Does beauty make you ill? How appearance influences the psyche

Media reports about failed beauty operations and about people who have themselves remodelled into “Barbies” or other role models with sometimes extreme procedures raise the question of when an aesthetic procedure is still defensible. Where is the boundary between an enhanced zest for life and a dangerous obsession with beauty?

 

“What on earth should I wear?” The wardrobe is full and yet sometimes nothing seems to fit. Too tight at the waist, too loose at the décolletage, and the button of the new jeans only does up with a good deal of goodwill. A glance in the mirror and the next piece of self-criticism follows: crow’s feet, slack skin, sunken cheeks, a tired look - on some days you are simply not satisfied with yourself. That is quite normal and probably happens to everyone from time to time. The next day the world looks better again, and a visit to the plastic surgeon is no longer a taboo nowadays either. The treatments are becoming ever safer and the results more natural. Small flaws can be corrected simply and without complication.

 

 

Procedure or therapy?

 

But there are also people who suffer particularly badly from one problem area. A large nose, wrinkled skin after a successful diet, stubborn pads of fat or a receding hairline can represent a heavy daily burden for those affected. Not infrequently these people withdraw from their social surroundings and develop anxieties which, untreated, can develop into severe psychoses. Does aesthetic medicine represent a sensible therapy here? Or is therapy with a psychiatrist more sensible in such cases?

 

Psychiatrist or plastic surgeon - choosing the right doctor

 

If the trigger of a heavy psychological burden is a visual problem, correcting it with a doctor by means of a procedure seems sensible. After accidents or illnesses too, reconstructive operations can restore the self-esteem of those affected (for example breast surgery after an amputation due to cancer, or a skin graft after severe burns). Sometimes, however, the problem area is not the reason for the burden at all; the problem lies deeper and is projected onto that part of the body. A professional aesthetic physician should recognise when a psychological problem lies behind a dissatisfaction or a supposed flaw, and should advise against a treatment.    

 

Beauty operations - a risk of addiction

 

Are beauty operations addictive? Not necessarily. It is true, however, that some patients who, after a treatment and thus an improvement in their well-being, expect that a further procedure could improve their appearance still further and further. Very often, for example with many minimally invasive or non-invasive methods, that can indeed be the case. Some treatments only reach their full extent after several sessions, as with microneedling or mesotherapy, for example. It only becomes dangerous when patients’ perception no longer corresponds to reality, or when a further procedure can no longer guarantee the health of the person treated. Here too the critical eye of the doctors is called for. In case of doubt they will decline a treatment.

 

Further information on this fascinating subject, together with experiences of Univ. Doz. Dr. Kuzbari from his everyday life as a renowned and popular plastic surgeon, will be available from autumn in the new book “Unters Messer oder auf die Couch”.