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This is last blog and we want to acknowledge everyone on how to overcome Body Dysmorphic Disorder! It is important that the patients to follow the advice of the experts, take the medication if prescribed and follow through with all the therapy offered to. It’s also helpful to get family and friends whom you trust involved in helping you achieve your goals. There are also specialist counsellors who can help the BDD patients for over the longer-term.
The process of BDD’s treatment will involve patients being asked questions by a psychologist, covering areas like any compulsions, obsessions or disappointing feelings they have over their body image or appearance and about their overall emotional state.
The questions will be asked like ‘do you have any excessive grooming habits’, ‘avoidance tactics you might use in relation to social situations’ and ‘what is your overall perception about how you feel about yourself as a person from a physical perspective’?
Treatment for patients who are suffering from BDD might initially come in the form of anti-depressant medication. And the most effective treatment is called cognitive behaviour therapy or psychotherapy to get to the root of the problem. During these ‘talk therapy’ sessions, patients will be taught how to channel their negative thoughts about their image and how to replace them with positive ones.
Furthermore, the BDD patients often are asked to carry out certain behavioural assignments with the aim of enabling them to break patterns of negative behaviour. For instance, they might be encouraged and taught how to reduce the number of times they look in the mirror each day to start with. And then, their perceptions will become less distorted. They will be given help in learning how to feel more comfortable in social settings and around other people, without feeling so self-conscious.
Both therapy and medication-based treatment chooses are used to help those with BDD patients. These treatments are aimed to improve quality of life and overall day-to-day functioning of those with BDD, while also reducing the distress associated with appearance concerns and compulsive behaviors that are also commonly seen in BDD.
What is Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)?
It has been shown to be helpful in treating BDD symptoms both in individual therapy or group therapy. It is a form of talking therapy that aims to identify connections between your thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and help you to develop practical skills to manage them. CBT can be delivered one-to-one or in a group. It is the only type of psychological treatment for BDD that is supported by research. Another CBT technique that is extremely valuable is called “Cognitive Restructuring”, in which clients learn to challenge the validity of their distorted body-related thoughts.
CBT is aim to address the key features of BDD to make the patients feel less distressed about your body:
- It can improve the general attitude to body image and physical appearance
- Talking concerns about patients’ perceived physical flaws
- It can reduce the need to carry out unhelpful behaviours
A type of medication called serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) is the first-line medication for treating BDD. These medications are antidepressants and can help reduce obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours (symptoms of BDD).
I hope everyone can takeaway some useful information about the treatment for BDD!