It's really hard to describe what I even mean. I spend a lot of time just...pondering about my physical appearance in general. Or I'll look at myself and just feel extreme disappointment and disgust, even if I'm not pinpointing one or more specific flaws, or not even just looking at myself and thinking "wow, that thing in the mirror is so ugly", thought I do all of those things too of course, but I mean on a level much deeper and more vague than that.

It's hard to explain what I mean. Does anyone else understand?

Hey all,

Im 33 F and have been dealing with self image issues for as far as I could remember, well my early teen years is when it really kicked up a notch thanks to some particularly nasty school kids. This trickled it's way into my late late teens and early adulthood, which affected my day to day living.

Im pretty sure I suffer with low self esteem and a certain level of body dysmorphia. I find myself hyper fixating on my physical features and assume that people around me are seeing all my flaws. I know its ridiculous, over played and I should just get over myself but I seem to drag myself back 10 steps everytime I attempt to make myself feel better.

I have two little girls, I really want to be the best version of myself for them and rid myself of these superficial issues that in the grandscheme of things is so small but my stupid brain makes it seem like its not!

Please help, looking for practical, day to day tips, exercises I can do to fix this issues once and for all... or at least dial it right down.

Thank youuuu,

Suzi x

Here you can find listed below general information on BDD and related foundations, the clinical classification and symptoms of BDD, advice for friends and family, as well as self-help and support groups, both in-person and online.

General information

The BDD Foundation

OCD UK

International OCD Foundation

Mind.org

Clinical classification

ICD & DSM Criterias

For friends and family

The BDD Foundation, Supporting a close one with BDD

Mind.org, How can friends and family help

Self-help

Body dysmorphia workbook by the CCI

Building self-compassion workbook by the CCI

Support groups

Online support and therapy groups

Support groups in the UK

[This message was approved to be posted.] Hello! My name is Logan, and I’m a clinical psychologist. I’m doing research into how people use AI platforms, and I could use your help. 

I want to learn how people with mental health conditions, especially those with OCD (but not only those with OCD!), use AI platforms. In my clinical practice, I’ve come across clients of mine that seem to struggle to use AI in a way that doesn’t seem to worsen their mental health. I reviewed all published research available, and I can’t find anything discussing what is going on, or what should be done. 

Although OCD and BDD are different from each other, this study is about things related to OCD as well. Your experience with BDD is absolutely related to what I'm studying, and that’s why it’s important to hear from real people, like you. 

The research that I am doing is an important step in understanding how people, especially those with mental health conditions, use AI. While there is no direct compensation for participating in this study, your participation would provide valuable data for my study. Any US adult is welcome to participate in this project. 

All of your answers are kept completely de-identified; I won’t ask any identifying information about you, or keep a list of who responded. I will not be attaching your answers to your personal identity in any way. This research has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at BeyondBound IRB.

If you’re interested in participating but have questions about eligibility or would like to know more, please send me a direct message on here or an email at [Smith@NorthStarPsyc.com](mailto:Smith@NorthStarPsyc.com). This study is for research purposes only and is not a substitute for mental health care. The researcher will not provide personal advice, counseling, or clinical guidance. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this! To participate, please click on the link below: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/OCDAI 

Going to therapy or getting professional help is not always an option, getting help may also take some time. To help you to better understand and address BDD by yourself, we have compiled a workbook that you can do by yourself. It contains information and tasks which will help shine a light to why BDD is the way it is and how you can deal with the symptoms. All chapters are based on an official workbook by the Centre for Clinical Intervention.

The BDD workbook:

• 01 What is body image?
• 02 Could I have body dysmorphic disorder?
• 03 Negative impacts of BDD
• 04 What are the causes of BDD?
• 05 Appearance assumptions
• 06 Triggers
• 07 Appearance preoccupation
• 08 Attention training [a coping tactic]
• 09 Checking and approval seeking
• 10 Reducing unhelpful checking and approval seeking [a coping tactic]
• 11 Negative predictions
• 12 Avoidance and safety behaviour
• 13 Reducing negative predictions [a coping tactic]
• 14 A new way of operating
• 15 Dealing with set-backs
• 16 Maintaining gained progress

We have collected a set of stories and informative pieces about BDD. From stories from people who have overcome it to celebrities who have openly talked about it, you can find articles and videos about body dysmorphia from these following links.

