Hurt to Healing podcast

The Hurt to Healing podcast with Pandora Morris has interviewed our ambassador Charlie King on his experiences of BDD. Pandora goes on to interview our trustee Dr Amita Jassi on her expert knowledge of the condition.

Pandora launched the Hurt to Healing podcast earlier this year. She opens about about the ‘uphill battle’ she has with her mental health for years. She has now begun ‘to see some glimmers of light’. As part of her own recovery, she has made it her ‘mission to support as many of you as possible on your own healing journey’. In this podcast she speaks to wonderful people from all walks of life who have opened up about their own invisible struggles in the hope that it will provide a bit of solace and comfort for some of you. She speaks to leading experts and doctors about different disorders and therapies that might help expand your knowledge on the world of mental health.

Please follow @hurttohealingpod or view her website.

In her latest episodes she has focused on Body Dysmorphic Disorder by interviewing our lovely ambassador Charlie King

Since leaving the reality show, The Only Way Is Essex in 2015, Charlie has struggled with both depression and body dysmorphic disorder. The pandemic was a challenging time for all of us. And Charlie admits that psychologically he was not in a good place, which led him to get surgery on his nose. Charlie now uses his platform to call for mental health awareness on this issue, and I’m so glad to be able to get the chance to talk to him about it today.

Listen to the podcast by following this link

Pandora follows up with some expert knowledge on BDD from our trustee

Dr Amita Jassi.

Dr Jassi is a consultant, clinical psychologist at the National and Specialist OCD, BDD and Related Disorder Service for Children and Young People. Body dysmorphic disorder affects about one in 50 people. We discuss why it’s such a debilitating condition, why there is a lack of insight into it and I ask her about what treatment and therapies are available.

Listen to the podcast by following this link

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BDD at Christmas – Some top tips!

We know that this can be a difficult time of year if you are battling BDD, here are some tips to help you get through the season.

BBC Room 5 speaks to Tilly

In Room 5, Helena Merriman shares stories of real-life medical mysteries, interviewing people who – like her – were changed by a diagnosis.

This week, Tilly was featured on the BBC Sounds’ Room 5 Medical Mysteries program with broadcaster Helena Merriman. Tilly explains how, from an early age, she, never felt right in her body and how utterly disorientating that is, until one day she sat down with a therapist to put a label on that feeling.

BDD is misunderstood – even in the medical profession where the average time from recognising there is a problem to an actual diagnosis is 10 years! In that time, lives can spiral out of control, social, family and professional life can diminish to zero.

“From the outside, Tilly seems to have life figured out. She works in fashion, lives on a house-boat – for which she’s done all the plumbing and electrics. But inside, she’s struggling. She’s always felt wrong in her body – ever since school. Then one afternoon, Tilly sits down with a therapist – who fits the pieces of the puzzle together and gives Tilly a diagnosis. Tilly’s diagnosis explains the way her brain is wired – now her challenge is to re-wire it, and change her future.”

Listen to the podcast by following this link

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No safety without emotional safety article

Professor David Veale, Professor Paul Gilbert and others are calling for a change of culture in institutions that prioritise physical safety over emotional safety. Their article ‘no safety without emotional safety’ has been published in the Lancet.

In the article they ‘explain how trying to control behaviour to increase physical safety in the short term can carry the unintended consequence of reducing emotional safety, which might in turn result in higher levels of stress and hopelessness.’

They ‘use examples from institutions with psychiatric inpatients to describe these processes…arguing that emotional and physical safety cannot be separated, and therefore that the absence of emotional safety compromises basic care either in an acute crisis or in the long term. Staff who fear being criticised, and so feel driven to take autonomy and responsibility away from patients, unwittingly undermine patients’ experience of being empathically understood and supported, adding to patients’ sense of emotional turmoil and lack of safety.’

They suggest that a change in culture and regulatory reform is required to bring psychiatric care more in line with the psychological needs of patients to achieve both physical and emotional safety.

Free link to the article is available for 50 days.

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Christmas Special – Managing BDD in the holidays

Autumn Webinar | with Andy Hall, Kim Booker, Lawrence Baker and Kitty Wallace

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Olfactory Reference Disorder

Autumn Webinar | with Professor David Veale

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BDD and Relationships

Autumn Webinar | with Scott Granet, Chris Trondsen and Robyn Stern

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with BDD

Autumn Webinar | with Dr Amita Jassi & Dr Elif Gocken

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The Neglected Trauma of Neglect

Autumn Webinar | with Arie Winograd and Dr Nicole Schnackenberg

Considering Emotional Developmental Trauma in the Etiology of BDD

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Managing Social Media with BDD

Autumn Webinar | with Robyn Stern

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The Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation. Charity no. 1153753.

Online BDD Conference

An opportunity for professionals, researchers, students, and those with lived experience to find community and to learn more about BDD.

Join this virtual event on Saturday, May 31, 2025!

Tickets available here