OCD & BDD Expert in the Media — Robyn Stern, LCSW
Expert Commentary. Real Conversations.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder and OCD are two of the most misunderstood conditions in mental health — and changing that requires more than clinical work. Robyn Stern, LCSW has been featured on Good Morning America, contributed to the International OCD Foundation, and spoken on leading mental health podcasts to bring accurate, compassionate information about BDD and OCD to wider audiences. Browse her media appearances below.
"I Thought I Was Just Ugly": BDD and Trauma
For a long time, I thought I was just ugly.
Not anxious. Not ill. Just someone who happened to look the way I looked — and couldn't stop thinking about it. I didn't understand that what I was living with had a name, a clinical profile, and a treatment that could actually work.
That's the thing about Body Dysmorphic Disorder that most people never talk about: it doesn't feel like a disorder. It feels like the truth.
I sat down with The OCD Whisperer Podcast this week to talk about what that experience was actually like — the years of not knowing, the "wallflower" existence of functioning on the outside while suffering deeply on the inside, and what it took to finally get to the other side.
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"A Bully in Your Brain": What I Shared on Good Morning America About Body Dysmorphic Disorder
For a long time, I did not tell anyone the full truth of what was happening to me.
I missed a semester of college because I could not leave my house for a month. I took three or four medical leaves from work because some days, functioning was not possible. And the reason — the thing driving all of it — was a conviction so consuming and so private that I did not have words for it.
With extensive professional training and lived experience, I am a psychotherapist who is frequently consulted by media outlets to comment on my specialized areas of practice.