Megan Nangle Ryan

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a mental health disorder characterised by a time-consuming obsession with perceived flaw(s), often barely noticeable or even non-existent. BDD alters a person’s sense of identity and reality, impacting the very core of a person’s being.

Bug-morphia follows the ways in which BDD can alter a persons identity, causing them to lose parts of themselves to the illness. The project re-imagines BDD from the view of the sufferer, with the goal of refocusing the conversation back to the people that struggle with BDD every day, and the residual impacts that it can leave on a persons psyche and sense of self, by following my own experience of losing my sense of self to body image issues. The work focuses on childhood, discomfort, and vulnerability, highlighting that BDD symptoms most often develop between the ages of 10 - 12 years old.

My work aims to create a space where people feel seen and heard in their experience, while also bringing more awareness to the illness.