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Body dysmorphia disorder (BDD) is a mental health condition in which one excessively thinks about flaws or perceived defects on their body. The flaws experienced are usually minor to others and may not be easily noticed. People with this condition feel anxious, ashamed and embarrassed about their flaws which drive them to avoid social situations. Having body dysmorphia causes people to focus intensely on their body image and appearance often leading to seeking reassurance, intense grooming, and continuously checking the mirror for many hours American Psychiatric Association. (2017). The repetitive behaviors and perceived flaws impact one's function to live normally can cause significant distress. People with body dysmorphia seek out procedures to rectify their deficiencies through procedures and surgeries. Actions like these lead to a temporary reduction of stress and temporary satisfaction. Fixing once imperfect body parts leads to finding other flaws within their flaws, causing even more significant distress and dissatisfaction (Vashi, 2016).

Some degree of concern about the physical condition is quite reasonable and justified. Still, when it causes subjective distress in a person for a continuous period and becomes the reason for impairment in social functioning and when that perceived or imaginary flaw doesn't exist, it can cause severe disorder in a person. This BDD can also be defined as time-consuming and very destructive behavior and will lead toward suicidal thoughts. The most significant flaw in such people is social isolation which keeps them away from several productive events. The most devastating condition in this regard is research which shows that even medical students can develop such kind of disorder in their personality. Research shows that body image concerns are more attractive for women rather than men because women are the center of beauty and attractiveness, and they are very concern about how people see or look at them. In this study, women are more concerned about their obesity and men are more concerned about their thin body or hairstyles.

After one's primary care provider rules out other conditions, they may make a referral for further evaluation in a mental health facility. Diagnosis of this condition is primarily based on a psychological assessment where one's behaviors, feelings, and thoughts related to negative self-image are evaluated. Diagnosis is also made through an evaluation of family, social, personal and medical history. The statistical and diagnostic mental manual of mental disorder contains symptoms used to rule out if one has the condition or not (Vashi, 2016).

Treatment of body dysmorphia is done through a combination of medications and behavior therapy. Through behavior therapy, one learns their behaviors emotional reactions and negative thoughts they have maintained overtime, challenges formed perceptions about their flaws through the flexible way of thinking, addresses social avoidance and also learning different ways to handle rituals or urges like reassurance checking and mirror checking. Medications that treat conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorders and depression are effective in treating body dysmorphia. Such include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (Mankusi, 2017). The medicines control once repetitive behaviors and negative thoughts caused by serotonin in the brain. Cultural considerations for treatment include joining a health support group, eating healthy and getting sufficient sleep, avoiding isolation, practicing stress management such as deep breathing and meditation as well as writing about your feelings on a journal.

There exist various counseling strategies that can be used for effective treatment of body dysmorphia. One such model is the CBT model of therapy where the counselor begins with psychoeducation and assessment. In this stage, techniques such as relapse prevention, ritual prevention, exposure, and cognitive restructuring should be taken to high consideration. The first step after determining the above factors is inquiring about the patients body dysmorphia areas of impairments, behaviors thoughts and concerns. One must ask the questions directly as they can often go unrealized due to shame and embarrassment (Harrison, 2016).

As a counselor, one should be aware of suicidal ideation, depression, panic attacks, and delusions of referenced appearance. For patients with delusional appearance beliefs, the councilor should incorporate motivational interviewing techniques. The first step to this is showing empathy to the patient, using nonjudgmental questioning to discuss the patient's body goals and discuss how their body image has affected their social life. The next step a counselor can take is providing the patient with psychoeducation about the symptoms of their condition, its prevalence, and differences between appearances and body image.

After this analysis, the counselor can help the patent to develop an individualized model of their condition based on their symptoms (Harisson, 2016). The developed models may discuss essential factors such as the development process of body dysmorphia which are psychological, sociocultural and biological. Examining the patient's life by exploring the elements in their current, causing them to have triggers and body image concerns is also useful in treatment. Triggers for negative body perception, emotional reactions, interpretation of thoughts and coping strategies should be formulated and evaluated for effective treatment.

Two other ways to treat this disorder are serotonin reuptake inhibitors and cognitive-behavioral theory. CBT is considers an effective treatment method for reducing depression. The approach is informed for neuropsychological, neuroimaging finding and clinical observations. It begins with assessment psychoeducation in which the therapist elaborates on the CBT model of BDD.

As a therapies, if I receive a patient suffering from body dysmorphia, I would use Assessment to evaluate how they see themselves, Identify there strengths and what features of there body the prefer, put interventions in place such has group therapy, help them in finding options and exploring treatment that might be useful. My main goal would be helping them change the perceptions of their bodies. I would achieve this by avoiding steering conversations about their body image and flaws. I would also avoid trying to make them feel better by talking about their body issues. Giving them space where they can be free and open to discussing their emotions would be the top priority. I would also try to celebrate the small steps they take in getting treatment (Hsu, 2016).

It will be difficute for me to provide therapy to individual with BDD because this can be seen as a common issues in society. As previously dicaussed, adolescents tend to suffer from the same thoughts and behaviors. Social media plays into this idea of what the perfect body should look like, which leads to people comparing their body with that of a celebrity, losing weight, or gaining muscles to meet the ideal body criteria. There are extreme cases of the lengths one would go to, to obtain the “ideal” image of satisfactory they envision like plastic surgery and bleaching their skin.

But someone suffering from body dysmorphia goes through are incredibly detrimental. With this condition, one has compulsions, obsessions, triggers, disgust, shame, and anxiety, which worsen their state of mind and lifestyle choices. An individual with this condition not only suffer from it, but they also suffer from a lack of support and understanding. Treatment and help would change their body image and overall improve quality of life (Hsu, 2016).

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behavioral therapy for body dysmorphic disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Clinical Psychology Review, 48, 43-51.

Hsu, S. H., &Vashi, N. A. (2015). Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Historical Aspects. In Beauty and

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (pp. 95-102). Springer, Cham.

Mancusi, L., Ojserkis, R., & McKay, D. (2017).Treatment of Body Dysmorphic Disorder. The

Wiley Handbook of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, 2, 962-976.

Vashi, N. A. (2016). Obsession with perfection: Body dysmorphia. Clinics in dermatology,

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