# Body Dysmorphia!



## beefyflamingo (Nov 6, 2013)

So I was reading and it seems fairly similar to DP.

What do you all think?


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## TDX (Jul 12, 2014)

What do you mean?


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## beefyflamingo (Nov 6, 2013)

they both seem to have some of the same symptoms and I was wondering how different they really are.


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## Guest (Jan 22, 2015)

Do you mean BDD? If so they are pretty different disorders in the way we see ourselves at least.


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## beefyflamingo (Nov 6, 2013)

They are both fuelled by anxiety, and DP involves distortions with the body.

Sometimes when i try to visualize my face, its all distorted and doesn't look like me. I also can't picture myself at the right height. I'm 5'11 but I can't visualize myself at the same height standing next to people that are 5'11, as well as a bunch of other shit.

Is this DP?


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## inferentialpolice (Nov 26, 2012)

Dissociation-aware researchers are sensitive to a possible dissociative-self-state underlying a distorted and/or shifting sense of one's body. Certainly the dissociative condition of derealization (eg, Depersonalization/Derealization disorder), and the dissociative condition of a more significant dysfunctional or distressful state of unintegrated consciousness (eg, DDNOS or DID) has been known to account for the body dysmorphic sensation in patients. The particular manifestation(s), eg, not recognizing oneself in the mirror, one's limbs changing sizes or feeling that the limbs are not your own, gender identity confusion, body size sensations, are merely a few of the possible (and classic) symptoms. A good read covering the dissociative spectrum is the book Stranger in the Mirror, with a website at www.strangerinthemirror.com The book includes five self-tests that speak to each of the five seminal (and often hidden) symptoms exhibited by a person who has a dissociative disorder.


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## *Dreamer* (Feb 18, 2014)

I would have to say that DP/DR and Body Dysmorphic Disorder are not the same.

First, from the Merck Manual: Body Dysmorphic Disorder

http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/psychiatric_disorders/obsessive-compulsive_and_related_disorders/body_dysmorphic_disorder.html?qt=Body%20Dysmorphic%20Disorder&alt=sh

*Criteria include the following:*

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

Performance of repetitive behaviors (eg, mirror checking, excessive grooming) in response to the appearance concerns

The preoccupation causes significant distress or impairs social, occupational or other areas of functioning

*Key Points*

*Patients are preoccupied with ≥ 1 perceived defects in their physical appearance that are not apparent or appear only slight to other people.*

*In response to the appearance concerns, patients perform repetitive behaviors (eg, mirror checking, excessive grooming) and/or take measures to camouflage or remove the perceived defect.*

*Patients typically have poor or absent insight and genuinely believe that the disliked body area looks abnormal or unattractive.
Treat using cognitive-behavioral therapy involving cognitive approaches and ritual prevention, as well as drug therapy with an SSRI or clomipramine*

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An extreme example of this might be anorexia nervosa where even though one is of normal weight, one sees one's self as "fat" to others, to one's self, or even in a mirror. Someone with BDD might have plastic surgery that is completely unnecessary.

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DP/DR are perceptual distortions but they do not make us wish to change our appearance, and we do not feel we are "ugly" or that others see defects in our faces/bodies that aren't there.

I would say you are describing dissociative symptoms, particularly DP and DR. DP = a distortion in the way your body feels -- example: "my hands feel like dough" or "my arms seem unattached from my body" (I have that last symptom and it drives me crazy -- though I KNOW it is not real.
Also, one may look in the mirror and not recognize one's self, or as has happened to me, I ask, "Is that me? How can that be me? I know it is but ..." getting into the existential thinking again.

Distortions of feeling a change in size are actually known as Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. You may feel short ... again, a perceptual distorition. I have actually felt AWS myself.

BDD is considered related to OCD and anxiety disorders. DP/DR are dissociative disorders. Fragmentation of sense of "SELF" ... DP/DR has no amnesia for events. DID, Dissociative Amnesia, and DDNOS can include amnesia for events.

Personally I still would like to put DP/DR in the anxiety disorders category.

IMHO


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## *Dreamer* (Feb 18, 2014)

Bottom line difference:
BDD preoccupation with how one looks, and having fears/obsessions of looking imperfect or ugly or fat, etc.

DP/DR
Perceptual distortion of Self (DP) -- detached from physical body. Perceptual distortion of the world - (DR) -- things look flat, 2-D, dim

Also one experiences existential thinking, feeling as if one "doesn't exist." YET one has complete awareness that this isn't normal.

With BDD, an individual may be grossly underweight, and actually see themselves in the mirror as fat.

I am not an expert on this. But this is how I understand the difference between the two disorders.

Dr. Mauricio Sierra has never mentioned a connection with BDD to the best of my knowledge, and I don't think Steinberg has either. I have read her book, and I have read Sierra's medical text, "Depersonalization: A New Look At A Neglected Syndrome" -- I want to look in the index right now.


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## *Dreamer* (Feb 18, 2014)

I just glanced at the index in both Steinberg's text and Sierra's text. Neither index references BDD.
I haven't read through these books in a while, but to the best of my recollection BDD is not related to DP/DR.

I suppose someone with BDD could experience DP/DR at the same time. But DP/DR comes along with so many disorders I don't see a direct connection.


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