Body Dysmorphic Disorder Analysis

An examination of current literature in the field of psychology has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy is an empirically supported and effective treatment type for a multitude of disorders, especially a variety of anxiety disorders.

This paper therefore focuses on several known disorders and its treatment by cognitive behavioral therapy. The next section will discuss shortly the content of cognitive behavioral therapy. Then the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for several disorders will be presented as is known in literature. However, it is out of the scope of this paper to present all known literature on this subject. Therefore, literature mentioning het main results about the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy will be presented. The differences and similarities will be discussed and at the end the conclusion will provide insight in the overall effectiveness.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in contrast to many other therapeutic frameworks has both an explicit rationale and an empirically demonstrable success rate. In addition to the wealth of published case histories there are a plethora of controlled studies attesting to the efficacy of CBT interventions with an equally diverse range of psychological and behavioral conditions. (Emmelkamp et al 1992).

Most contemporary psychological treatment approaches are predecessors of the ancient and medieval philosophies and theories. Cognitive behavioural therapy as one of the modern treatment method in not an independently formed treatment, different theories have contributed to its present shape and application.

     One type of therapy used is psychotherapy, which “should focus on helping the individual understand the nature and consequences of his disorder so he can be helped to control his behavior” (Black, 2000). Another type of therapy used is cognitive therapy,

Upon reflection, I have decided to go into more research on this topic through the question of: What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder and how have print and television advertisements

of therapy you would recommend. Be specific: Rather than recommending “a behavioral approach” state whether

This disorder focuses insecurities and imagined/minor defects in their appearance that negatively impact their life. These insecurities can range from wrinkles, size of nose, and body odor. I can definitely relate to this disorder. In the book, it states that this disorder begin in adolescence years and that is where it started with me. When I was in middle school, I became very self-conscious of my appearance. The size of my head was my biggest insecurities. Even though I learned to love myself unconditionally and understand that kids can be cruel, it was a horrible experience. I used to get picked on daily for my head size and started to believe it was true. I would cry myself to sleep and try to google how to make my head smaller. I prayed every night for the ideal look I wanted. I even wore hairstyles that covered my face. It really did take a toll on me. I remember thinking about suicide. After my mother found that out, she took the initiative to remind me I am beautiful every day and I got my features from my family. Luckily, I grew out of it and accepted me for me. I realized the girls who tortured were jealous of

People now a days have a problem with the way they appear. For hundreds of years, people, especially females, have been concerned with their weight, the way they look, and the way people perceive them. In the article, Do You Have a Body Image Problem? author Dr. Katharine A. Phillips discusses the concerns with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Dr. Phillips uses her knowledge or ethics to discuss the effects that BDD has on people today. She also uses emotion to show the reader how people are seriously affected by this disorder. In Dr. Phillips article, she discusses how people are emotionally and socially affected by the body dysmorphic disorder, and how society is also affected by it.

CBT is defined as a form of mental health based counseling, focusing on errors of cognition and perception. It usually involves a limited number of individual outpatient sessions (Park et al., 2013). This form of therapy, “helps you become aware of inaccurate or negative thinking, so you can view challenging situations more clearly and respond to them in a more effective way,” (“Cognitive behavioral therapy”, 2014, para. 1).

Chronic dieting, low self-esteem, depression and, high levels of body dissatisfaction were among the major issues women face when addressing their body image (Gingras, Fitzpatrick, & McCargar, 2004). The severity of body image dissatisfaction have increased to such a dangerous state that it was added to the DSM-IV as a disorder now called body dysmorphic disorder (Suissa, 2008). One of the main reasons for the prevalence of these conditions in women was due to contemporary Western media, which serve as one of the major agent in enforcing an ultra-thin figure as the ideal for female beauty (Saraceni & Russell-Mayhew, 2007). These images and models presented by the media have become the epitome of beauty, pushing women who internalized these images to dangerous extent to attain these norms. According to evidence from previous studies, contemporary Western cultures have influenced women to an acquired normative state of discontent with their bodies, which have become the source of maladaptive eating practices, negative psychological outcomes, and, chronic health conditions associated with eating disorders (Snapp, Hensley-Choate, & Ryu, 2012). The seriousness of these body image conditions among youths and women have also led to congressional actions.

A large nose, acne-prone skin, single eyelids, and the list goes on. We all wish we could change that one imperfection we have. However, some of us can accept it and carry on with our lives; not for sufferers of body dysmorphic disorder.

When we think of psychology, most of the time people think of all the usual stereotypes. They dream up in their heads the “shrink” sitting in a chair, with the patient randomly talking as they write away what they are saying on paper. Or perhaps they drum up images of horrible, scary institutions where people are “thrown away” never to be heard from again. In reality there are many variations of this profession, including therapies and techniques. They are helpful people to people of not only mental illness, but those who suffer from stress, anxiety, this list can go on. Though for my paper I will be writing about cognitive behavior therapy, which is a combination of as the name states cognitive and behavior therapies. My hope is to do the subject matter justice in my research paper.

During the following three decades, numerous innovative treatment and intervention methods and standpoints were presented as opposed to the customary psychodynamic approachs. Of the many approaches to clinical psychology, four are major and consist of the behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, and family classifications. By employing these four major approaches the effectiveness of treatment is heightened (Plante, 2011).

Some individuals have “delusions of ugliness or misshapenness” (Bradbury, 301). This is called body dysmorphic disorder. They hold the belief that something is wrong with them despite them not being ugly at all. The patients` lives gets taken over by the need to find the “cure,” to rid them of their self-thought strange looks. Most patients with this disorder find themselves dejected and felt great shame in how they looked. Patients saw how they looked to be “socially unacceptable and as arousing strong adverse reactions in others, which led to social avoidance.” (Bradbury,