Quote From: jackiec751 You are all so off the mark on this. BDD is not about vanity.
BDD is in the category of OCD's. just as the anorexic looks in the mirror and sees fat, the person with BDD sees their reflection, and, in my case, sees a hideous freak. I've had this disorder for many years and am now 57. I have perfected the ability to almost never see my reflection. I can fix my hair and put on makeup and not look at my face. Consequently, if enough time passes that I don't see my face, I start to believe that I'm wrong, maybe I'm not a monster. But then, I'll accidently see my reflection in a store window and am horrified. I must immediately go home and pull the covers over my head while I berate myself for thinking I might be normal looking. Not beautiful mind you, just human looking. BDD is also a very secret illness. People don't often tell the people in their lives that they have it. The few times I have, people simply couldn't grasp it. It's just too strange. One therapist I saw about it, suggested I use a drug given to schzophrenics to control hallucinations. I have no idea why my brain works this way. But I can assure you it's not about beauty and ego. It goes far beyond that.
Just because you don't experience it, and can't imagine experiencing it , doesn't invalidate it. Have compassion. Someone you know and love might be suffering in silence.
I just can't understand this "illness". I'm thinking that this may be a bonified "western" version of OCD but, honestly, all I can say is this - we CREATE THIS MONSTER by our cultural obsessions with looks and someone's (who, by the way) ideas of what "BEAUTIFUL" is anyway. Either get the correct medicine or be BDD and live anyway....
Maybe i'm wrong, but when I am made aware of the people who are struggling to survive war and dying and finding food and shelter, sustanence - etc., I'm sure that we would put aside thoughts of a mirror image..... perhaps we just have it so good that we just have the time to obsess about these types of things. I mean, if you HAD TO SURVIVE - a person would put on a mask to cover the perceived ugliness (these girls were, frankly, beautiful....by stereotypical standards.) and get their daily business done... especially if their lives were at stake. In other words, be "ugly" and go about your business anyway. Honestly......
I saw a documentary about people starving in Ethopia in 2004 - no food but grass in 21 days. I hazard to believe that anyone of us would put aside obsessions like these if our lifes were in dire jeopardy.....
We worry about these things because we can. My heart goes out to these enabling parents. WHAT DO YOU DO, anyway? I have no idea how I would resolve my mind around this as a parent.
I'm an obese individual and I have to watch ET tonite ridicule obese people by putting models in fat suits and telling the world how everyone laughs about them while they waddle around in their fake suits until they cry and beg to have the fat suits taken off. I mean.... what is the purpose of this exercise? Pity? Understanding? I don't get it.
I mean, HUH? This is my life..... I'm a size 22 - according to these suited beauties - UGLY!!!!! Well, I can't just fold up and live in my house behind curtins. I have to SURVIVE.... WORK..... PAY BILLS.... WORK HARD AT MY DIET..... REINFORCE MY BRAIN WITH GOOD T HOUGHTS.... EXIST IN A WESTERN WORLD THAT GLORIFIES SMALL BLONDS WITH LITHE BODIES.... OH WELL!!!!
I don't have any answers but I live, pay my bills and make my way independently every day anyway.
There in place no matter what.....
