People Are Ignorant About Body Dysmorphic Disorder

[Funkymonk1]

I'm not talking about you guys! In fact, I think it's obvious that quite a few people here suffer from BDD but I generally feel it's an illness that isn't understood or talked about.
Just the other day I was called "vain" by a woman in work. I can actually understand this because to someone who isn't educated about it ther's a thin line between BDD and vanity; Both involve being obsessed with your looks but are actually opposites because vanity is taking excessive pride and being in love with your appearance and BDD is excessive worry/loathing your appearance and thinking your appearance is flawed.
I think it's something that the wider public needs to be educated on for several reasons 1) It's a serious mental disorder that can take over your life. 2) It can be irrational I admit; often the things you think are ugly or flawed can be miniscule or not even noticeable to others. To the uneducated it makes you sound ridiculous but to those who suffer it can be debilitating. 3) People who have BDD possibly don't even know they have it and those who do simply arn't going to talk about it because they know people won't understand and they'll be seen as vain or shallow as in the example above. 4) BDD is seen as part of depression and not always treated as an illness on it's own.

 

[Alex_325]

"People Are Ignorant About Males With Body Dysmorphic Disorder "

Fixed that for you. Stacy has the support of the usual army of white knights,media with their body acceptance campaigns and feminists.

Poor beta bill? lol

 

[jasonstatham]

Their has been a huge increase of male plastic surgery, hairtransplants, going to expensive "barber", doing your eyebrows and nails (faggots), hairsystems, self improving gurus and every slightly Red Pilled guy is now a "PUA" and peopling running in workshops left and right.

I do think most men are "pressured" into a soft version of BDD. But no one is actualy talking about it. For a women just the slight suggestion to maybe lose some weight or she dies from a heart atack, will get backlash left and right and male obese guys are getting told to "man the f*** up". Both are 2 extremes.

The Problem is that we have an elephant in the room and no one is talking about it. "the Red Pill" community now getting bigger and bigger, more males are now aware of the hypergamy of females. And we live in a society without religion, abortion, anti baby Pills, you go girl f*** your Chad on Tinder society. The competition now is insane and more men are aware of that. Second thing is, lots of males do not have any purpose in life and they give themselves purpose in getting "better". More muscles, more hair, "more knowledge", more money...more more more. You can see that reflect in this Forum. Daily young guys under 18 asking for advice if they lose hair. Im not saying that anyone of those have BDD, some do have a hair problem and getting early on treatment is good but its insane how young males are more and more insecure. We had an article not long ago that young men are afraid to go swimming because "I dont have the perfect body yet"....jesus christ.

 

[Funkymonk1]

@jasonstatham yes and that's one of the contradictory things about today screwed up society - todays culture and media is more looks obsessed then ever and people are under more pressure then ever to look good but if a guy takes pride in his appearance he's looked down on as vain or conceited. You can't win.

 

[Trichosan]

Interesting perception. You guys must live in Beverly Hills. Come to my town if you want to see people who don't give a crap about how they look. Then I'll take you to the local Walmart if you really want your eyes opened.

 

[jasonstatham]

Interesting perception. You guys must live in Beverly Hills. Come to my town if you want to see people who don't give a crap about how they look. Then I'll take you to the local Walmart if you really want your eyes opened.

Its all over europe mate. I dont know about the US. But the Walmart people already gave up on life. Thats again, the other extreme to the Beverly Hills beauty people.

Question is, are you living in Beverly Hills? 1000 messages are quit a lot "just for hair".

 

[Funkymonk1]

Interesting perception. You guys must live in Beverly Hills. Come to my town if you want to see people who don't give a crap about how they look. Then I'll take you to the local Walmart if you really want your eyes opened.

I hear you but you're talking about vanity which again isn't the same thing as BDD. BDD isn't about caring about how you look, it's a mental disorder and it's more about obsessively hating how you look.