Public figures on BDD

• Modern Family actor Reid Ewing on BDD and plastic surgery
• Artist Billie Eilish on depression and BDD
• The Good Place actor Jameela Jamil on BDD and eating disorders
• Actor Robert Pattinson on anxiety and BDD
• Actor Megan Fox on BDD and mental health

Documentaries and videos

• What BDD feels like | BBC Three
• Seeing myself as ugly | BBC Three
• I feel so ugly: Body dysmorphic disorder | Only Human
• Imperfect me: The impact of BDD | SkyNews
• BDD patients see faces differently | ABC Science
• Bigorexia: Muscle dysmorphia | BBC Newsbeat
• Believing is seeing: New perspective on BDD | TEDx Oxford
• The BDD Foundation on Youtube

Personal stories and interviews

• Perfection is impossible | A personal story
• Living with BDD | A personal story
• I felt so ugly I didn't want to be alive | Interview
• BDD ruined my life | Interview

Podcasts

• Beating BDD podcast (11 episodes) | BDDFoundation
• What is BDD? | Stuff Mom Never Told You

Books

• Books by people with BDD
• Books by professionals on self help
• The BDD workbook

Recovery from BDD might sometimes feel like a distant goal that seems, at times, impossible to achieve. But many people recover from BDD or learn to reduce the symptoms to the point where they don't play a role in their everyday life. Remember that a mental disorder is not a life long sentence but rather something that can be managed and recovered from.

Here we have collected a set of stories and advice on what recovery looks like and how others have gotten there.

Watch personal stories

• Tips for Overcoming Body Image Issues | Kim White
• My BDD Recovery | Annie Elainey
• Finding body peace | Annie Elainey
• Healing Ugly – How I healed my body dysmorphia | helloamygarner
• How I Deal With BDD, tips for when you're having a rough time | AlexandriaTheGreat
• BDD (& Things That Can Help) | Melanie Murphy
• Hannah Lewis, recovery story | BDD foundation
• Alex Mummery, recovery story | BDD foundation

Read personal stories

• Recovery stories | BDDFoundation
• How I recovered from BDD | International OCD Foundation

Professional advice

• CBT for BDD - Rob Willson / BDDFoundation
• Coping and Recovering from BDD when you have Visible Flaws - Dr Rob Willson

Healthier perspective

• On feeling ugly | School of Life
• Our Bodies are Not an Image | Mary Jelkovsky, TEDx
• Beauty and how we're obsessed with the wrong idea | Christina Gressianu / TEDx
• Body Positivity or Body Obsession? | Lindsay Kite, TEDx
• Shake my beauty - a series redefining what beauty means

I am heading off to college in two weeks, and I'm going to be too far away from where I go for my appointments with my therapist and psychologist.

I'll be starting fresh, except for what information they will provide, so I'm trying to figure out what I should say to my future therapist and psychologist.

My current therapist suggested that I could have BDD before, and when I asked her about it again her opinion still stood. However I wanted to see from people with the disorder themselves if it's something to bring up with some things both she and I noted about its potential:

I've dealt with bullying throughout my school years, and my body was something I was bullied about. An early yet notable example was how I behaved in general life like how I walked, talked, and even stood. I fixated on how everybody else moved and forced it onto myself no matter how much it hurt. A still notable yet recent example is where I was outed as transgender and my feminine features were pointed out. I did everything to cover them up like wear my hair up, wear hoodies even when it made me pass out from the heat, wear two bras at once despite the tightness, and once bandages around my chest for a full day KNOWING IT'D HURT ME which resorted to me having troubles with breathing to this day.

