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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by dixie27 on July 5, 2007, at 14:50:05
Hi just wondering if anyone who has BDD has been able to find meds that actually help. I've been suffering from BDD for 10 years and have still not made any long-term progress. I'm on 4 meds right now and am still in a major depressive episode.
If anyone had any ideas it would be appreciated.
Posted by Racer on July 5, 2007, at 15:41:56
In reply to Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Meds, posted by dixie27 on July 5, 2007, at 14:50:05
I have no answers for you, but I do have a bunch of questions:
1. Does your depression come with a side order of anxiety? Or do you have a more purely melancholy sort? Sometimes different styles of depression respond differently to different medications. Also, are you emotionally reactive? That is, do you tend to feel better when something good happens? Or are you consistently depressed, even when good things happen?
2. Does your BDD get worse when the depression gets worse? Or do they have different cycles? Again, if the BDD is affected by anxiety that goes along with the depression, there are different options that might be more or less helpful.
3. What medications are you currently taking? How long have you been on them? Any dosage changes recently?
4. What symptoms are still a problem. The more specific the better, I've found, when describing what you're looking for help with. But even a kinda general, "Well, I've just got this feeling like I can't move..." works pretty well, too. Most of us are familiar with things like that.
5. What medications have you tried in the past? And how did they work? Did they help? Make things worse? Have horrible side effects?
Generally, if you think about BDD as a sort of kissing cousin to OCD, the drugs I'd think about would be those known as helpful in OCD: things like SSRIs, the atypical anti-psychotics, etc. But I don't know enough about what you're taking, and what you are still needing improvement in, to feel safe recommending anything...
Sorry to be so long, but I hope you can find some help here. There are a lot of people here who are very knowledgeable, and I'll bet you'll learn a lot of good information here.
Good luck.
Posted by malcolm664 on July 8, 2007, at 16:44:01
In reply to Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Meds, posted by dixie27 on July 5, 2007, at 14:50:05
> Hi just wondering if anyone who has BDD has been able to find meds that actually help. I've been suffering from BDD for 10 years and have still not made any long-term progress. I'm on 4 meds right now and am still in a major depressive episode.
>
> If anyone had any ideas it would be appreciated.I've had symptoms of BDD since I was in my late teens. Believe me, I understand how difficult it is to conquer this disease, even with meds.
In the end, the key to conquering it is to find other outlets that will help increase your social confidence. Do you have a circle of friends? What about hobbies?
As I see it, the only way to get a handle on this disease is to develop competence in other areas of your life. You didn't go into what your symptoms are, and that bit of info would be very useful.
Competence breeds confidence (and that goes for social anxiety as well).
Of course, I know that it's a real catch-22, b/c it's difficult to develop any real competence at something w/o having self-confidence (and vice versa).
Again, I'm sorry if my answer seems very vague. It's hard to made a recommendation without some more specifics. And as far as meds go, I've never felt that any med I've taken has directly addressed my BDD symptoms. That's not to say that there aren't meds out there that can help, but I stopped trying to find a solution to this problem through meds years ago.
Posted by mattye on July 13, 2007, at 17:59:36
In reply to Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Meds, posted by dixie27 on July 5, 2007, at 14:50:05
Dixie,
I've had great success with Lexapro - after trying a half dozen others. I know how absolutely debilitating BDD can be.
Malcom is right . . . BDD is a form of OCD - except the obsession is specifically with body image. So be patient with the Lexapro. It generally takes high doses over long period of time to relieve OCD symptoms. For me, I wasn't stable until I was on 20 mgs of Lex for over 2 months. I noticed a very gradual decline in my obsession with my body image.
Also, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has helped me as well. Focus on the things you like about your appearance, and keep things in perspective. Do you really look that bad? Chances are you don't.
> Hi just wondering if anyone who has BDD has been able to find meds that actually help. I've been suffering from BDD for 10 years and have still not made any long-term progress. I'm on 4 meds right now and am still in a major depressive episode.
>
> If anyone had any ideas it would be appreciated.
This is the end of the thread.
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