Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Times-Union Managing Editor
My daughter likes to watch Oprah.
I must admit I am not a fan of Oprah, but Thursday night she was watching so I took in a little of the show.
They were talking about something I had never heard about before - Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
BDD is a psychological disorder where no matter what you do, you still think you're ugly.
Most times, BDD victims fixate on one body part or another, like a nose, chest or hair.
Everybody, at one time or another, worries about how they look, but people with BDD wake up obsessing and degrading themselves and continue having these thoughts all day.
People who suffer from BDD not only dislike some aspect of how they look, they're severely preoccupied with it. They get to the point where it is hard to go outside or go to work and talk to others without thinking the self-degrading thoughts about their flaws. The thoughts soon become all-consuming.
All of these self-degrading thoughts about a perceived flaw are distorted. Most times the supposed "flaw" doesn't even exist. The perceived imperfect body part isn't imperfect at all.
This one woman on Oprah - Jenny - was 28 years old. She had 26 different plastic surgeries to correct her appearance.
They showed pictures of her before the surgeries and she was fairly attractive. Now she looks kind of freaky.
She had enormous lips and a tiny nose. And the nose - after four nose jobs - still was too big, in her view.
They showed videotape of her crying in her plastic surgeon's office when he told her she couldn't have anymore nose jobs.
She couldn't have any more nose jobs because if she did, she risked having her nose collapse.
She could only have shots to try to shrink her nose, which, mind you, wasn't very big at all.
As it was, she had to stuff Q-tips¨ up her nose a couple times a day to breathe properly.
It was pretty weird stuff, I must say. I suppose it was probably pretty routine fare for Oprah, but to me, it was pretty weird stuff.
So I got on the Internet and found a pile of information on BDD.
Virtually all of the Web sites I looked at said BDD is a significant and growing problem in the U.S.
It's not hard to see what's driving this problem.
Take a look around in our culture.
What do we Americans deem the most valuable and desirable physical traits?
All the stars and starlets are all made up to look perfect and thin and they wind up on the covers of magazines.
Of course, average, impressionable young people look at that stuff and think they have to look like that, too.
It's been like that for a long time.
But lately, it seems we've gone off the deep end.
Now, we've got all manner of "reality" shows re-enforcing the idea that if you don't look like some waifish supermodel you're worthless.
We've got shows like "Extreme Makeover," "Celebrity Makeover" and "The Swan."
And it's not only appearance. We've got reality shows about house makeovers and car makeovers.
It's crazy.
So it's really no surprise to me that a growing number of people in this country are obsessed with their looks to the point of distraction.
And the BDD people are just the ones who have clinical disorders over their looks.
Plenty of other people stress out over their looks without winding up on medication.
Lots of perfectly normal teenage girls think they're fat.
"Do these jeans make me look fat?" is a clich. Comedians talk about it all the time.
Lots of other people - I would guess a majority, frankly - spend lots of time and money on their looks.
The cosmetic industry is booming. Designer clothes and jewelry sell quite well.
Diet plans and exercise equipment always does a brisk business.
I'm not sure where this is all headed, but it would seem to me we need to calm down a little bit when it comes to our appearance.
No matter what you do, somebody is always going to be better looking or in better shape. I think we all need to do the best we can to stay in shape and go with what we've got.
The whole concept of looks is totally subjective anyway. The people I think are good looking might not be the same people you think are good looking, so it really doesn't matter that much, does it?
I think life is just a bit too short to be consumed by our looks.
And here's something to consider:
When you're lying in your nice, soft, velvet-lined casket and all your friends file by to console your loved ones, they're all going to say how good you look.
