I'm not vain or attention seeking. (Body Dysmorphic Disorder in General)

Member Name: blackviolets

Product:	Body Dysmorphic Disorder in General
Date:	28/06/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: doctors see it as more of a problem now

Disadvantages: not enough information is put out about it for some people to understand that it's a real problem.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder. The amount of people I've come across who actually know about the condition are few and far between. Those that have, I find are split into different groups.

Either knowing and having a some kind of understanding as to what it would be like or believing it to be attention seeking and applying to vain people who like to fish for compliments.

Usually called BDD, body dysmorphic disorder is a psychiatric disorder, in which the affected are considerably preoccupied or concerned about some part of their appearance. For some reason people seem to assume that this has to be visable to everybody, a defect maybe, but even the most attractive person could be suffering.

Shadows under the eyes, a mole or maybe just your face not being symmetrical can be some of the things which can stop the sufferer from even leaving the house.

It is more likely to be classed as associated with females, especially when younger however this is not the case. Research has shown that it is to an equal ratio that men suffer from this just as much.

Somebody who has BDD is seen as quite a major thing to many doctors because it has such a high suicide rate, that is one of the problems which can drive people into an even darker depression.

That a lot of non sufferers don't see it as a valid reason to commit suicide can make those who do feel like this find themselves more locked into themselves. Not wanting to admit that something so small to some is incredibly massive for them.

In some more severe but rare cases there have been times when they have felt the need to cut off what they feel is not acceptable. A lot of time however, it is difficult to point out what you feel is so hideously ugly.

A general thought is that there is nothing beautiful about yourself. How can you go out in public and have people stare at you because you are such a freak. That they will laugh at you. You can't possibly get a job because nobody would employ somebody that ugly. You'll never be married, have children or a family. So what's the point in living.

There was a programme on BBC4 a few years back called Too Ugly For Love, going through the lives of three different people. A man who always wore sunglasses to hide the shadows under his eyes, a young lady who couldn't go out of the house without wearing mascara and another who had had countless numbers of nose jobs but still couldn't be happy with her looks.

It doesn't happen very often with a TV production would delve into this type of psychiatric problem, sadly even then it didn't get that much praise or recognition for the topic.

Despite all the other mental health awareness websites out there I have only come across one for BDD. (www.thebddfoundation.org) Even though it has been one of the many underlyings that can kick start somebody into feeling bad about yourself it is still not recognised as something which is serious enough for others to be concerned with.

After all, it's just attention seeking and pure vanity isn't it. *sarcasm intended*

Summary: .