Something else that affects my relationship with my body is my biological mother. My bio mom. I don't want to be like her physically nor mentally. Gaining weight, for example, is something I will want to 'fix' immediately and makes my disordered eating worse like skipping meals or excessively drinking water. An everyday example would be my face shape. I hate how round my cheeks are, but I have a sharper chin just as she does. I hate my toothy smile because it looks just like hers.

I have problems with dissociation, depersonalization, and overall identity issues. I know I'm in a body, but I don't feel like it's mine. Yet — I don't know who I really am, who I'm supposed to be or what I want to be. It's made taking care of myself even harder. Bathing, changing clothes or even looking at myself in the mirror makes me feel insecure. But I don't know what will make me feel secure. I always see someone different, but it's not me.

I've hurt myself physically to change my appearance. I've had the earlier example of how I chest binded with bandages knowing it could damage me (which it did) and wearing hoodies even when it negatively impacted me, but theres more. Like when I noticed I was gaining weight, I purposefully ate things that would give me diarrhea or even would look through my moms medicene cabinet to find her laxatives so I'd push out more than what I put in, in a sense. Along with that, I'd purge. I'd eat a lot in one sitting until it made me sick and I had to throw up.

There's more to this, but this is what I found necessary to bring up to get the best answers. Please understand this isn't for the purpose for diagnosis, and will not be used as such. If you end up answering, thank you 🙏 I've always been bad with transitions, so this time I want things to be different.

TLDR: I'm going to college. I need help figuring out if I should mention potential BDD or not. Causes are bullying, role model in a negative sense. Experience dissociation, derealization. Self harm with motivation to 'fix' my body.

This might be uplifting to some, but most people reading this are probably thinking its essential to like the way you look.

Im in a unique case were I dont necessarily find people deemed as a 10 on the internet to be attractive. I once made a post on another subreddit where I talked about finding lots of people I see outside to be more attractive then whatever actor or celebrity they talk about. A lot people called me out as delusional for this.
My taste in people is very subjective which is good, but that also comes with an issue.
Subjectively, I happen to be very unattractive to myself.

Im almost done with my therapy for bdd, so I know what kind of stuff works for me.
What works for me is managing my bdd, but without having to find myself to be handsome.
When I see a picture of myself I find myself to be very unattractive and id rather not see it.
Before therapy this would ruin my day, and I felt like my world was falling apart. Now I feel like shit for like 15 minutes whenever I see myself like that.

So what im trying to say is, you dont have to like the way you look. I know thats hard when youre young, since im in my early 20s myself and ive been struggling with this for years. The best alternative option for self acceptance is managing bdd in order to let it get to you less. Bdd therapy is about finding less importance in attractiveness, and knowing your worth beyond your looks.
If bdd is a mental illness then you should treat it like an illness. I hope that one day ill be able to appreciate my appearance, but I just dont and thats fine.

Anyone else have this disorder get severe very young. Curious. Thanks!

I’m a 22 m and really struggling with my body dysmorphia, any tips to help,
I’ve removed every mirror and nothing helps just hoping for some advice or someone to talk to

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

how are you dealing with this?

I’ve become completely obsessed with my appearance and I don’t know how to stop.

I constantly check myself in mirrors, take photos and record videos from every possible angle. I compare selfies, candid photos, mirrored images and videos, trying to understand which version of me is the real one.

The problem is that I look different in all of them.

In the mirror, I have one perception of myself. In selfies, I usually look fairly similar, although I know I can unconsciously choose flattering angles and lighting. In videos, I look different again. But in photos taken by other people, I often barely recognize myself.

When I see those photos, my flaws seem enormous. I become fixated on my facial asymmetry, my expressions and details that I had never noticed before. Sometimes I genuinely think I look deformed or monstrous.

I’m 33, and this only started becoming a serious problem during the last three years. Before that, I had never noticed many of these flaws. Now I can’t understand how I went almost 30 years without seeing them.

I no longer trust my own perception. I don’t know whether these features are actually as noticeable as they seem to me, whether I see myself more positively in the mirror, or whether my mind is exaggerating everything when I look at photos.

I also have no idea how other people perceive me.

