This particular blog article will have to do with issues that came to light in the below article:
This article talks about the mental disorder called body dysmorphic disorder.
Everyone knows about OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), at least enough to know what it is and how it makes its victims do tasks a certain number of times or have repetitive ‘ticks’. What most people do not know about is BDD, which is a form of OCD. BDD, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, is a disorder in which the inflicted are consumed with the thought of them having a particular flaw in their appearance. This thought is so all encompassing that it is all they think about, they see a minor flaw (or something non existent at all) and obsess over it so intensely that they become disgusted with themselves and seek out cosmetic procedures to fix their perceived flaws; but it never helps.
This article discusses a 24 year old man who took his own life because he had BDD. Unfortunately the article never states what flaw he saw in himself, but this really hit home for me. I had a friend who committed suicide a few years back, RIP Alex, and it is always a sensitive subject for me. While no matter what it is a horrible experience, it seems to come out of the blue from someone who is seemingly happy. However, the subject of this article, Nathaniel, was not seemingly happy; he obsessed over an imperfection that was so miniscule to everyone else (if it even existed at all) yet it plagued his entire existence.
This idea crushes me. The thought that you hate yourself so much, there is this physical trait that is blemishing your entire life that the only way to eradicate the self-loathing is to end your life entirely. That thought is horrific. No one should ever feel that way. There should always be a hope, there should always be love, and no matter how much we all hate our bodies at times, there should always be a thought that it will get better. Victims of BDD do not get that grace, to them there is no escape from their flaw,
My point of this blog isn’t to reiterate the article for those that didn’t read it and it is not to have some huge philosophical remark on the matter. I simply want to spread the word about body dysmorphic disorder, so people can know their struggles and help.
