'It's very important to take BDD seriously and recognize that it's not simply vanity,' Phillips told 'GMA.' 'It's a serious and sometimes life-threatening disorder.' Katharine Phillips, professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and author of 'The Broken Mirror,' the first book written about BDD. The disorder currently affects about 2 to 3% of the general population, making it more common than obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia or anorexia nervosa, according to Dr. MORE: 'Riverdale' star Lili Reinhart explains body dysmorphic disorder to criticsД«DD is a mental health disorder, defined by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America as 'a body-image disorder characterized by persistent and intrusive preoccupations with an imagined or slight defect in one's appearance.'ДЄnd though often attached to stigma and shame, it is a disorder that is more common than people may think. 'It's often a very long road for people to get diagnosed,' she said, adding of her own experience, 'I never thought that the issue of my appearance was actually a psychological issue.'

Stern, who now treats people with BDD, said it took her more than a year of seeing medical professionals, therapists and doing her own research to get a diagnosis of BDD and start the treatment that ultimately put her in recovery.

PHOTO: Robyn Stern, now 40, poses in this undated family photo.

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