An 18-year-old Colaba resident was brought to GT Hospital's outdoor patient department of psychiatry by her parents as they found her spending more time with her mobile. A review by psychiatrists found that she had 'Selfitis' – a newly termed mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Here, a person develops an obsessive compulsive disorder of clicking selfies.
Doctors said that during counselling, they found that she used to take more than 7-8 selfies in a day and upload them on social networking sites. When her mother asked her to stay away from clicking selfies for a day, she got impatient and irritated. She is right now on cognitive behavioural therapy and doing well.
According to Mumbai psychiatrists, addiction with selfies in youth, especially teenagers, is on the rise as they are seeing many parents coming with the same complaint.
"Selfies are of two types – group and individual. The individual selfie-addiction is a matter of concern. With good cameras on phones, people are seen clicking themselves multiple number of times," said Dr Avinash D' Souza, research associate in LTMG Sion Hospital and a psychiatrist.
He said that such people lack self-gratification. "They strike different poses as they are not happy with one picture. They then upload them on social networking sites to get approval in the virtual world," said Dr D'Souza.
A Sion Hospital study among school students on selfie-obsession showed that a majority of selfie-addicts are girls. The study, conducted by Dr Era S Dutta and Dr Payal Sharma, showed that 55% selfie-takers were insecure or self-obsessed. The study was surveyed 230 students of class 11 at an urban Mumbai school.
Dr Yusuf Matcheswala, head of department at PD Hinduja Hospital, said that teenagers spending a lot of time on social networking sites is a problem that is on rise. "APA has confirmed Selfitis as a mental disorder. Clicking selfie is a habit and a fad," said Dr Matcheswala.
Dr Harish Shetty, psychiatrist from Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, said that clicking selfie is a magnified way of seeing oneself in the mirror. "Teenagers are more concerned about how they look and how others perceive them. Generally, individual selfie-clickers are seeking identity and meaning in the world."
Three categories
Doctors say that Selfitis is a form of obsessive compulsive disorder to take one's own pictures and post them on social media and broadly divided it into three types: Borderline (taking at least three pictures of self but not posting them on social media), Acute (taking at least three photos of oneself every day and posting them on social media) and Chronic severe (taking at least six photos of self every day and posting them on social media).
