What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder? Self-help for BDD

It's when you're not just insecure about certain aspects of your appearance but are spending lots of time obsessing over, hiding, or trying to correct what you see as flaws. It's when you know, objectively others don't view those aspects as abnormal or ugly, but you are unable to escape the stress and anxiety that your body image causes you.

The difference comes in when your preoccupation with your appearance causes you exceeding amount of distress or interferes with your daily life - this means a bigger problem.

If the drive to improve your body or erase a particular "flaw" dominates your thoughts and actions, despite having received constant reassurance from your family and closed ones that you look fine, you may have BDD.

Their symptoms overlap in numerous ways (e.g. both usually appear during adolescence and manifest in repetitive behaviours such as skin-picking and constant checking of mirrors). The main difference is that BDD involves an exclusive focus on compulsive behaviours related to appearance, while ODD can have various types of obsessive thoughts and behaviours.

It's also hard for people with BDD to understand and acknowledge their symptoms.