DYSMORPHOPHOBIA
Researchers point out that some of our social circles influence our perception of beauty, beyond the personal preferences and cultural influences we are all subject to.
Man’s need to be beautiful in the third millennium is overwhelmingly influenced by mechanisms of social comparison, imitation and social contagion – all of this amid a lack of self-confidence, in its own value.
DYSMORPHOPHOBIA – a preoccupation with self-image, describes a subjective sensation of ugliness that patients perceive in comparison to others, although their appearance is within normal limits.
Body dysmorphic disorder is a disorder of the consciousness of your own body. It is associated as an obsession or excessive concern for a minor physical defect. It occurs especially in adolescence and may have a chronic evolution. In most cases, awareness is absent and is associated with the inability to function normally from a social point of view. All those affected are withdrawing from social activities, limiting their contact with others, considering that everyone is noticing their defect. Comments toward them always lead to a negative self-assessment.
The concerns of the affected are mostly related to skin (acne, post-acne scars, wrinkles), nose, hair, breasts, lips, ears, genitals.
The frequency ratio between men and women is equal, the age category being more prevalent in adolescents.
The person is affected to such an extent that he / she lives in a permanent state of stress.
Some people can develop social and family phobias, they can resort to a diet or excessive physical program and tend to self-harm.
Their obsession with plastic and aesthetic surgery is well known, and patients require extreme and totally unrealistic procedures.
Sufferers believe the solution comes primarily from aesthetic surgery. This is not always true. In addition to surgical treatments (if there is an objective indication), psychological counseling is also needed, and in cases where patients require psychiatric treatments and counseling, surgery and aesthetic treatments are deferred until patients are in a state of balance physically and emotionally.
The esthetician surgeon and the psychiatrist or psychotherapist must collaborate for the patient’s well-being to help them alleviate their self-defeating feelings and thoughts.
We all have moments in which we appeal to the tricks of improving the appearance of the exterior to give us a sense of well-being, but these “tricks” must remain within the limit of normal, be just a little help, a “boost”, and not to become an obsession, an addiction, or an exaggeration to an artificial, false look!