I was at a nice resort for a relatively long period of time. I got to see people during the day chilling/swimming and the nightlife. I saw all extremes of people as expected in terms of putting in effort for looks. People who let themselves go completely and didn't care, most were in the middle and then the people who put in a lot of effort. This is nothing surprising when you bear in mind the bell curve. But if you adjust this for looks and age, it was actually interesting. Most good looking people (even older ones) had not let themselves deteriorate from my observation. You could tell they took care of themselves in terms of keeping in shape, hair, skin and dress sense. It's easy to see why. If you're older, balder or uglier, it takes a lot of commitment to not fall further or BDD/OCD to keep you in check. Socio economic status also plays a big role in taking care of your health. BDD is a different story and it is on the rise mainly due to social media.

I also think BDD can affect anyone - ugly and good looking. I've been told I'm good looking and seem to get a fair bit of female attention but I still obsess about my nose shape or the bags under my eyes.

 

[Trichosan]

I hear you but you're talking about vanity which again isn't the same thing as BDD. BDD isn't about caring about how you look, it's a mental disorder and it's more about obsessively hating how you look.



I also think BDD can affect anyone - ugly and good looking. I've been told I'm good looking and seem to get a fair bit of female attention but I still obsess about my nose shape or the bags under my eyes.

Well that's very true, in which case my comment was out of context. One might assume, perhaps (?), that teens, expecially young girls go through an emotional stage growing up where they have a hard time dealing with physical changes in their bodies. But, fortunately, not chronic usually like BDD.

 

[jasonstatham]

I was at a nice resort for a relatively long period of time. I got to see people during the day chilling/swimming and the nightlife. I saw all extremes of people as expected in terms of putting in effort for looks. People who let themselves go completely and didn't care, most were in the middle and then the people who put in a lot of effort. This is nothing surprising when you bear in mind the bell curve. But if you adjust this for looks and age, it was actually interesting. Most good looking people (even older ones) had not let themselves deteriorate from my observation. You could tell they took care of themselves in terms of keeping in shape, hair, skin and dress sense. It's easy to see why. If you're older, balder or uglier, it takes a lot of commitment to not fall further or BDD/OCD to keep you in check. Socio economic status also plays a big role in taking care of your health. BDD is a different story and it is on the rise mainly due to social media.

Funny thing is, I stopped with going to the GYM after I realised Im balding as f*** which is stupid. But I think if you starting to lack a lot in an area, its very hard to not let go completly. I always liked to go to the GYM but after this balding sh*t and looking at mirrors seeing your Norwood 3+ thin hair, you just have this: "Why even care?" attitude and rather stay at home with Pizza and Fortnite. Now I had a hairtransplant some weeks ago, and already started going out jogging and stopped drinking beer. I guess Im not the only one like this. Its all or nothing for me.

 

[jasonstatham]

Bdd is purely due to living in a looks centric world. That's why the frequency has increased. When u see people (especially girls) taking tons of selfies for the perfect one, someone a little fragile may develop bdd. Then you see all the advertising for surgery which ensures people think of every body part. I'm sure plenty of pretty girls have something they don't like, it's all this competition mentality too. Guys have it but not as bad or maybe they are less vocal about it. Ugly people can have bdd but in that case it's a real flaw that bothers them? So more likely depression due to lack of looks. In bdd the flaw has to be delusional or exaggerated causing a lot of pain. An ugly person worried about being ugly or a fat girl conscious about their weight is different. Treatment kinda same anyway.

Also we seeing ourselfes too much in pictures from every possible angle. 50 years ago, you wouldn't noticed you are even bald until your hairdressers point out their is nothing to style anymore. Now you cant go one night out without someone have to tag your drunk face on facebook and you see your balding f*****g head the next morning in every possible angle. If you look too long into mirrors even a perfect human being will find 10 flaws.

 

[DoctorHouse]

Funny thing is, I stopped with going to the GYM after I realised Im balding as f*** which is stupid. But I think if you starting to lack a lot in an area, its very hard to not let go completly. I always liked to go to the GYM but after this balding sh*t and looking at mirrors seeing your Norwood 3+ thin hair, you just have this: "Why even care?" attitude and rather stay at home with Pizza and Fortnite. Now I had a hairtransplant some weeks ago, and already started going out jogging and stopped drinking beer. I guess Im not the only one like this. Its all or nothing for me.

