CosBeauty Magazine #89

SNAPCHAT
DYSMORPHIA
The term ‘snapchat dysmorphia’ was
coined to describe people who bring
their own heavily doctored or filtered
selfies to surgeons, requesting to look
more like their photos. They have
been known to trawl through endless
selfies on their phones, trying to find
how they liked the way their lips or
cheeks looked on a particular day in
certain lighting.
The danger here is that these
behaviours are becoming more
integrated into the rituals of people
suffering Body Dysmorphic Disorder,
and the blurring of fantasy and reality
could trigger unrealistic requests
for cosmetic procedures. Selfie
dysmorphia is described as a category
of this condition but involves people
becoming obsessed with how they
look in selfies and wanting to look like
a filtered version of themselves.
BDD is a serious psychiatric
condition on the OCD spectrum,
defined as imagined ugliness where the
sufferer sees an imagined or very slight
defect in physical appearance which
causes them significant
distress. Sufferers believe they are
truly hideous while to others they
seem fine, even quite attractive, and
have no idea why the sufferer has
such an extreme reaction.
For people with BDD their concerns
are real, severe and very distressing
and it impacts on their ability to
function on a daily basis. They believe
that if they can see a defect, it must
be there. They can’t be convinced
otherwise or talked out of their beliefs
and continually seek reassurance
especially from family members,
creating stress and anxiety.
With the degree of self-reflection
and self-examination that comes with
selfies and social media, it is no longer
just the mirror we have to deal with.
There is a new, more pernicious twist
where the lines of fantasy and reality
are being blurred and the perception
of appearance altered to the degree
that there is potential to lose sight of
actual appearance, creating anxiety
about what is truly normal. CBM
www.cosbeauty.com.au 63