Selfie addict attempts suicide

[Brad]

er if u read thread it does say he has a mental health disorder
also parents telling kids they're beautiful handsome etc is just as damaging
with BDD u can have a billion people tell u you're pretty and u still don't believe it

I am reading up on it right now. As far as I see. BDD originated thru the depression, the preconceived notion that his "selfies" were not good enough. Questions that raise up to me is what did no one else see this habit coming? I'm sure if I saw someone take over 200 selfies in one sitting, I'd be a bit concerned.

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It’s possible that the rate of BDD is increasing as women(& men)get bombarded with media images of perfection. Lots of studies have shown that the more you see images of perfection around you, and the more you compare yourself with those images, the worse you tend to feel about yourself.’

That quote came from the link you posted above. So I have read into it. I understand the affect of BDD, to clarify in my post above, as if it matters anymore, was supposed to be a joke.
And yes having his parents bring affirmation to him, won't help, but reading more into it, it is hard to believe that this type of disorder is just now become more and more popular due to the direction our society is going.

Thank you for your post. Especially bringing more than an argument.

[Empired]

Then I once again shall state that there's an alarming number of people here who are ignorant about mental health. Anyone who thinks the average 19 year old is mostly influenced by their parents (and needs constant coddling) clearly is not very well educated in this matter.

While I agree with the rest of your post, the article did say the mental disorder did "officially start" at 15. Parents should definitely still be keeping an eye on a child at that age and there is no way they couldn't have noticed him shutting himself in his room for days. Also, the article mentioned this boy constantly getting in trouble in school for being late/leaving lessons all the time. I'm not surprised that the school did nothing because they never do, but I'm still confused about why the parents were okay with their teenage son spending "thousands of pounds on designer clothing and face creams", staring at himself in the mirror for 10 hours a day, and not leaving the house in six months?

Although I'm pretty sure they couldn't talk to him (because by that stage he wouldn't be able to see what they were trying to tell him) but if your son hasn't left the house in six months I think it's definitely time to call for outside help?

[FlyingJesus]

People in general are loathe to see what they don't want to see; especially with awareness of such things being so low, parents are more likely to think that their kid is either being badly behaved or "just a teen" rather than assume an actual medical condition. The article states that Danny (as with most if not all sufferers) didn't even realise it himself for years. As an invisible illness it's also rather easy to cover up with stories and excuses if you don't want others to know what's going on in your head - how much do most parents ever know about their late-teen children's lives in general, let alone inside their own thoughts?

[AtxP]

I can totally relate to this. Apart from the suicide bit.