Diagnostic interview (SCID‑5) confirmed Body Dysmorphic Disorder, sub‑threshold and comorbid generalized anxiety (GAD).

Making positive changes in your life and relationships is a journey. It requires patience, dedication, and a willingness to learn and adapt. By following these steps and staying committed to your goals, you can make meaningful improvements and enjoy a more fulfilling life.

Body‑image disturbance (BID) encompasses persistent negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviours directed toward one’s physical appearance (Cash & Smolak, 2011). Epidemiological surveys estimate that up to 30 % of college‑aged adults experience clinically significant BID, with higher prevalence among women and gender‑nonconforming populations (Stice & Shaw, 2021). BID is a well‑documented antecedent of eating disorders, depressive episodes, and impaired psychosocial functioning (Bulik et al., 2016).

Current gold‑standard treatments—primarily cognitive‑behavioural therapy (CBT) and dialectical‑behavioural interventions—target maladaptive cognitions and emotion‑regulation skills (Fairburn et al., 2003). Although effective for many, a substantial subset of clients retain residual body‑image distress after treatment (Sadeghi et al., 2020). Emerging neuroscientific evidence implicates dysregulated fronto‑limbic circuitry, especially reduced activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and heightened amygdala reactivity to appearance‑related cues (Groen et al., 2022). These findings motivate interventions that directly modulate neural substrates of self‑evaluation.