| Personal
Theory |
I
believe that everyone has gotten BDD in a different way, but there
is a common trend in most of our cases. These are the factors
that I believe will form a case of BDD:
1. Outside circumstances made you feel different than others
as a child. This can be done in several ways. It can be through
abuse from parents, with an emphasis on neglect. It can also be
caused by siblings, friends, or teachers making you the outcast,
scapegoat, or teasing you. In fact, one comment pointing out your
differences can be all that it takes. Something else that I've
noticed is that a severe case of the skin disease vitiligo can
leave a person feeling like an outcast, or different than others.
Just having people notice the problem and ask questions about
it can make you feel as if you are not human like everyone else.
2.
You experienced some sort of severe trauma that left you
with such immense feelings that you were unable to express
them. This trauma will vary from person to person. Physical, emotional,
and sexual abuse are common themes. Death of loved ones, rape,
accidents, developing a terminal disease, etc.
3.
Most people with BDD hoard their feelings and never let
them see the light of day. Many were forbidden to express feelings
as children. Others lived in environments where they never learned
that it was normal to talk about pain. Some were so embarrassed
by their traumas, and felt guilty about them, that they didn't
ever tell anyone what happened. BDDers who were abused sometimes
have poor social networks, and therefore only talk to their families.
If they were the abusers, they are the last people that would
be sympathetic to your past trauma. Either way, BDDers are boiling
over with angry, traumatic, and shameful feelings that they never
expressed, and still don't know how to, and have decided to just
put a lid on it! To cope with such agonizing, stressful thoughts,
BDDers create a coping mechanism, BDD, to dissociate from the
pain. During a BDD attack, BDDers will be closest to feeling the
pain of the original trauma. This is what causes suicidal feelings,
because it is far too painful to handle.
|
| Katharine
Phillips' Theory on Brain Chemistry Imbalance |
Katharine
Phillips has come up with the idea that BDD is caused by a chemical
imbalance that was most likely genetically passed on from family
members that have OCD or anxiety disorders. She claims that BDDers
have a deficiency in production of the neurotransmitter called Serotonin,
and recommends that they take certain drugs called Selective Serotonin
Reuptake Inhibitors, which are commonly called antidepressants and
affect mood and motivation. These drugs, such as Prozac and Luvox,
block the uptake of Serotonin from the synaptic space back into
the presynaptic axon terminal |
