GGBI: Body Image Distress & Preoccupation

Throw away negative thoughts. Approach positive ones. Learn to identify self-talk and respond quickly. Train daily and improve. This is the core experience of GG Apps.
GGBD: Body image distress is the third of a series of apps we're launching on a new and exciting platform named GG Apps. The app focuses on body distress, preoccupations with one’s appearance or perceived flaws.
The app features:
- 15 free levels to learn, understand and improve.
- 1 free daily training level.
- In total, 48 levels including topics such as body-focused self-esteem, importance of appearance, shame, fear of being judged and the need to look perfect.
The app has two main types of audiences:
1. People who suffer from body related distress including body dissatisfaction, preoccupation with a perceived flaw in appearance (Body Dysmorphic Disorder; BDD) and would like to improve their condition by training daily.
2. People who already had treatment for BDD or related body distress and want to prevent relapse.
Group 1 will benefit from using the app as a therapy assisting tool. It can provide users with more information about body distress and preoccupation, as well as better understanding of how other people with similar difficulties think and feel. Daily training can benefit by enhancing people's ability to identify and respond to negative self-talk.
Group 2 can use the app to review their learning in therapy and practice challenging their appearance related negative self-talk.
New findings support the effectiveness of the basic mechanism used in GG apps (see this link)
According to CBT models, negative self-talk – individuals’ ongoing interpretations of the self, others and the world - maintain psychological difficulties such as obsessive preoccupation, low mood, and maladaptive behaviors.

In body distress and preoccupation, for instance, individuals negative self-talk often relates to the over-importance of appearance to their self-worth, their being accepted or their success in life more generally. Individuals with such beliefs will continuously say to themselves (in their heads) phrases such as ‘I’m ugly’, ‘I have to look perfect’ or ‘I will never be accepted because of my looks‘.
Such negative self-talk, of course, ultimately increases body related distress and preoccupation, intensifies negative mood and often provokes checking and reassurance for others.
GGBD was developed in order to provide an accessible CBT training platform that would allow individuals with body related distress and preoccupation to better deal with negative self-talk. The application is designed to
(1) increase individuals’ awareness of negative self-talk.
(2) train individuals’ to better identify and challenge negative self-talk.
(3) increase individuals’ access to neutral and positive self-talk.
(4) increase the automaticity of the above processes.

To further strengthen learning of supportive self-talk, each level the player completes is followed by a small memory game in which one has to identify a supportive statements that appeared in the previous level.

Training using this application, will hopefully allow for gradual, steady learning of more positive self-talk thereby helping to break the vicious thought cycle maintaining appearance related preoccupation.

ABOUT GG APPS
GG Apps is a new and exciting mobile platform (from the same team that brought "Good Blocks") aimed at improving people's wellness by expanding and challenging their self-talk.

OTHER APPS by GG
GGOC: OCD Daily Training App
GGSE: Confidence & Self-Esteem
GGRO: Relationship Doubt & Obsessions (ROCD)
Good Blocks