Body dysmorphic disorder patients actually see faces differently

Until recently, BDD treatments were rarely studied. But cognitive neuropsychologist Professor Susan Rossell and her team at Swinburne University of Technology have been working on new tools.

They are using eye-tracking technology to try and understand if people with BDD look at faces and bodies differently to the way most of us do.

#ABCScience #bodydysmorphia

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[Sofreakingmad]

I don’t want to be seen beautiful by others, I want to be seen beautiful by me.

[lola]

as someone who’s diagnosed with this people will never understand how difficult it is to explain to people, they just think i’m self obsessed and vain for constantly needing to look in the mirror

[denisemacalino]

I remember thinking "I can't have BDD because people with BDD are people who think they are ugly. I am actually just ugly, it isn't a perception"

[realslimcandy]

It feels weird how im the least judgemental person in the world like i literally wont care about your looks but i notice everything bad towards my body.

[rami]

People saying that oh she's so pretty she has nothing to worry about is the same when you say to depressed people that oh just don't be depressed, be happy. Some people just will never understand

EDIT 16/05/21: Ppl please don't argue. It's a thing that most of us can't understand, because we have not gone through this. Asthma? Oh, just breathe. Anorexia? Just eat. Other ED? Just eat normally and you'll lose the weight you should lose. Alcoholic? What? Just stop drinking, it's not that hard. Drug addict? You just have a weak character and so on and so on..

[medulgurlroxx]

I have bdd it's a living nightmare not knowing what you really look like.

[lilmissmonsterrr]

They made us think beauty was everything, and now they call us sick for believing it.

[isadora]

This is so true. And whenever I take a picture that looks good, I think I'm catfishing people. It doesn't feel like I look like that. Some people tell me it looks exactly the same, but one person said it didn't, so I'm stuck with it. I can't even believe myself when I look in the mirror and I think I'm pretty.

[kellymcphaul]

Ever since I saw a picture of myself from an angle that I hadn’t seen before. It was decades ago and I have been obsessed with it ever since.

[loaflove]

She’s so brave. As someone with BDD the idea that my body could be immortalized in film terrifies me. Bless her for showing her story.

[flxwercxrpse]

Sometimes i feel so claustrophobic in my own body and i want to rip my skin off and start scratching at it. I felt so desperate to get out of my skin. It’s a overwhelming and horrible feeling.

[xXxIMNOTANGELxXx]

That doctor crying at the end realizing that she is doing something that is worthwhile and will help people have happier lives. Ah my heart <3

[elizabeth-gdeg]

im pretty sure i have body dysmorphia even though im not diagnosed, and for me at least, i always notice the features in other people that im most insecure about. like for example, i really dislike my nose, so when i meet a new person i usually notice their nose first. its kind of like im comparing my self to them, and it makes me feel bad because i see people with perfect noses and compare it to my own and then i feel awful about myself

[hayleyturner]

This makes me feel kind of good because I feel just like her and she’s so beautiful to me but she doesn’t think she’s beautiful. So maybe I am beautiful to other people but I just don’t think it

[AmyFerguson]

what's funny is I can go back and look at pictures from years before and remember what I was obsessive about then
and realize that I was totally wrong but continue to be debilitatingly obsessive about something new in the present tense.

[ry.butterfly]

I felt like crying as soon as she started. I know exactly how that feels. When I look at my body or my reflection, the hatred I feel literally makes my blood boil with rage and makes me feel sick. It's crippling. And exhausting.

[laverndowsley]

the brain is so complex. it can be truly brilliant or punish us with ridiculous, pointless and unnecessary disorders.

[c.]

Small correction: BDD is not just a fixation on flaws that only the sufferer sees. It can very well include flaws that other people may notice. The difference is the amount of fixation the sufferer expresses on that flaw.

[moriyahnotmariah]

I think what most people don’t understand about this is, it doesn’t matter how much you tell someone with body dysmorphia that they’re pretty, beautiful, handsome, etc. They’re still going to see themselves differently than the way you see them.

[samantham]

It’s literally so hard hating the way you look so bad when everyone around you is so confident and insist that you should too. I get too embarrassed to even act confident in front of friends and it is such a bummer to everyone lol