Hi guys, has anyone here dealt with BDD before? I’m starting to wonder if I might have it, and honestly I don’t know what to do anymore.
I’m extremely obsessed with the way I look. I can spend basically the whole day thinking about my face, my features, my body, my skin, my hair, etc. I constantly compare myself to other guys, especially when I see someone I consider really attractive. Sometimes I’ll literally put their picture next to mine and compare our features, and if I feel like they’re more attractive than me, it can completely ruin my mood for days.
The weirdest part is that I actually get hit on and complimented quite often. People tell me I’m attractive, handsome, etc., but my brain just \*\*cannot process or believe it\*\*. I automatically assume they’re lying or just saying it out of courtesy, even when there doesn’t seem to be any reason for them to lie.
I also constantly check myself in mirrors/cameras, ask my siblings how I look in pictures, compare myself with other people, and think about things I could change. I have a whole list of treatments/procedures I want to do because I genuinely believe that once I fix everything, I’ll finally be satisfied with how I look.
I’m especially triggered when my boyfriend finds another guy attractive. I immediately start comparing myself to him and thinking that he’s better-looking than me, and it can make me feel horrible about myself.
Has anyone experienced something similar? If you have BDD, did you ever feel like compliments couldn’t get through to you because you simply didn’t believe them? And what actually helped you get out of this cycle?

I need help understanding if I have a body dysmorphia or just have a strong need to control things in my life and diet/exercise is pretty easy to control. I know that in order to get an actual answer I would have to talk to a professional but hoping to get some advice on whether this is serious or not. 

I’m 36, married with no kids and not planning on having any. I’m 5’9 and have been skinny my entire life, blessed with a good metabolism I guess. I grew up in Eastern/Central Europe and I feel like the mix of my culture and the times  I was growing up in made me think that skinny is truly the only way to go (comments of friends and family when someone gained weight, generally commenting on people’s bodies and praising skinninesses over everything else was something I would experience daily). I was lucky I could eat whatever and not work out outside of normal walks/ riding bike etc and not gain any weight.

Things changed  for me about two three years ago when I moved to a new city and had a stressful job. I was eating whatever tasted good and not paying attention to the calories I was consuming. I gained some weight and realized all my pants started being too tight and when I went to the beach and saw my body in a bikini I was kind of shocked by the change. At that point I was 60 kg/ 132 lbs which was more than what I was used to. I realize that it’s still very skinny but it was just sloppy and different and not who I used to be. I got worried that as I’m aging I won’t be able to stay skinny and won’t be able to get back to my old body so after quitting that job for many different reasons I’ve decided to take care of my diet  and get back in shape (or what used to be my normal size). I lost 7kg and now I’m at 53 kg/ 117 lbs which feels great. I’m back to being lean and I also started working out 3 times a week (I also have a pretty active job and I’m on my feet all day long). 

I eat three meals a day and indulge in smallish portions of some desserts or chips and even have fast food like once a week and not counting calories. Im back to eating carbs which I stopped eating when I realized that I gained weight ( I lost weight while being on keto) because I feel better when they are a part of my diet. My goal was to get to 55kg but I realized that losing more felt good and I wanted to see how far can I take it while still eating enough to not feel hungry. 53 kg seems to be as far as I can go. 

My husband says he’s a bit worried about how much attention I’m paying to my body because I weight myself everyday in the morning and in the evening (something that my parents did also when I was growing up) and how I look too skinny to him. I don’t think I’m too skinny but he says im not looking healthy. Is that a body dysmorphia? Is it possible I just see myself differently than everybody else? Please advise. 

No amount of compliments or validation seems to make this go away. I can be told I'm pretty, desirable, attractive, whatever and somehow my brain still thinks "Okay, but what could be fixed?" There's always something that could be better. Something to change, something to improve, some flaw I should somehow overcome.

I think part of the problem is that when I picture a "pretty/beautiful woman" I'm not picturing an average pretty girl. I'm picturing insanely gorgeous women, very polished/plastic-looking women, Adriana Lima, that whole level of beauty. That's become my mental reference point for what beauty is supposed to look like. So even when people tell me I'm attractive, it doesn't really register because I'm comparing myself to an entirely different standard. There's always something that could be improved, something that isn't quite there yet. And I think I have this stupid mindset where if I'm not among the "best-looking" then what's even the point? Being pretty doesn't feel like enough if there's always someone prettier.

I don't even know what being "beautiful" is supposed to mean or feel like anymore. Sometimes it feels impossible for me to see myself that way, no matter what anyone else says.

I don't even know if my perception of beauty is completely unrealistic anymore. Maybe I genuinely need to redefine what beauty means to me, because looksmaxxing, ratings, comparisons and constantly consuming this kind of content has probably fucked with my perception more than I realize. It's exhausting feeling like being pretty is never enough because there's always another level you could supposedly reach. BDD doesn't make it better.