A beloved charity worker from London took his own life following a lengthy battle with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) - igniting calls for better awareness of the “debilitating” condition.
Conrad Colson, 34, died by suicide last March after suffering from “severe” BDD, primarily concerning the appearance of his skin.
Experts say as much as two per cent of the population could be living with BDD, which leaves sufferers preoccupied by one or more perceived “flaws” in their appearance - which are unnoticetable to others, or not as prominent as they believe.
Mr Colson’s battle with the illness began when he was a teenager and “pervaded” his adult life.
He was not receiving any mental health support when he died, but was paying for private skin treatments at a London clinic.
In a statement read at Mr Colson’s inquest, his father, Richard Colson, told how his “very dear, kind and loving” son - a successful charity worker and music producer - was “plagued by body image problems”.
“He accepted these mental health problems and sought help from a number of professional bodies,” he said.
“He spent thousands of pounds at a number of skin clinics in Harley Street where he tried to find a treatment to bring him relief regarding his own facial skin problems. These were in fact very slight but he was beyond any persuasion of this.”
Mr Colson said working from home during the pandemic made things worse for his son, as he was forced to see his own image on the computer screen during video calls.
Mr Colson was also left unhappy with the skin treatment he had received, and repeatedly raised concerns with the clinic in the run-up to his death.
On March 2 last year, Mr Colson’s friends grew worried when they could not reach him.
Emergency services visited his home, where they tragically found him dead.
Calls for better awareness
Following an inquest into Mr Colson’s death, coroner Nadia Persaud has now written to his local NHS trust, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, and the skin clinic at which he was receiving treatment before his death.
“The inquest heard that there is a need for training to be provided to step-down service teams in relation to the diagnosis of BDD and the risks associated with it,” she wrote.
“There is a lack of national resources for BDD.”
Mr Colson had made a previous serious suicide attempt in early 2020. After months on a waiting list, he received specialised BDD therapy which helped him make “significant” progress, and following his own request was later discharged from mental health services.
At the time, he had been accessing aesthetic dermatology treatment at the skin clinic, but this was not taken into account in his discharge risk assessment.
Ms Persaud raised concerns in her letter about the way he was discharged from mental health services “without any robust risk assessment and without the safety net of a fully considered risk management/relapse plan.”
Her calls for better awareness of BDD are echoed by Kitty Wallace, a spokesperson for Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation and a friend of Mr Colson, who supported and was supported by the charity, said
Ms Wallace told the Standard the number of people turning to the charity for help is at a record high, yet the condition is “still very misunderstood and underdiagnosed”.
“We cannot say if BDD is on the rise as not enough large-scale research studies have been done, but we do know that there are more people reaching out to us for support than ever before,” she said.
“This could be due to a rise in awareness or the increased societal pressure towards an idealised body image.
“More awareness and early intervention is vital. We know that with the right help and support BDD is treatable but too many individuals are finding it difficult to access the right help, not being taken seriously and getting stuck on waiting lists.”
She described Conrad as “a highly valued volunteer and friend at the BDD Foundation”.
Close friends of Mr Conrad, who formerly studied with him at City of London School remember him as “so loved by his friends and family”. He is remembered as a “tremendous” artist and music producer, with a “gentle charm” who built a successful career in the charity sector.
”He was that rarest thing: curious about the lives of others, and humble about his own achievements,” they wrote on a memorial page. “He was always there for us, lending an ear as we grew from teenage angst to near-middle age moaning.”
