Nicole is a child, community and educational psychologist; yoga teacher and yoga therapist. She is a trustee of the BDD Foundation and director of the Yoga in Healthcare Alliance. Nicole has authored the books ‘False Bodies, True Selves: Moving Beyond Appearance-Focused Identity Struggles and Returning to the True Self’ and ‘Bodies Arising: Fall in Love with your Body and Remember your Divine Essence’.
‘Narrative approaches view mental health struggles, including BDD, as a bid to make sense of painful, oppressive life experiences through ‘thin’ stories told about the self to the self.
In this session – which will appeal to people with lived experience, loved ones and therapists – we will consider how narrative approaches can be supportive in BDD including a short exploration of creative writing and reading to aid recovery and healing.’
As we return back to “the new normal” since COVID-19, it is natural to want to seek safety and hide from the things that scare us. However, it is crucial that we all embrace our discomfort and remember that fear only gets stronger when we resist, avoid or fight it. During this presentation, participants will gain powerful skills and tools to help them lean into their fears and practice self-compassion, instead of self-judgment and self-punishment.
Kimberley is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of California and the founder of CBTschool.com, an online platform that provides courses for those with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviours who do not have access to mental health care. Kimberley is the host of Your Anxiety Toolkit Podcast.
“BDD used to take up about 95% of my being. Now, the parts of me that bring me joy are bigger than my BDD.”
Now a holistic therapist, Rachel is our first guest from across the pond, and hopefully the first of many! In this episode, she shares her experience of BDD and how everything from working at a cat hotel to learning ballroom dancing has helped her to manage the disorder and find joy.
You can download the transcript for this episode here:
We are proud to announce that the BDD Foundation is the charity partner of The Humanians.
The Humanians is a socially conscious NFT collection born on the Ethereum Blockchain led by the celebrated female artist Amber Day, creator of VISBII – bridging art and utility in the NFTverse, while bringing awareness to the growing mental health issue of Body Dysmorphia. Through their inclusive and supportive Web3 communities on Twitter and Discord, The Humanians celebrate everyone and anyone, free of prejudice and judgement.
The team behind Humania, Odd One Out Labs joined forces with Amber to make a real difference in the NFT space. Together they curate and collaborate relationships with organisations, people and communities, advocating for social change around mental health stigma especially focused on BDD.
The Humanians have partnered with The Be Well Collective and The Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation as co-charity partners with the aim to make a difference in the real-world – serving as the bridge between social causes, communities, cultures, creatives and the Blockchain.
In case you didn’t know, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are single one off cryptographic assets sitting on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from one another. NFTs can represent real-world or digital assets like artwork, music even to things like real estate; “Tokenizing” these assets makes buying, selling, and trading them more efficient while reducing the probability of fraud as all transactions are fully transparent with the purchase agreements viewable and not editable via smart contracts on the blockchain.
The Humanians aims to help promote The BDD Foundation’s aim which is to relieve the suffering for people with BDD, while donating to the BDDF to advance research, treatments and awareness of the condition which is often under-diagnosed. The founders will also be video documenting the entire journey along the way.
The Humanians and the BDD Foundation will be working together closely to make a sustained difference built around the BDD Foundation’s three pillars of action which are Awareness, Information, and Support. The Humanians aim to be an advocate for change by tackling unrealistic body expectations perpetuated by social and modern media. As part of this support effort The Humanians have an in-house certified NHS Mental Health Nurse Ouma Cazaril who runs an interactive discussion every Tuesday / Wednesdays at 8-9pm GMT, and Saturday Mornings at 7-8am GMT, where she discusses tips on healthy coping mechanisms. You can attend this on The Humanians Discord Channel.
Amber Day the artist for The Humanians has endured her own battles with body self image – which can be seen in her art style, where characters have exaggerated physical traits and quirky designs and proportions. “The idea of the human form has always fascinated me, and I believe the work I create is my way of exploring and seeing just how far I can push the boundaries of what society and ourselves deem as normal,” says Amber, adding that she is forever exploring her world of emotions, mental states, hardships, struggles, and the possibilities to live a more balanced life.
“As an abstract expression of humanity, The Humanians depict the human form in all of its glory and beauty: You are perfect no matter your size or proportion.” Says Amber.
Working to raise awareness The Humanians will also be raising funds for BDDF which is greatly needed – The BDD Foundation is the only charity in the world exclusively dedicated to raising awareness and alleviating the suffering caused by Body Dysmorphic Disorder. The BDDF runs on a very limited budget. They have a dedicated and diverse board of trustees consisting of leading clinicians and individuals with lived experience of BDD.
Together our aim is to spread positivity and support for our amazing community with tools and resources that promote active support and research.
Evie has channelled her experience of skin picking (also known as dermatillomania) into her artwork creating posters to raise awareness and understanding of this little known condition.
“For one of my final year university projects, I decided to base it around a subject close to my heart – Body Dysmorphic Disorder. I created these two posters in the hopes of shedding light on something that has truly affected my life for many years – skin picking. Growing up, I never knew it was part of a disorder to get help for as I had never seen or heard anyone talk up about it. It was almost pushed under the carpet. I felt ashamed and embarrassed at what I was doing yet I couldn’t stop and never understood why.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough to have parents who were understanding when I opened up to them about it five years ago and they have supported me ever since. However, I have become increasingly aware that there are many others out there who pick their skin and struggle alone because they think it is something to be embarrassed about. But I am here to tell them it’s not. I used a 3D print of my face as a canvas to display skin picking. At first I was scared about doing this because only my close friends and family know about it, but I am sick of hiding and want to be able to try and squash the stigma around it so that others don’t feel so alone the way I did growing up. There is a QR code that takes anyone who sees the posters to the best source of information (the BDD Foundation) to either read about and educate themselves on BDD or to find the best help if they are struggling.
