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Surgery can be lifesaving. Surgery is often needed and can, for many conditions and situations, be a game changer. But more often than not, a surgical procedure for someone with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) will not help. It could potentially relieve the person of their symptoms for a short amount of time but it cannot treat or cure the underlying disorder.

To change societal perceptions towards OCD, we must first understand what those perceptions are. The purpose of this post is to share key takeaways regarding pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) perceptions of and stigmas towards OCD, and how we can increase awareness within our schools and communities.

Whether we hear the term from a client, another provider, or our own classification of someone’s symptoms, “compulsions” tend carry with them some level of assumption – that this might just be OCD.

There can be confusion when differentiating between body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and eating disorders (EDs). They both involve pre-occupying appearance-related thoughts and repetitive behaviours, but are treated differently.

The headlines and the CDC report are indeed alarming, but they should serve as a wakeup call to all of us. Yes, we should think seriously about why we are seeing a steep decline in the mental health of teenage girls, but we have to come together now as parents, family, friends, educators, clinicians, providers, and as a society to support, enhance and establish more preventive measures for our youth.

Working with Black churches to create a better today and a much better tomorrow in the field (literally) of mental health care for African Americans are three Black leaders in mental health who will present at the 2023 ADAA Conference. ADAA is excited to have Bernadine Waller, PhD, Atasha Jordan, MBA, MD and Kimberly Arnold, MPH, PhD discuss their work, research and findings in a presentation titled Implementing Evidence-Based Mental Health Interventions in Black Churches.

The pandemic set a new era into motion. When the world went into lockdown in 2020, people learned to fear the outside and any social interaction, becoming extremely fearful of contracting the deadly virus.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder is an unhealthy preoccupation with not just the look, shape, or feel of one’s body or a specific part, but the shame one experiences in the appearance of their body, or a certain aspect of it, really hits the mark. BDD is a chronic condition that can be debilitating and can disrupt various aspects of the person’s day-to-day life for years.

Many mental health professionals are now conducting patient visits virtually. I am one of the only psychologists left in my building who has stayed behind to continue in-person work while abiding by COVID protocols. Since our practice specializes in refractory OCD spectrum disorders and anxiety disorders a lot of the work done at our outpatient clinic requires in-vivo exposures, which cannot be replicated on Zoom.

In BDD, people are tormented by obsessive thoughts associated with a part or parts of their physical appearance being flawed in some way, yet these flaws tend not to be noticeable to anyone but themselves.

ADAA Member Eda Gorbis, PhD, LMFT shares information about the various forms of OCD and the best treatment options.