Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall....

Discoursing on self image in society might earn you points in section, but what if you felt so threatened by how others perceive you that you were frightened to go to section, period?

If venturing into public worries you because you are preoccupied with an perceived flaw in your appearance, a new Harvard study might help.

Dr. Sabine Wilhelm, associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and founding director of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Clinic and Research Unit at Mass. General Hospital, is currently recruiting subjects for the second phase of a clinical study testing the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating body dismorphic disorder (BDD). People with BDD often obsess over their physical appearance to an unhealthy extreme.

Unlike eating disorders, which show a disproportionate incidence among women, BDD­ is evenly represented between the genders. According to Wilhelm, recent studies have found that a whopping four to five percent of college students may suffer from this condition. In extreme cases, patients are basically housebound, terrified of social interaction because of their warped self image.

“When a BDD patient looks in the mirror, she will zoom right into the hot spots,” Wilhelm says. “If she has a little scar, she will just see the scar and assume that she is ugly.” The clinician works with the patient to see the big picture. “CBT is time-limited psychotherapy, based on the idea that psychological disorders involve maladaptive or unhelpful, biased thinking,” she explains.

Although the results from the first phase of the study are promising­—patients showed significant improvement at the end of their CBT sessions—a lack of awareness about BDD, even amongst mental health clinicians, is of great concern to Wilhelm.

“Many of these people suffer in silence,” she says. “It’s enormously helpful to get the word out.”