Lily is diagnosed with BDD and is invited to a pool party which she dearly wants to go to but is held back by this invisible rope of fear: how others will analyze and criticize her body.
She goes through stages of sadness, frustration, embarrassment, and obsession due to the obstacles she faces throughout the story.
As she goes through these moments, it is important to analyze and break down what is happening and what is going through her head, as her internal monologue screams at her and floods her with negative thoughts.
Highlight Quotes:
Lily desires to be perfect and look like the ideal image she has in mind because “BDD is all about being obsessed with the whole idea of looking perfect even when there is no such thing as perfect”.
She goes through and expresses different behavior changes such as covering herself since “a patient with BDD would go to extreme lengths to make them feel comfortable and not bring attention to their appearance.”
Throughout the whole story she has negative comments filling her head. “It's quite simple. If you don’t like the way you look or think there is something wrong, you won’t have the confidence you wish to have.”
Wishing she could change herself she does an online search looking for different ways to lose weight scrolling for hours and hours browsing through weight loss treatments and surgeries to diets to pre-made workouts that focus on losing fat.
For more research here are some resources I found helpful in my studying:
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=k9jQCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=body+dysmorphic+disorder+feelings&ots=CITdRdWEA2&sig=2qEGLx3pNAgy4TMTEm5zUxx2Fu4#v=onepage&q=body%20dysmorphic%20disorder%20feelings&f=false
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7114025/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1357034X09347222
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1022090200057
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005796700001029
https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1756-0500-6-36
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/body-dysmorphia/#:~:text=BDD%20can%20seriously%20affect%20your,and%20even%20thoughts%20of%20suicide.
