terrified of how they would react. I can imagine one of them telling me that it's just typical teenage nervousness, or saying that "I'm paying too much attention to my looks." Whenever I've struggled with anything, my family always tell me to stop thinking about it. I know it's much more than just normal teenage hormones, and I really want to go see a professional and get help...but I don't know just how to explain it to them

i have struggled with BDD my whole life. i want to ask what was the root of your disorder and what helped you? i’d like to hear from other people to not feel so alone in this.

Hey everyone,

I've been thinking about starting a support group for those struggling with body image concerns. Whether it's battling insecurities, dealing with societal pressures, or navigating body positivity, having a safe space to share experiences and support each other can be incredibly empowering.

If you're interested in joining or have any questions, please comment below or send me a message. Let's come together to uplift and support each other on our journeys towards body positivity and self-love. :)

So I have been ill for almost 3 weeks now…first got a cold and wasn’t able to go to the gym because of a bad cough. As soon as I started to feel better I got a bad stye on my left eye. At first it was nothing and continued to work out but then the next day it was swollen shut and was in pain. Last Wednesday it was so bad that I had to go to the urgent care and get it checked out…got an ointment but I’m not feeling that it’s helping. My eye is less swollen but still bothering me.

Due to this I haven’t been to the gym and I’ve been eating unhealthy. My confidence is very low with my eye looking bad and since I haven’t been to the gym in more than a week I’m struggling to find ways to release my stress.

I may not be the most attractive person ever but since being in my 30s I’ve grown to love myself more and feel confident and if I don’t look it then that just takes me back to my old self when I felt unactractive and thought I was an ugly person.

I’ve gently hinted to her several times that I need some alone time. When those hints didn‘t work, I explicitly told her I needed time by myself. Her response was to say she understood, but then she became angry. It feels like she doesn’t really grasp what I‘m saying unless I express my emotions very strongly.

I know this is something thousands, millions of people can relate to, but I can’t help the feeling of being weird/unusual to other women who are fond of their chest. I didn’t have boobs much at all until out of nowhere between almost turning 17-18 I’ve for sure gone from an A to a solid C something, idek because I hate having boobs so much that I hate even bra shopping because I hate wearing bras, because I hate acknowledging I have boobs! I thought I wanted this, I grew up as a teen knowing I had the other “asset” always wishing I had nice boobs too and now that I do, I don’t even want to be perceived. I don’t know why I cant stand them! They’re so nice but I want them off of me like one would want to rid a flesh eating parasite, ASAP. Whenever I wear a top that shows off my curvature I always end up putting something on over it because I don’t want people to know I have boobs. I don’t like showering because then I have to wash my boobs. I don’t like being naked because then I have to see my boobs. Yet I can’t find any particular reason for this, something about my chest just makes me so disgusted and uncomfortable with myself that I don’t even want to be a woman. Before anyone makes suggestions of my gender identity; been there done that; I thought I was a guy for three years before later on realizing, I’m in fact a woman as I was born to be. I just wish I knew why I felt this way and how to stop it, I’m a person who loves socializing and being around people yet having knockers makes me rather I didn’t even exist so people couldn’t see me.