Mia Hill
Hi! My name is Mia, I’m 21 and I’m a mental health advocate. I have lived experience of BDD, OCD and GAD. I’m a youth ambassador for the BDD Foundation and OCD-UK. I run a little m...
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Who are you?
Hi, my name's Mia. I'm a youth ambassador for the BDD Foundation. I work part-time at OCD UK supporting young people with OCD and I'm also a part-time psychology student.
When did you first realise you had BDD?
So around the ages of 1516, I started to have obsessions around my appearance. I remember being really fixated specifically around my face, so my nose, my forehead, and specifically my jawline. And yeah, I think that the more anxiety I started to have around my appearance, the more I realised that this could be a bigger thing, a bigger issue. And that's when I started researching and reaching out for help.
As someone who has BDD, what is the worst thing someone could say to you?
I think one of the worst things someone could say to someone suffering with BD, D is to just get over it. That you're being vain, because that couldn't be further from the truth. Someone that suffers with B, D, D have extreme anxiety and experience extreme distress, and it's not a vanity thing. It's actually, it's complete opposite to that. And when we're being told that, we already feel ashamed, quite commonly, we feel ashamed and quite guilty and all these negative emotions and feelings. So having someone tell you that just to get over it or you're being vain, it's just vanity. It can actually make us feel a lot worse than we already do, which is really just unhelpful comments.