Everyone periodically experiences fear and anxiety.
Fear is an emotional, physical, and behavioral response to an immediately recognizable external threat (eg, an intruder, a car spinning on ice).
Anxiety is a distressing, unpleasant emotional state of nervousness and uneasiness; its causes are less clear. Anxiety is less tied to the exact timing of a threat; it can be anticipatory before a threat, persist after a threat has passed, or occur without an identifiable threat. Anxiety is often accompanied by physical changes and behaviors similar to those caused by fear.
Some degree of anxiety is adaptive; it can help people prepare, practice, and rehearse so that their functioning is improved and can help them be appropriately cautious in potentially dangerous situations. However, beyond a certain level, anxiety causes dysfunction and undue distress. At this point, it is maladaptive and considered a disorder.
Anxiety occurs in a wide range of physical and mental disorders, but it is the predominant symptom of several. Anxiety disorders are more common than any other class of psychiatric disorder. However, they often are not recognized and consequently not treated. Left untreated, chronic maladaptive anxiety can contribute to or interfere with treatment of some general medical disorders.
Mental distress that occurs immediately or shortly after experiencing or witnessing an overwhelming traumatic event is no longer classified as an anxiety disorder. Such disorders are now classified as trauma-related and stressor-related disorders.
Body dysmorphic disorder
-
Body dysmorphic disorder is characterized by preoccupation with ≥ 1 perceived defects in physical appearance that are not apparent or appear only slight to other people. The preoccupation with appearance must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, academic, or other aspects of functioning. And at some point during the course of the disorder, patients must repetitively and excessively perform ≥ 1 repetitive behaviors (eg, mirror checking, comparing their appearance with that of other people) in response to the preoccupation with appearance. Diagnosis is based on history. Treatment consists of drug therapy (specifically, SSRIs or clomipramine ), psychotherapy (specifically, cognitive-behavioral therapy), or both.
Body dysmorphic disorder usually begins during adolescence and may be somewhat more common among women. At any given point in time, about 1.7 to 2.9% of people have the disorder.
Body dysmorphic disorder meaning & definition 1 of Body dysmorphic disorder.
-
A [psychiatric] condition in which the affected person suffers from a flawed perception that views some part of the body or [physical feature] to be defective or unsightly although an objective observer would not share said opinion. While some people assume that female breasts are disproportionately the feature in question, in fact persons with [body dysmorphic disorder] tend to report dissatisfaction with facial features most frequently.
[Body dysmorphic disorder] is categorized as one of the Somatoform Disorders by the American [Psychiatric] Association.
Body dysmorphic disorder meaning & definition 2 of Body dysmorphic disorder.
-
[Mental disorder] that makes you unable to look in a mirror without thinking how worthless and ugly you are. At one point you probably wont leave the house in order to avoid all [the beautiful people] and possible reflections of your [imperfections]
Body dysmorphic disorder meaning & definition 3 of Body dysmorphic disorder.
-
a mental illness in which a person spends a lot of time worrying about how they look and wrongly believes there are problems with their appearance
Body dysmorphic disorder meaning & definition 4 of Body dysmorphic disorder.