Treating BDD
What treatments are most effective for BDD?
Most effective treatments are medications and psychotherapy. And specifically, medications that seem to be helpful are serotonin react inhibitors. And the type of therapy is cogni hypnotherapy.
Why would I see a therapist if BDD is a physical problem?
Well, that's usually what people with BDD think. They think their problem is physical, so why spend money on seeing a shrink when I can go to a cosmetic surgeon and actually fix the problem. Well, the reason is that the problem is actually not with the appearance, the problem is in the brain. It's the way that the person is perceiving themselves and feeling about appearance, rather than the actual external surface.
Can a dermatologist or plastic surgeon treat BDD?
Seeking cosmetic surgery usually does not solve the problem. They can't get it fixed, whatever they think is defective. Either what will happen usually is that they'll feel dissatisfied with how it has changed and want to go back and get a revision, or maybe they'll temporarily feel okay about it but they'll move onto their number two concern and then start obsessing about that. And so, again something is going to come up, the BDD is not fixed by fixing the appearance.
What should I look for in a therapist?
You really need to have a therapist that has familiarity with body dimorphic disorder because not all of them do. And so first of all a therapist that has experience treating body dimorphic disorder is of primary importance. And I think also a therapist that knows how to do cognitive behavioral therapy and again has experience doing that is also very important.
How can group therapy help me overcome BDD?
Group therapy can actually be very effective for people with body dimorphic disorder, but usually after they've already been in individual therapy first. It's often hard for people to be able to tolerate sitting in a group with other people thinking that everybody's looking at their appearance. It can be helpful, because it's very normalizing. They can see that "Wow, that person here in the group, she looks entirely normal to me. Maybe there's not something wrong with my appearance. If she can think that and she looks attractive, maybe the same thing's happening with me."
