Are YOU looking at ME?
Learning about Body Dysmorphia was really instructive to me. Before I understood about the phenomenon of normal people seeing one of their features - literally seeing - grossly distorted, I thought we were dealing with people who over valued appearance.
In truth, if my nose truly grew to ten times its size or one side of my mouth drooped completely to the side, or even if the change was a severe case of acne - it would affect me emotionally. If I thought my body had become larger or smaller - and everyone insisted it was not - I would become distrustful and frustrated.
And although BDD has not been conclusively linked to eating disorders, the distorted body image of those who suffer from eating disorders - especially before they are weight restored over a long period - is described so well in BDD that I recommend everyone in the ED world read "Broken Mirror" to understand the phenomenon.
A recently published study of BDD patients has offered some insight: "detail encoding and analysis rather than holistic processing." In other words, the brain may be focused on the trees and blind to the forest.
In truth, if my nose truly grew to ten times its size or one side of my mouth drooped completely to the side, or even if the change was a severe case of acne - it would affect me emotionally. If I thought my body had become larger or smaller - and everyone insisted it was not - I would become distrustful and frustrated.
And although BDD has not been conclusively linked to eating disorders, the distorted body image of those who suffer from eating disorders - especially before they are weight restored over a long period - is described so well in BDD that I recommend everyone in the ED world read "Broken Mirror" to understand the phenomenon.
A recently published study of BDD patients has offered some insight: "detail encoding and analysis rather than holistic processing." In other words, the brain may be focused on the trees and blind to the forest.
Thanks for sharing your experience with an eating disorder. An eating disorder not only affects the person who has it, but everyone around them, since friends, family, and any other loved ones go through massive stress to try and help their sick loved one. Most people that havent had to go through this have NO idea what that is like. This is why the A&E show Intervention is so important. It demonstrates how difficult addiction and eating disorders can be and uses a highly qualified team of specialists to address the core issues. The show really does a great job of showing what it takes to get on the road to recovery for some of the most difficult addictions and disorders and how it affects everyone involved. Check out http://www.aetv.com/intervention for more on the show. I’m working to help support the show because I think addiction and recovery are very important topics and Americans need to be informed on them. A new episode airs on A&E every Monday night at 9:00 PM
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