Is Body Dysmorphic Disorder? Essay

It is undeniable that cosmetic plastic surgery has become mainstream across the world. The American Society of Plastic Surgery estimates that 10.2 million procedures occurred last year, which places the demand at a staggering 32 percent increase (Nowak 18, Metules 32ac1). Physical beauty has been proven to reap benefits in our competitive society, and the desire for such is clouding judgement. Psychiatric nurse Terri Metules finds that her patients believe plastic surgery to be painless and risk-free: “[they] think they can get liposuction or a face lift performed during their lunch hour” (32ac1). In actuality, these dramatic procedures have dangers that run far deeper than physical health. Mental processes are highly malleable and more awareness should be brought to many patients struggling with body dysmorphia, depression, anxiety, poly surgical addiction, munchausen syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other emotional and social disturbances. These

Demi Lovato once said, “I’m not going to sacrifice my mental health to have the perfect body.” However, today we find that many individuals are doing the completely opposite. In Susan Bordo’s, “Globalization of Eating Disorders” essay, they fall into the media trap, the self-image trap, where they are concerned of what people may think about them. Americans nowadays have pageants, modeling, and media to thank for this absurd notion. Fit women, along with strong men give this motivation to others to want to be like them. Most people should be comfortable with their own bodies. Americans are mesmerized with media and enthralled by one’s body image, and ,as a result, face ramifications like eating disorders and anorexia.

In a generation filled with entertainment and technology, there are many advertisements that exist. Advertisements, such as clothing advertisements, involve lots of touch ups on the model, making what the world sees, a fake reality of what human body look like. For some of the North American population, these advertisements do not affect them; they will look at the body of the model and not think much of it. But for those who suffer from Body Dysmorphic Disorder, this will affect them in a completely different way. Body Dysmorphic Disorder is “a body image disorder characterized by persistent and intrusive preoccupations with an imagined or slight defect in one’s appearance” (ADAA, 2014). The impact that advertisements can have on those suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder, can be crucial to their mental health. These individuals will begin to obsess over changing something about themselves that may not even be an imperfection about them. But since a model or someone else looks a certain way and they do not, they will do anything they can to change it, which can be very unhealthy. Those with Body Dysmorphic Disorder will perform different behaviours to attempt at hiding or improving their flaws (ADAA, 2014). Some of those who are suffering may even develop an eating disorder.

In the article, Understanding Body Dysmorphic Disorder: An Essential Guide, Katharine defined as a condition whereby individuals feel dissatisfied with their physical appearance (12). This condition is caused by brain differences, genes, and environment. An abnormal brain anatomy might play a huge role in making people susceptible to this health condition. People with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (B.D.D) have been known to inherit the conditions from their parents. Environmental factors such as culture contribute to making a person develop the dysmorphic disorder. These environments usually contain negative social interactions with people who make funny comments about an individual's physical appearance.

It's tempting to want to get plastic surgery. It makes those with Body Dysmorphic Disorder feel better about themselves. Plastic Surgery has exploded the last couple decades being a popular trend from people being unsatisfied with their body, with a goal towards perfection. No wonder these modern day popular procedures are being used as a self improver to achieve perfection of one's looks for those with BDD. It may question many, why do people of BDD have the urge of aiming for perfection? The disorder causes them to have obsession with their appearance. They may thrive on a boost to their confidence in their workplace or school. It usually will help them with confidence for a while causing even better outcomes. The issue is it won't be long term confidence assuming surgery goes accordingly, and assuming surgery goes wrong it can cause major disappointment emotionally.

Teenagers experiencing body dysmorphic disorder tend to make unhealthy decisions, therefore, they need an app that can reduce distress, increase healthy food intake and provide relaxation exercises because that will help them feel more satisfied with their life. Body dysmorphic disorder is a condition of a person that is repeatedly stressed about their appearance flaws. Victims of body dysmorphic disorder are mainly teenagers of this generation, who are overly conscious of their body image, therefore, they may choose to avoid company, take on severe diets and exercise, past their limits. Anything unpleasant or that exert their comfort zone is considered harmful as it will cause the brain to take dangerous decisions, like, commit suicide. To get teenagers to do these things in a comfortable and controllable way, we need an app that could track how much time is spent alone, what nutritious foods are needed and how much exercise should be done.

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.

The superficial quality of physical appearance has been held to a high regard for most of human history. Unfortunately, this focus on external perfection has been the root of many mental illnesses, including Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Body Dysmorphic Disorder is characterized by the obsessive fixation upon a person’s perceived, often nonexistent, physical deformity (“Studies” 1).

Body dysmorphic disorder is a psychological disorder in which a person thinks about their flaws and imperfections for hours a day and take extreme measures in order to “perfect their body” so it can finally appeal to them and be the way it is “suppose to be.” Those who suffer from this disorder cannot control there negative thoughts and it can prevent them from doing everyday activities such as attend school and attend work. They are more prone to miss social events than go out to show off their results and are insecure about how they tried to fix there “imperfections.” And are never satisfied with their results as they undergo more drastic measures to reach their end goal such as plastic surgery, continuous self-tanning, hours of laser surgeries

If you could critique anything on your body what would it be? That is a question nearly everyone would have an answer to. We may hear people complain about a certain physique on their body that they are not quite satisfied with. Some may be unsatisfied with the following appearances: face blemishes, a crooked smile, a chipped tooth, big feet, small ears and etc., just to name a few. Others may think or complain about their appearances on a daily, and that my friend is what you call, body dysmorphic disorder.

Therefore, the commendation of such look and shape commercializes unhealthy body image and procreates eating disorders. Unfortunately, at present the commercialism of a perfect body is encountered by almost everyone on everyday basis. The public is bombarded daily with images of glamorously thin women in commercials, on billboards, in movies in magazines and etc?According to Melanie Katzman, a consultant psychologist from New York, the media has actively defined the thin ideal as success and treats the body as a commodity. (Rhona MacDonald, 2001) It is evident that the persistent advocating of the media and the society produced a constant pursuit of thinness, which became a new religion. A study conducted by Harvard researchers has revealed the effect of media and magazines on adolescent girls in high schools. The children were exposed to fashion magazines and television commercials, and a while after were given self-rating surveys. The study found that sixty-nine percent of the girls said that magazine pictures

Body dysmorphic disorder also shows up in other countries. BDD is a common disorder among individuals seeking aesthetic surgery in Iran. In Brazil, prevalence of the disorder in dermatologic patients was evaluated in a sample of 150 patients in a cosmetic group, 150 in a general dermatology group, and 50 control subjects. Prevalence in the cosmetic group was 14%, compared with 6.7% for the general group, and 2% for the control group.

A psychosomatic disorder includes Body Dysmorphic Disorder. This disorder allows a person to think negative about their real selves for many hours each day. This is because they believe that any part of their body is not perfect for them. They believe that no matter what their friends or family tell them about how great they look, they wish that they had a better and skinnier body, face shape, etc. Since this disease doesn’t let them control what they think, it is hard for them to not be stressed out because their mind causes them to be in an emotional distress state, which causes their daily routines to be disturbed (ADAA 2014). According to Anxiety and Depression Association of America, they stated that “it affects men and women almost equally”

At the end of my speech, the audience will have a better understanding on how society plays a big role on women’s body image. They will also be able to identify the relationship between body image distortion and eating disorders. Finally, I will provide further understanding on the crucial factors of eating disorders, as well as the different treatments available.

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.