Selfies are pretty much everywhere now. The not-so-novel act of taking a photo of yourself has just about lost it's embarrassing stigma of vanity and even your dad’s done one. But the habit can be addictive for some, as Danny Bowman learned. The 19-year-old from Newcastle’s obsession with selfies – which was part of his body dysmorphia, a condition where you have a damagingly unrealistic perception of your body – meant he dropped out of school, wouldn’t leave the house in six months and lost two stone in a bid to create the perfect selfie.
One day, he was so depressed that he attempted suicide: ‘I was constantly in search of taking the perfect selfie and when I realised I couldn’t I wanted to die. I lost my friends, my education, my health and almost my life,’ he told The Mirror.
Danny says he's now speaking out about his experiences in an attempt to help break the stigma attached to mental illness. He's keen to point out that it wasn’t the selfies that drove him to attempt suicide, but that they were a factor in the illness he suffered from: ‘This kind of thing can happen to anyone. For me I think it manifests itself with the selfies, with other people it manifests itself in other ways. The important message is it’s not abnormal.’
Danny received therapy in hospital to treat his disorder which included technology addiction, OCD and body dysmorphic disorder. ‘Danny’s case is particularly extreme. But this is a serious problem. It’s not a vanity issue. It’s a mental health one which has an extremely high suicide rate.’ Psychiatrist Dr David Veal told The Mirror.
Danny also spoke about how when he’s previously spoken about his addiction, people have laughed at him. It’s important to remember that though on the face of it, ‘selfie addict’ might sound like it’s silly but there’s something to be said of the pressures that people are put under to look perfect and how technology enables them to express their anguish.
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Picture: Rex
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.