Hello, I’m Mark Constantian. I’m a plastic surgeon in Southern New Hampshire, and what you’re going to see here is what I think is a historic video about a man who developed full-blown body dysmorphic disorder, was treated by an excellent psychiatrist, got worse, very worse, really suffered and then recovered, which is something I’ve never heard of. My colleagues have never heard of it. Patients have body dysmorphic disorder for decades, and our treatment with cognitive behavior therapy and drugs is not very good. Also, remember the criteria for body dysmorphic disorder. They’re supposed to be imaginary, perceived, minimal, small, invisible, however you want to call it, problems that only the individual can see. The family doesn’t get it, the friends don’t get it. But this person is really miserable and the life is disrupted and it’s idiopathic, meaning we don’t know why it happens. It just falls on some people. Some people are unlucky and some people are lucky and don’t get it. It typically happens in the early teen years along with the time that a lot of major mental illnesses develop.

So as you watch this, think about what it takes to make yourself feel so awful about the way you look. It has to do with body shame. So the question you ought to be asking yourself as you watch this film is what creates body shame and therefore, what creates body dysmorphic disorder? I think this video will give you a handle on it in a very different way, and I hope you enjoy it and learn something.

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---