A girl with an eating disorder takes repeated selfies after several days without eating practically anything. She feels slim, powerful and confident. However, no image of her convinces him. Oh, she hadn’t turned on the filter on her iPhone! Now, the photo is in line with the empowerment she feels. Days later, when she is assaulted by negative thoughts about her disorder, she visualizes the selfie and thinks: “I wish I were the one with the filter in real life.”
This example is taken from the series Rush to Live, but it is a faithful reflection of reality. There are many teenagers who go to the hairdresser and, showing the screen of their mobile phone, ask: “I want the hair cut and color of this influencer.” Or those who even request the services of beauty centers to get touch-ups using their face embellished by the Instagram filter as a model.
This disorder has already been identified by the community of psychologists and is called selfie dysmorphia. It is a subtype of a broader category labeled “body dysmorphic disorder,” a distorted image of one’s body that affects about 2% of the population. In the case at hand, the obsession with appearance focuses on images retouched or deformed by social media filters.
Although it is a relatively new problem, specialists assure that the incidence is growing disproportionately among young people, the children of the digital age. The average age of those affected is about 16.2 years.
We are talking about an old phenomenon, but adapted to current times. Three decades ago, for example, it was not strange for teenagers to compare themselves to a famous model, a soccer player or an actor.
However, selfie dysmorphia goes further, since the resemblance to a real person is not desired. The patient with this disorder wants to have the body and face of someone “artificially” created by Photoshop, TikTok or Instagram. In some cases, a character that resembles you, but with the necessary “tweaks” to feel better.
According to the latest studies, the affected person seeks acceptance. This would translate into an increase in self-esteem and, consequently, the willingness to carry out actions that without these tweaks I would not do. In fact, some experts link this disorder with “selfitis” or the urgent need to take self-portraits in all places and times to compensate for a lack of self-confidence.
Although more research is still required, sociological and psychological studies point to a significant gender gap in idealized physical characteristics that become obsessions. Specifically, those responsible for aesthetic clinics indicate that women tend to focus on the nose, thighs, hips and skin, while men request more changes to the hair, muscles and genitals.
These differences indicate that selfie dysmorphia also responds to implicit theories about the physical characteristics that the person of the opposite sex desires or values ??in the other.
Let’s start by asking the patient a simple question: would they be able to share a photo of themselves without a filter on their social networks?
To know if there is a problem of selfie dysmorphia, our job as psychologists is to observe if symptoms such as anxiety, dissatisfaction or sadness appear when the person sees or thinks about their own image. But how can we identify these symptoms in everyday behaviors?
As for prevention, the ideal is to start with early psychoeducation in the use of social networks. Mainly, in relation to the hours of use and the type of content that is shared.
Physical self-esteem must also be worked on through acceptance and self-care: the person must be aware that the body, as part of a living organism, changes throughout the day, weeks, months and years. On the other hand, filters make it something static and not necessarily more aesthetic.
In summary, prevention at an early age and early detection of this disorder would be the most effective psychological care strategies.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
