Beating BDD

Our guest, Mia Hill, describes how an obsession with perceived flaws took over her life during the COVID-19 lockdown. Today, Mia works for OCD-UK, serves as an ambassador for the BDD Foundation and openly shares her experiences to help others find hope and recovery.

Sheila Paul reflects on the role cultural expectations and painful childhood experiences played in her developing body dysmorphic disorder. And she describes how sharing her experiences within the African Caribbean community is helping to shine a light on mental health issues.

Sam Milburn, mum to Jack, is a passionate advocate for more awareness and better access to treatment for BDD. In this episode, she shares her hard-won advice for other parents, including how to navigate the system on behalf of your child while also looking after yourself.

Just a couple of years ago, Malise Honey was in a wheelchair after spending three and a half years in hospital being misunderstood, mistreated and wrongly diagnosed. Today she is in recovery, volunteering for the BDD Foundation and even training for the Manchester Marathon. She shares the devastating impact of misdiagnosis and how finally receiving the right support changed everything.

For much of the time Mark Brown lived with BDD, he looked as if he was functioning from the outside. But inside he was living under what he calls "a dome of shame and disgust". Now, after lots of hard work and therapy, he says he's much more present in his life and his old life with BDD feels like a distant memory. 

This episode features Kim Booker, whose body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) first emerged when she was just five years old. Now the mum of a two-and-a-half-year-old, Kim is harnessing what she calls the BDD warrior within to raise awareness of the disorder while continuing with her own recovery. She shares many great insights, particularly around the decision to become a parent and the impact of underg...

For years, Dan Joseph's life was governed by his BDD and a strict set of rules and rituals designed to camouflage his perceived flaws. Today, he truly believes it doesn't matter how he presents to people. And the next day is no longer to be survived, but to be lived.

In this episode, Gem Ponting shares her experience with BDD, particularly the impact cosmetic surgery can have on the condition. She also highlights the power of self-compassion and forgiveness in the healing process.

In this episode, Olivia Wood (Liv) shares her journey with undiagnosed autism and ADHD, as well as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Liv explains how learning to understand her conditions helped her build self-esteem and self-compassion and reclaim her life from BDD.

Our guest for this episode is Danny Gray, whose organisation JAAQ (or Just Ask a Question) is the podcast's champion sponsor as a result of the Big Give campaign. Danny tells us about his 18-year journey with BDD and how he manages to stay well today.

Elliot Ditton is a writer and performer whose BDD came into full force following a chance sighting of himself in a mirror on the way to a Beyoncé concert. In this episode, he discusses the early signs of his condition, the triggers that exacerbated it, and his path to recovery.

Billie McPhilbin is a trainee counselling psychologist at the University of Manchester and a lead facilitator on the BDD Foundation's Overcoming BDD Programme. In this episode, she shares her experiences of struggling with BDD in her late teens, the steps she took towards recovery and the lessons she learned along the way.

A psychotherapist and the founder and director of the Los Angeles BDD & Body Image Clinic, Arie has dedicated his career to working with people with BDD. In this episode, he shares some of the fascinating insights he's gained from those thousands of hours of experience.

After suffering with BDD for many years, Tilly is now reaping the benefits of all the time and effort she put into recovering from the condition. Her story proves that if you keep putting in the work, you will get something out of it.

Eva has been recovered from BDD for 20 years, so brings loads of wisdom and experience to this episode. (Which is number 27, not 26, as I say in the intro!) It's a little different from the others in that Eva tells us her story directly, in four parts.   

George shares his lived experience of muscle dsymorphia, dips into the huge amount of knowledge he's gained and explains why he's made it his life's work to raise awareness and improve treatment of the condition.

Rachel 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.

Simon describes how the brutal bullying he suffered at school set him on a long journey with body dysmorphic disorder, which culminated in a transformative stay in psychiatric hospital and writing a book about his experiences. 

Simon describes how the brutal bullying he suffered at school set him on a long journey with body dysmorphic disorder, which culminated in a transformative stay in psychiatric hospital and writing a book about his experiences. 

Berni hid what she called her "secret shame" for 40 years before discovering she'd been suffering from skin-picking disorder – a common co-morbidity with body dysmorphic disorder that can also manifest on its own. She's since learnt how to say no to the skin-picking voice and has even appeared in a naked calendar.

Ten years ago, Andy used to spend eight hours a day in front of the mirror and couldn't imagine ever being able to function. Now, he works full time and describes himself as 90% to 95% recovered from body dysmorphic disorder

Flora suffered with body dysmorphic disorder alongside an eating disorder until just 18 months ago. Since then, she's made truly inspirational progress is overcoming BDD, and built up a personal toolkit of tricks that will be really helpful to listeners.

In his interview, Elias describes how doing exposures was a huge help in recovering from body dysmorphic disorder

In her interview, Nicole talks about her lived experience of BDD and anorexia and how it's informed the life she lives now.

In this episode, Professor David Veale talks about how he came to specialise in BDD, and answers questions from people with the condition.