Selfies Linked to Narcissism, Addiction and
Mental Illness, Say Scientists
MAR 17, 2015 by ELIYOKIM COHEN
in HEALTH
Ricky Gervais takes a ‘selfie’ at the premiere of
Muppets Most Wanted movie – Reuters
The growing trend of taking smartphone
selfies is linked to mental health conditions
that focus on a person’s obsession with
looks.
According to psychiatrist Dr David Veal:
“Two out of three of all the patients who
come to see me with Body Dysmorphic
Disorder since the rise of camera phones
have a compulsion to repeatedly take selfies.
“Cognitive behavioural therapy is used to
help a patient to recognise the reasons for
his or her compulsive behaviour and then to
learn how to moderate it,” he told the
Sunday Mirror.
19-year-old Danny Bowman’s selfie addiction
spiralled out of control, spending ten hours a
day taking up to 200 snaps of himself on his
iPhone.
The teenager is believed to be the UK’s first
selfie addict and has had therapy to treat his
technology addiction as well as OCD and
Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
Part of his treatment at the Maudsley
Hospital in London included taking away his
iPhone for intervals of 10 minutes, which
increased to 30 minutes and then an hour.
“It was excruciating to begin with but I knew
I had to do it if I wanted to go on living,” he
told the Sunday Mirror.
Public health officials in the UK announced
that addiction to social media such as
Facebook and Twitter is an illness and more
than 100 patients sought treatment every
year.
“Selfies frequently trigger perceptions of self-
indulgence or attention-seeking social
dependence that raises the damned-if-you-
do and damned-if-you-don’t spectre of either
narcissism or low self-esteem,” said Pamela
Rutledge in Psychology Today.

Guilty as charged.