COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY FOR BDD: RESPONSE (RITUAL) PREVENTION – STOP ASKING FOR REASSURANCE AND LIMIT GROOMING TIME
Stop asking for reassurance Getting reassurance that you look okay may decrease your anxiety temporarily, but soon the anxiety returns, as does the urge to ask again. Quite often, a reassuring reply isn’t believed, so anxiety doesn’t diminish even temporarily. The best thing to do is to stop asking people how you look or if you look okay. If a BDD sufferer asks you to reassure them, it s best not to respond. Instead, you could give a response like “I know you’re upset about how you look, but it doesn’t help for me to respond to you,” or We’ve agreed that it isn’t useful for me to reassure you; this is a BDD ritual that I don’t want to reinforce.” It can help to then encourage the BDD sufferer engage in some activity other than a discussion of appearance. With time, if reassurance isn’t provided, the behavior and the need for reassurance may even-
Limit grooming time Try to limit grooming activities, such as applying makeup, shaving, or styling your hair. Keep it to a reasonable amount of time, for example, 15 minutes a day. Time, rather than how you feel, should be used to determine when to stop the behavior, because people with BDD typically never feel really satisfied with how they look. If you spend a lot of money on beauty products, it’s a good idea to limit this as well, keeping the amount well within your budget.
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