i’m not self diagnosing, but a part of me thinks it’s possible i might have bdd, and i read about it, and it is linked to ocd. does anyone here have bdd?

What is bdd?

Well I thought I did but then it turned out I have a bunch of conditions which are actual congenital and medical disorders which is why I have certain weird body parts ??? I literally had tubular (but v large) breasts that I've had a surgery for, have type 2 syndactyly and lipoedema. Put that together with my autism and hyperlexia etc and I'm basically a mutant. And hate my nose (ain't nothing "wrong" with it). But actually though, I think my being so focused on them and wishing they were different would probably qualify as BDD. Other people probably wouldn't give them as much thinking time as I have over my life, but it's hard to tell. I got a breast reduction because I hated having big ones anyway (I'm agender, etc) plus massive strain on my neck and shoulders plus the reality that I hated how they looked and never saw mine represented anywhere, I'd had people make comments etc. Since that surgery I feel better about them cause I don't think about them, the scarring is bad and they're far from perfect especially as I'm losing weight, but I don't have a preoccupation with them anymore and the feeling that I'm deformed. It did give me more confidence and took a weight off me knowing that it's behind me after wanting to change it for so long. But tbh my focus of upset then just went to the lipoedema, which isn't too bad right now but it's a progressive and pretty painful condition that I'm gonna need surgery for at some point. I really overthink it, I hate how it looks and I don't feel normal. Idgaf about the syndactyly anymore, just call me Froggy. And the nose-hate comes and goes but can be very intense, I've even had fillers. But yeah I kind of don't really think that it matters that much whether the defect is really there or not, if you've got tunnel vision about it and the ideas that you get about the body part really upset you and interfere with having a normal life and take up inappropriate amounts of time, that's BDD. I know it could be considered normal to have some anxiety and depression about a genuine defect from a condition, but tbh what does "genuine" mean anyway? We're all people, we all look different, not being able to accept some part of how you look is really the same thing whether other people would validate what you see or not. I think the best way to capture BDD is the feeling that you look abnormal, flawed to the point that it overshadows or ruins anything you do like, and you just can't take your mind off it or stop comparing and ruminating etc. My best friend has severe BDD that her arms are too long and that something is wrong with her nose, she can get a panic attack from leaving the house without makeup. She's a 5'8 Swedish blue eyed elfin ACTUAL BABE with ridiculous legs but she hates the way she looks. I am, objectively, a potato next to her. Most of the world is. She just can't zoom out of the stuff she hates, she can be really preoccupied with it, even when she's not talking about it I can see her checking and judging herself when she looks in a mirror and when she holds her arms awkwardly. Her arms are exactly normal arm length. So BDD will find anything. Swedish babe or deformed potato, if it's distressing you and preoccupying you and hurting your self esteem and you do compulsions around it like comparing or googling or staring for hours etc, you deserve to get treatment and feel better. What I always tell my Swedish friend is that I love her, her family loves her, her boyfriend loves her. She can change something about her appearance if she wants to and we will all support her. But "fixing" the things she feels are wrong isn't going make us love her more or remove some kind of barrier for our love. It's not going to make her safer in the world. She's safe now.

I think I might have bdd along with OCD. What are you doing to treat your bdd?