News

“Taking Selfies” Now Considered a Mental Disorder

April 7, 2014

The act of taking a “selfie” is now considered a mental disorder. “Selfitis” according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of oneself and publish them onto social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other media. The declaration made in Chicago 4 days ago, in an annual APA conference, now adds taking selfies to the official list of documented mental disorders.

An obsessive compulsion for the perfect selfie is seen as as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem and to fill a gap in intimacy. Behavioral studies of how people use social media like Facebook indicate that selfies are “narcissistic and correlated with a decrease in the intimacy of personal relationships”.

APA now categorizes Selfitis into three stages starting with Borderline Selfitis which involves taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day but not posting them on social media; Acute Selfitis which involves taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day and posting each of the photos on social media and Chronic Selfitis which is the uncontrollable urge to take photos of one’s self round the clock and posting the photos on social media more than six times a day.

‘Selfie’ is a new vocabulary used to describe the craze of young people’s obsessive behavior of capturing own photo. Some psychologists argue that in moderation, “selfies” are a feel-good and often creative way to journal their lives and emotions and express their personalities.

“A secure, mature person is going to post selfies that are spontaneous and not overly engineered or edited, and they’re going to do it less often. A more insecure person is going to post staged or sexualized photos, and they’re going to do it so much that they become consumed by it and the comments they receive.” said psychologist Lucie Hemmen.

Sources 1, 2

[Update] It turns out that the original source of the story, Adobo Chronicles wasn’t expressing the views of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). However there are studies which have found that selfies are indeed something of a disorder. (Update on UberGizmo)

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