I stopped going to the gym too for a period of time and just worked out at home on my Bowflex and then I realized I was missing out on something I really enjoyed all my life so I just stuck a hat on and went back to the gym and that is what I have been doing for the past few years. Honestly, nobody really cares about your hair too much when you are at the gym. Most are into themselves and more into comparing physiques then hair. At my gym, we have a trainer there who always wears a visor hat that exposes his whole balding crown. That I don't understand. I honestly don't understand why he wears that type of hat. I wear my @shookwun approved black hat that covers my whole scalp. I never thought I would be one of those guys who has to wear a hat out in public but when your hair starts to look crappy, its the easiest solution. Next best solution is to just buzz it really short and forget about it. Unfortunately, with my head shape, I don't have that option.

 

[disfiguredyoungman]

Bdd is purely due to living in a looks centric world. That's why the frequency has increased. When u see people (especially girls) taking tons of selfies for the perfect one, someone a little fragile may develop bdd. Then you see all the advertising for surgery which ensures people think of every body part. I'm sure plenty of pretty girls have something they don't like, it's all this competition mentality too. Guys have it but not as bad or maybe they are less vocal about it. Ugly people can have bdd but in that case it's a real flaw that bothers them? So more likely depression due to lack of looks. In bdd the flaw has to be delusional or exaggerated causing a lot of pain. An ugly person worried about being ugly or a fat girl conscious about their weight is different. Treatment kinda same anyway.

The BDD gender ratio is almost 50:50, the second biggest trigger of BDD is premature hairloss. BDD goes well beyond being worried, it occupies your mind 24/7 and distorts the way you see yourself in the mirror so that you look not only ugly but monstrous.

 

[Funkymonk1]

I do enjoy jogging/going the gym but at times I need something to motivate me where I know I need to train hard such as putting myself in for a 10k run.
At my gym ther's actually a interesting mix of people; Ther's old and young and as many fat men and woman as there are muscle bound posers. I don't know if this is unusual but I think it's a pretty cool gym!

 

[DoctorHouse]

I'm not talking about you guys! In fact, I think it's obvious that quite a few people here suffer from BDD but I generally feel it's an illness that isn't understood or talked about.
Just the other day I was called "vain" by a woman in work. I can actually understand this because to someone who isn't educated about it ther's a thin line between BDD and vanity; Both involve being obsessed with your looks but are actually opposites because vanity is taking excessive pride and being in love with your appearance and BDD is excessive worry/loathing your appearance and thinking your appearance is flawed.
I think it's something that the wider public needs to be educated on for several reasons 1) It's a serious mental disorder that can take over your life. 2) It can be irrational I admit; often the things you think are ugly or flawed can be miniscule or not even noticeable to others. To the uneducated it makes you sound ridiculous but to those who suffer it can be debilitating. 3) People who have BDD possibly don't even know they have it and those who do simply arn't going to talk about it because they know people won't understand and they'll be seen as vain or shallow as in the example above. 4) BDD is seen as part of depression and not always treated as an illness on it's own.

I was one of those guys who did not know I had BDD when I was younger. The internet did not exist during my teens and early twenties. I just isolated myself to deal with it but I had no idea what I had. I was never vain but just got bullied and made fun of a lot about my ectomorphic body and turkey legs. I lifted weights but I was a hardgainer. Never got into drugs or alcohol but became obsessed with food. That was my addiction. Still is. BDD and OCD kind of go hand and hand because you become obsessed about a certain physical trait you don't like about yourself. Most people will say it's really not that bad but in your mind it's only seen as a defect or flaw that you believe is not the norm and you feel your genetics are inferior. I think the most common parts men focus on is their skin, nose, hair, physique, height, and penis size. I think almost everyone has one aspect of their body they don't like about themselves. However, the normal person will not dwell on it all the time. I think if you are insecure you are going to have a tendency to develop BDD. I think people who were bullied a lot tend to have BDD.