Selfie-addiction is serious concern in Gen Next, say psychologists

Shikha (name changed on request) was suitably surprised to find her 22-year-old daughter breaking  down in tears and throwing her expensive phone down because it didn’t take a decent selfie. 

The family didn’t pay much attention to the girl’s obsession with her phone and selfies till it reached a point of mindlessness. “Initially, we nicknamed her ‘the selfie queen’. It was a joke, but it didn’t remain a joke. She’d post these pictures on social media and get upset if they didn’t get the response she expected. She suddenly started complaining that her nose was not good enough and that she might consider plastic surgery,” says Shikha. 

Selfies have caused enough trouble already, what with people losing their lives taking them: they have fallen off cliffs, have got run over by trains and even electrocuted. It’s like a self-styled,  self-destructive competition. Though selfie addiction is not considered an illness yet, the American Psychiatric Association has recognised that taking three selfies a day is indicative of a mental disorder. “Selfitis is divided into three degrees of acuteness: borderline (taking three selfies a day); acute (taking three selfies and posting all three on social media; and chronic (an uncontrollable urge to post selfies more than six times on social media,” says psychologist Dr Mini Rao.  

City-based mental health specialists are seeing an increase in worried parents and relatives consulting them for this form of self-obsession. According to Dr Rao, “The obsession to put the perfect photo often indicates a deeper psychological issue, such as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), which is a mental illness that has a person obsessed with a perceived flaw in his or her appearance. He or she keeps wanting to change that aspect physically. Similarly, people who are obsessed with selfies keep clicking till they get the one they think is just right.” 

Consultant psychologist S. Mohan Raj clarifies that selfie addiction is not an illness but a part of the bigger problem, which is Internet addiction. “We have had cases where addiction to the virtual world has affected people’s personal lives.” 

When parents take strict action, like taking the phone away, people go through withdrawal symptoms just as a drug or alcohol addict does. “The best way to deal with this is to take up a hobby and invest time in something that the person is passionate about,” he says.