Plastic Surgery Addiction—How Radical is it?

LIVERPOOL, U.K. - July 15, 2015 - PRLog -- Plastic surgery is now a highly established fields in medical aesthetics all over the media and a highly popular phenomenon, courtesy all the celebrities flocking behind it to attain physical perfection. In fact, not just celebrities, many commoners too are opting for it in today’s society. Cosmetic transformation is not just limited to surgical procedures; many non-surgical methods like BOTOX (http://www.harleybodyclinic.co.uk) are there as well.

Major Causes of Addiction

The chief cause of plastic surgery addiction is termed as body dysmorphic disorder, a condition in which a person feels pre-occupied with just a slight (or imagined) abnormality in appearance, which a person devoid of the disorder will find perfectly acceptable. This disturbance regarding any part of the patient’s body might take the form of obsession causing social, emotional as well as occupational impairment.

People suffering from dysmorphic disorder seek plastic surgery in order to get rid of the distress caused by an “incorrect” body part but as the disorder is less physical and more mental, he/she would always recognize some discrepancy or the other cropping up with the appearance and would want to go under the knife to correct it. The fact is this disorder cannot be cured by plastic surgery; rather one needs counseling and reality check to alleviate it.

Social factors sometimes play significant role in plastic surgery addiction. Media covers plastic surgery under both positive and negative light and whenever a famous personality gets it done, the limelight is all on it. When one comes to hear that a popular personality goes ten times inside the OT for cosmetic betterment, the commoner often tends to have image problems. In addition, often media too draws a very negative picture portraying that who all are considering as an extremely beautiful, attractive personality was not so much originally. It is the magic of cosmetic surgery that has helped him/her to achieve what he/she is today. This causes image problems among others and they tend to chase a cynical dream of airbrushed beauty.

Semiology (study of signs and symbols) can explain the root cause of plastic surgery. The science of semiology has a signifier and a signified. While the signifier related to plastic surgery symbolizes beauty, class and wealth, the signified is basically people suffering from poor self image who want to fit in a society where they feel they do not deserve enough to be part of.

If these factors would not have been so relevant, the number of people seeking plastic surgery would not have gone up so drastically.

Treatment

The only remedy of plastic surgery addiction is the acceptance of self and the fundamental realization that it’s not just the nose, eyes, or breasts that make them who they are.