A beautiful 28-year-old Eurasian woman, LISA (not her real name), came to me to have eyelid surgery. This was not at all an uncommon request. In the last ten years, there has been an increase of 58% of cosmetic surgeries performed on Asians. Lisa was half Asian and she was requesting a preference to have more Caucasian looking eyes. I performed the eyelid surgery for Lisa. She was very happy with the results. Only it didn’t stop there...
As a plastic surgeon I must distinguish between a patient who is experiencing a normal dislike of some aspect of her appearance and the patient who is actually suffering from a psychiatric disorder called Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Many people experience a mild dissatisfaction with their appearance. As many as one third of the population may not be happy with the way they look. How people feel about their appearance might have very little to do with how they actually look. Even exceptionally attractive people experience a moderate dislike of one’s appearance. The dislike of one’s own appearance is enough to cause some occasional anxiety or depression. And it is all entirely normal and a very human feeling because it never really impacts the person’s overall quality of life.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder often begins in adolescence, becomes chronic and seems to have similarities to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Body Dysmorphic Disorder is not a common occurrence. In the general population, the rate is around 2%. I am aware of several studies that were done to try to figure out the rate in the cosmetic population. The results of the studies fluctuated wildly and ranged from 7% to 33% who were
When Looking Good Becomes a
Tragic Obsession