"Mirror, mirror, who is the most beautiful in this kingdom?", to which the mirror replies: "Your majesty is most beautiful, but there is another being. He is such a cute and beautiful creature that he is the most beautiful in all the land." This fragment from the beginning of Snow White can help us illustrate, in a very graphic way, the mirror syndrome. What relationship do you have with your mirror? What does he answer when you ask him about who is the most beautiful?
It may depend on the day and how you feel your answer will vary. But what happens when the mirror responses are always negative and critical towards your body and your person? We could then speak of the mirror syndrome, also known as Ballantyne Runge syndrome or triple edema. If you want to know more about him, keep reading! In this Psychology-Online article we explain what is mirror syndrome in psychology, its symptoms, causes and treatment.
Mirror syndrome or Ballantyne Runge syndrome is suffered by those people looking at their reflection for physical flaws
Therefore, we could define it as the preoccupation with one or more defects or imperfections perceived in physical appearance that are not observable or seem unimportant to another person. So the looking in the mirror repeatedly it could be a sign of preoccupation with physical appearance, causing clinically significant discomfort.
Some of the symptoms that people with mirror syndrome, also known as Ballantyne Runge syndrome or triple edema, may manifest are:
- Referential delusions and the belief that other people pay particular attention to or make fun of them because of their appearance.
- High levels of anxiety, social anxiety and social avoidance.
- Depression.
- Neuroticism and perfectionism.
- low extraversion and esteem.
- ashamed of his appearance, giving excessive importance to their physical appearance.
- Reluctant to reveal their concern to others.
- Aesthetic or cosmetic treatments can be performed in order to improve its appearance.
- Tendency to negative and threatening interpretation of facial expressions and ambiguous situations.
- suicidal ideation.
- Alteration of psychosocial functioning: stop leaving home, not going out with friends or family, not going to work or school, etc.).
- stop looking in the mirror.
- Social isolation.
- Alteration in eating behavior.
Understanding the mirror syndrome or triple edema within body dysmorphic disorder, one of the causes of this perceptive alteration is believed to be executive and visual processing dysfunction, which generates a bias in the analysis and coding of the details instead of the integral or holistic aspects of the visual stimuli.
Some of the associated risk factors to Ballantyne Runge syndrome are:
- High rates of neglect and abuse during childhood.
- Have first-degree relatives with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
- Shyness.
- perfectionism
- Anxious temperament.
- Adverse situations in childhood.
- Bad parental relationship.
- Social isolation.
- Presence of dermatological or physical stigmata.
The treatment that has shown the greatest efficacy for mirror syndrome or body dysmorphic disorder is cognitive behavioral therapy with the aim of reducing disruptive thoughts and avoidance behaviors, as well as increasing self-esteem.
In the field of research for the treatment of mirror syndrome, a study in adolescents proposes carrying out 14 sessions where the 3 The former are aimed at exploring the reason for consultation and specific problems, as well as the return of the information collected in it to the patient.
The last two are aimed at coping with risk situations and post-treatment evaluation in order to assess the improvements achieved. The other remaining sessions are divided into 3 large blocks:
- cognitive restructuring: the content of present thoughts and concerns about body image will be worked through records, working from these distorted thoughts in order to readjust them to ones closer to reality and that do not generate discomfort in the subject.
- Training in techniques for anxiety management and relaxation: both in Jacobson's progressive relaxation and in diaphragmatic breathing in order to regulate physiological activation in situations in front of the mirror.
- Exposure with response prevention: also remembering in these subsequent sessions the previously acquired relaxation and anxiety management techniques.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
