ABSTRACT
Cognitive therapy for patients with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) can be very challenging for many of the same reasons that make behavioral therapy difficult with this patient population. Because many BDD patients entering treatment have such poor insight into their symptoms, just attempting cognitive techniques can be wearying for even the most skilled cognitive therapists. Cognitive errors that frequently occur with BDD patients include perfectionism, all-or-nothing thinking, mind reading and referential thinking, emotional reasoning, and selective bias. It is important for the clinician to identify the perfectionism associated with the patient's BDD symptoms and bring this to their attention. The majority of BDD patients mind read, specifically in regards to how they believe people perceive an aesthetic aspect of their appearance. Individuals with BDD hyper-focus on the area of their body that they have deemed defective. BDD patients often remember exact details about when they received negative feedback about their appearance.