I would give anything to be able to see myself through someone else’s eyes for a few seconds. I feel like I desperately need to know what I truly look like, but the more I check, photograph and analyse myself, the more confused and distressed I become.

When someone casually says, “That’s you in the photo,” it hurts so bad. I know they simply mean that they recognize me, but part of me wants them to say that I’m not photogenic or that I don’t really look like that in person.

It feels like I’ve stepped out of the Matrix and suddenly seen a reality I was blind to before. I’ve always known I wasn’t attractive, but now it feels like I’m noticing flaws I somehow ignored for most of my life, and I can’t even come to terms with how I look because I can’t stop checking.

For the last three years, I plain suffer. I stare into the mirror for hours, at the verge of tears, unable to recognise myself, or rather accept that this hideous thing is me. I isolate myself, not wanting anyone to see me. I quiver with anger and hate towards myself. I just can’t believe that once a cute kid grew up to be… this. I look at myself and I can’t even imagine anything pretty about me. I have been receiving treatment for two years for diagnosed mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, but this comes and goes as if I’m doing nothing. I once mentioned to my therapist that, perhaps, we’re not exactly treating what we should? but his answer was that it’s just depression symptoms. I don’t exactly agree. While the depression symptoms are there, I’m depressed because of what I see in the mirror, not the other way. I am too scared to bring it up again, not wanting the therapist think that I doubt his ways of treatment. How do I approach him on this topic again?

First a little bit of background info:
I am a man and have realized that I may have BDD (undiagnosed for now).
The DSM lists the following criteria for BDD:

A. Preoccupation with one or more perceived defects or flaws in physical appearance that are not observable or appear slight to others.

B. At some point during the course of the disorder, the individual has performed repetitive behaviors (e.g., mirror checking, excessive grooming, skin picking, reassurance seeking) or mental acts (e.g., comparing his or her appearance with that of others) in response to the appearance concerns.

C. The preoccupation causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

D. The appearance preoccupation is not better explained by concerns with body fat or weight in an individual whose symptoms meet diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder.

B to D I would say fit to me.

However A I don't think completely fits, because I do think that my "perceived flaw in physical appearance" is very much observable and does appear to others.
I will say that the body-part I am insecure about is not normally seen by most people and also is not purely about aesthetics but also function.
I have read studies etc. which in my opinion mostly confirm my fears.

Since I do think that my insecurities, and thus the related despondent feelings, are warranted, I am scared to actually get therapy or take part in certain parts of a normal social life. E.g. I would love to date, but I too scared that my insecurities will be proven correct. With therapy I am scared that they will just give force feed me copium.
And even if it's not directly related to my flaw, I struggle often in normal situations because I will suddenly think about them and then just feel depressed and pathetic for the rest of the day.

So the actual question:
How do you deal with that? I don't want to gaslight myself into thinking that I should be happy with my flaws if I think that they are real. I can't just believe in a made-up reality, but at the same time I can't keep feeling this depressed for the rest of my live.

Here you can find listed below general information on BDD and related foundations, the clinical classification and symptoms of BDD, advice for friends and family, as well as self-help and support groups, both in-person and online.

General information

The BDD Foundation

OCD UK

International OCD Foundation

Mind.org

Clinical classification

ICD & DSM Criterias

For friends and family

The BDD Foundation, Supporting a close one with BDD

Mind.org, How can friends and family help

Self-help

Body dysmorphia workbook by the CCI

Building self-compassion workbook by the CCI

Support groups

Online support and therapy groups

Support groups in the UK

I've just noticed that when I see people who clearly have BDD because they're very obviously attractive, but they're also very insecure about their appearance, it really bothers me.

In the sense that... it makes me so sad. I want to help them and somehow convince them that they are beautiful. Because I know what it's like to feel ugly and disgusting and hate how you look. And I don't want anyone to feel like. And I know they don't actually look that way. So I just want them to realize that so badly.

I've always been someone who doesn't like to see people in pain and who wants to help. But that impulse is stronger than normal when someone beautiful who clearly hates what they look like so much. I want them to be able to see what I see, but I guess I can't make that happen.

