Drawing on scientific research, clinical practice, and interviews with
patients, the author brings readers a book on BDD . She includes common clues
to BDD, and provides a self-assessment questionnaire, helping readers
distinguish between normal appearance concerns and the obsession of BDD to
determine whether they or someone they know have BDD.Jane is an attractive woman in her mid-thirties, tall, thin and stately.
She believes she is breathtakingly ugly. Tormented by what she sees as her huge
nose, crooked lip, big jaw, fat buttocks, and tiny breasts, she hasn't left her
house in six years. Though she lives in the same house as her mother, she once
went two years without seeing her. When relatives come over, she avoids them,
hiding in her room, even on Thanksgiving. The one time she left the house -
forced to see a doctor - she covered her face with bandages. Eventually, she
attempted suicide. "I can't imagine any suffering greater than this," she said.
"If I had my choice, I'd rather be blind or have my arm cut off. I'd be happy
to have cancer." Jane has body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD. In this revised and
expanded edition of The Broken Mirror, Dr Katherine Phillips draws on years of
scientific research, clinical practice, and detailed interviews with patients
to bring readers an updated and expanded book on this troubling and sometimes
debilitating disorder, in which sufferers are obsessed with perceived flaws in
their appearance.; Phillips describes severe cases, such as Jane's, but also milder cases,
such as Carl, a successful lawyer who uses work to distract him from his
slightly thinning hair. Many sufferers function well, but remain secretly
obsessed by their "hideous acne" or "horrible nose", sneaking constant peaks at
a pocket mirror, or spending hours redoing makeup. BDD afflict millions of
people. It isn't an uncommon disorder, simply a hidden one, since sufferers are
often embarrassed to tell even their closest friends about th
