What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder, in your own words?!

Body Dysmorphic Disorder is when you look in the mirror, and you see something TOTALLY different than severyone else sees. I am 5'5 and weigh 138 pounds, and when I look at myself, I see the body of a 300 pound woman...It is so real. You look in the mirror, and you think that is really what you look like. You have no idea that the image you see is distorted, and everyone else is seeing you as something totally different. It can cause you to hate yourself and your body. For me, it caused depression, and three different types of eating disorders all within a period of 2 years. For me, the first time I found out that I wasn't seeing what I really looked like was when my ballet teacher asked me to draw a picture of myself and at the same time, she draw a picture of what SHE thought I looked like. My picture showed a sverly obese person, while hers showed a severly underweight person...Even though I am slowoly recovering from my eating disorder, I still have Body Dismorphic Disorder, and I think it might never go away. It is horrible. If you think you or a friend have this, please talkto somebody. You can always email me, and I will do everthing I can to help.

luv2dance4jesus1@yahoo.com

Body dysmorphic disorder technically is when someone sees something quite different in the mirror than what they actually look like. Say a 90 pound girl looking in the mirror and seeing a 130 pound girl. Or thinking that when you're in public that everyone is thinking you're a huge fat disgusting whale when really you have a normal body or really thin. My problem is my nose. It isn't perfectly straight, it has a bump in it and constantly everyday I feel like if someone stares at my profile angle they see a hideous bump in my nose and think I'm ugly. I hate it so much I fantasize about plastic surgery all the time. I don't know how bad it seems to other people, but to me it is a monstrous flaw on my face that actually interferes with my life. Sometimes BDD is so bad that people isolate themselves for fear of being seen. Some people become addicted to plastic surgery, which never truly solves the problem. It is a horrible disorder that is best avoided because once it reaches certain levels it can be nearly impossible to overcome.

What i think it is a distortion of what the person see's in the mirror. He or she can have a beautiful figure or a guy very athletic body but they see different ugliness, body huge and disgusting and they feel ashamed to be seen in public. It is a very cruel illness to anyone but can be helped greatly more or less with intensive therapy.

An abnormal or distorted interpretation of a body part or body shape.