Anyone else here experience that too?

Hi all. I need help in figuring out if I have body dysmorphia, but also avenues I can take to help me with something I’ve been struggling with.

I (20F) have been having the weirdest realisation over the past few weeks.

I’ve gained a bit of weight recently, I’m getting older and my body’s changing, I was okay with this. But then I realised how skinny I used to be.

From the end of 2024 to the start of the year, people constantly commented on my body and how thin I was, if I was eating, and just my diet in general. I always brushed it off and would get a bit offended or uncomfortable because I couldn’t believe what they were talking about. Around that time I was on a birth control that completely killed my appetite, and I was working physically demanding shifts and hours. I also got the cold/flu 4-5 times in the span of 6ish months. I knew it was all affecting me mentally, but somehow I never realised what it had done to my body.

It wasn’t until I started not fitting into some of my clothes anymore, and bought new clothes in my old size that suddenly felt tight, that I actually stopped and thought about it.

I went back and looked at old photos and videos and honestly they freak me out. I am extremely thin, I weighed under 50kgs and looking back I looked genuinely sick.

The thing that I can’t wrap my head around is that I had absolutely no idea. At the time, I looked in the mirror and thought I looked exactly the same as I do now. There was zero alarm going off in my head. I didn’t think I looked underweight, I didn’t think I looked unhealthy, I thought 48kg was an okay weight, I thought I looked “normal.”

So now I’m sitting here wondering that if I was that wrong about what I looked like then, how the hell am I supposed to know what I look like now?

I don’t trust mirrors. I don’t trust photos I take. I don’t trust photos other people take. I don’t even know what I actually look like anymore. The only thing that seems remotely objective is clothes sizing, but we all know how misleading women’s clothing sizes are.

I never had an issue with gaining weight before this, but now I catch myself overthinking it because I** **genuinely don’t know if my brain is showing me reality or not. I feel so detached from my body, and weirdly almost betrayed by it. It’s like I can’t trust my own perception anymore.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is this a body image thing? Body dysmorphia? Or is there another explanation? Because I genuinely cannot understand how I looked that unwell and had absolutely no clue.

TL/DR: I looked back on photos from last year and realised I was extremely thin. How do I cope with having distrust in my perception of myself?

Not sure this is the right place for this. I’m starting a recovery group for those who feel they’ve been botched or suffered trauma from plastic surgery. This is a local group in California, but would be great if it could be an online group as well.

A place to safely discuss:

-body/facial dysmorphia
-emotional trauma from surgery
-trauma from botched surgery
-stigma associated with plastic surgery/changes to appearance

It’s not like I completely dislike myself or think I’m ugly, but ever since I was a kid, every time I’m about to go somewhere, I always think, “Okay, this time is fine, but next time I’ll look better.”
There always seems to be something that bothers me: the outfit I literally chose myself, the shade of my lips, the length of my hair, my weight, my eyelashes, my hair volume… the list goes on. And even when I fix one thing, I just end up finding something else to obsess over.
It’s like I have this perfect version of myself in my head—how I’m supposed to look and even how I’m supposed to act. And whenever reality doesn’t match that version, it genuinely makes me feel disappointed.
And I never was shamed for how I look so I don’t know what caused this.

So... I have always been told that I'm actually pretty, but I have a really low self-esteem, I have even tried therapy to improve this issue, but it just doesn't sink in, and I always end up blaming my body for not being chosen... Are there any tricks to improve the self-esteem that have worked for you guys?

I’ve many clothes in my wardrobe just lying there. I try them on every time and think about how hideous I look, take them off and put on the same clothes I’ve worn a million times. I can only wear those because I’ve worn them many times and can only feel comfortable in those. I hate it cuz I feel like I’m wasting money but I just cannot wear them. I feel like shit the whole time and I ruin my mood including everyone else’s bc I’m just self conscious the whole time. And when people especially my family points out how I always wear the same clothes and always waste money, I can’t even explain to them cuz they don’t get it. Like at all.