Research shows Mumbaikars suffer from dissatisfaction with their appearance
A research carried out by the Podar Institute of Education in Santa Cruz came to light recently highlighting the fact that people in Mumbai are not satisfied with their appearance. The research examined a sample of 700 citizens of Mumbai aged between 20-25. The stats are quite worrying while it seems that 79{f4e1575822752660c3387461b06f16047197db710b64f29e8565d582c3a8cd4f} of women and 68{f4e1575822752660c3387461b06f16047197db710b64f29e8565d582c3a8cd4f} of men are not satisfied with their appearance. Another crucial finding is that a shocking 58{f4e1575822752660c3387461b06f16047197db710b64f29e8565d582c3a8cd4f} of women are seriously considering cosmetic surgery to improve their image and relieve this sense of dissatisfaction. Another important point is that there is a high rate of youngsters suffering from BDD (Body Dysmporphic Disorder), a mental issue wherein people are obsessed with their appearance flaws.. thus they put themselves in a struggle to correct all such flaws by running from one cosmetic doctor to another.
Dr. Parul Tank, psychiatrist based on Fortis, Hospital, Mulund describes BDD: “The disorder is characterised by an unhealthy obsession with a perceived physical defect, ranging from skin colour to body shape. No one is perfect, we all have some defects or the other, but not every one becomes obsessed with changing their appearances,”
The level of this obsession is so high that people are willing to opt for painful plastic surgeries. Another important aspect of this is that some of these people are not even conscious of this issue. Dr. Tank states: “We hardly get 10 such cases of BDD out of the 100 who come to us for counselling. There is a thin line between disliking and the disorder. But when the disliking turns into an obsession, it becomes a disorder,” said Dr Tank. Another psychiatrist, Dr. Sagar Mundada claims: “A patient when after several plastic surgeries if still complains about his/her appearance, the surgeon becomes suspicious and sends the patient to a psychiatrist for check up. After counseling we get to know if the person has BDD” .
We should also notice that 51{f4e1575822752660c3387461b06f16047197db710b64f29e8565d582c3a8cd4f} of the people that participated in the research spend more than 5 hours per day in the social media while 38{f4e1575822752660c3387461b06f16047197db710b64f29e8565d582c3a8cd4f} say that joined social media to substitute the lack of real friends and boost their self-esteem. Dr. Tank says: “With the growing usage of social media, such cases have become common in metros. Many youths with low self-esteem suffer from anxiety and depend on social media to gain their self-confidences. This further aggravates their condition as their inner strength gets dependent on the number of likes or comments they receive from their virtual friends”.
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