Snapchat Dysmorphia Becoming Too Common.

PositionSOCIAL MEDIA

If you yearn for plastic surgery to make the real you resemble those enhanced photos of yourself in filtered selfies and apps like Snapchat, it is not a surgeon you need, it is a therapist. That is the message from three Boston University School of Medicine authors writing a commentary for JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery about the growing health threat from "Snapchat dysmorphia," which is a fixation with an imagined or minor flaw in your appearance based on selfies or apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facetune.

It is a tech-era twist on body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a long-known impairment that, in extreme forms can lead to depression and suicidal thoughts. BDD affects up to 2.4% of the population.

"I've had patients bring in selfies and say, 'I want to look better than my selfies,'" or come in with filtered photos and "want to change their facial shape, make their teeth brighter, make a blemish go away," says Neelam Vashi, assistant professor of dermatology and director of BU's Center for Ethnic Skin and its Cosmetic and Laser Center.

Concern with one's appearance is normal, she indicates--to a point. However, people with BDD, which mental health professionals locate on the obsessive-compulsive spectrum, fixate on their appearance such that "it will never be good enough," Vashi explains.

Vashi notes that photo-editing technology once was the province of models...

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