My goal is to get the posters out in as many places as possible to help others like me and be a part of raising awareness for Body Dysmorphic Disorder!” – Evie Horrell
Thank you to Vilidian who organised a life-drawing marathon ‘Beyond Form’ on zoom which raised money for the BDD Foundation.
Vilidian organized ‘Beyond Form’, a life-drawing marathon that consisted of 21 art models posing for artists all around the world for over 6 hours.
What a fantastic & creative way to celebrate the diversity of the human form whilst appreciating the nuanced interpretation of the beholder.
You can find the artworks following the hashtag #beyondform or visiting Vilidian’s profile: @vilidian_artmodel where you can see the names of all the participant models.
Here are some examples of the fantastic artwork produced:
Thank you to Vilidian who organised a life-drawing marathon ‘Beyond Form’ on zoom which raised money for the BDD Foundation.
We have successfully run four iterations of Overcoming BDD Programme, where self-guided Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Body Dysmorphic Disorder (CBT-BDD) was delivered in a peer support group context.
Outcomes from the groups have been very positive, with participants experiencing both a decrease in scores on the Appearance Anxiety Inventory as well as an improved overall quality of life. For the next iterations, we are looking at increasing our volunteer base so that we can run even more of these groups.
We are looking for 4 volunteers to co-facilitate the online sessions. The time commitment would be ~2 hours per week, for ~5 months (October 2022 – March 2023), plus up to 2 training session before the role commences. There will also be an opportunity to shadow facilitation in our cycle taking place May 2022 – October 2022).
We invite applications from people with lived-experience of BDD, as well as people who have trained in the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, who have skills in group facilitation or peer-support.
How to apply: Please submit your CV and a personal statement which highlights the following: • Your (direct/indirect) experience with BDD • Why you would like to apply for this position • Your relevant experience (either as an expert-by-experience, an expert-by-training or both) • What relevant skills and qualities you have
Please submit your CV and personal statement to hannah@bddfoundation.org no later than 5pm 21st March 2022.
Kitty describes that finding the BDD website and reading the list of symptoms was “like someone had crawled inside my brain and written down everything they could find. The idea that what I had was a condition, that it wasn’t my fault, was like a huge weight disappearing from my shoulders. For years, I’d blamed myself for everything.”
After discovering what BDD was and seeking help, she began treatment with a CBT specialist for BDD.
“At the beginning, going into treatment was really tough but soon I was having these huge moments. I clipped my fringe back off my face for the first time and was able to walk down the street without believing that everyone was staring at me,” she says. “It was a slow release from the grip that BDD had held over me since childhood.”
After a BDD relapse in her late 20s she decided she wanted to get involved in helping others and made contact with the Foundation again.
‘In her job now, as the BDDF’s head of operations, Wallace is constantly in contact with people who have BDD and sees her story reflected in their struggles. “For me, it was an overwhelming belief that there was something wrong with the very core of who I was, inside and out, and that is really isolating,” she says. “At the BDDF, a lot of our work is trying to show people that they’re not alone and it’s not their fault.”
“BDD used to take up about 95% of my being. Now, the parts of me that bring me joy are bigger than my BDD.”
Simon describes how the brutal bullying he suffered at school set him on a long journey with BDD, which culminated in a transformative stay in psychiatric hospital and writing a book about his experiences.
You can download the transcript for this episode here:
Thank you to Vilidian who organised a life-drawing marathon ‘Beyond Form’ on zoom which raised money for the BDD Foundation.
We’re teaming up with Monki to raise awareness of Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
They are supporting our petition directed at the EU Parliament calling for transparency on altered images on social media. We believe organisations, companies, and influencers should be legally required to state when images have been manipulated for paid content online.
BDD is largely overlooked and undiagnosed and it can seriously affect a person’s daily life, including work, education, social life and relationships. As a result, social anxiety, isolation and depression are very common in BDD. This is why we think it’s important that the condition receives more awareness to be able to give more information and support to the ones who need it. We know that the highest rates of BDD are seen in adolescent girls (5.6%) and the proliferation of unrealistic images being viewed by this age group is causing harm.
By signing the petition, you’re advocating for change and helping raise awareness. We see a petition calling for transparency on altered images online as vital to transparency of online representation. Your signature is crucial in driving change and making an impact.
Monki collaborated with amazing female AR artists to launch a set of purpose-driven filters that help spread the word about the petition and BDD as a condition.
Both Monki and BDD Foundation believe that these filters play a part in raising awareness on the danger of comparing ourselves with altered/unrealistic images. The filters are not beauty filters and they do not portray an unrealistic beauty standard. Instead, they are fun and creative whilst promoting a positive message and supporting an important cause.
We hope that everyone using the filters will help promote an unfiltered/unretouched reality and be part of advocating for transparency in social media.
So please go ahead, download the filters, and join our movement for more transparency online.
Why has the BDD Foundation decided to collaborate with Monki?
We see Monki as an ideal fit for a collaboration with the BDD Foundation. As a brand, they have long-standing ethical policies around their marketing. They strive to challenge beauty norms in their casting from ethnicity to body shape and size and have championed a pioneering #NoFilter campaign. They do not airbrush out features such as stretch marks, body hair, birthmarks etc. Their body positive attitude, inclusivity and continued dedication to the cause signifies that Monki is a brand that genuinely cares about the wellbeing of their community and the BDD Foundation is proud to partner with them.
