Taking Too Many Selfies is A Sign of A Mental Disorder: Selfitis

Have you seen people taking selfies very often and sometimes they also post it on social media. Though it is fun taking them, doing it all the time may not be normal.

A recent research done in India finds that the obsession of taking selfies on smartphones are celled “Selfitis”. It may be a real disorder that requires treatment.

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Narcissism or excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one's physical appearance is one of the behavioral traits.

‘Those with selfitis suffer from a lack of self-confidence and are seeking to ‘fit in’ with those around them, and may display symptoms similar to other potentially addictive behaviors.’

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A research team at Nottingham Trent University in the UK and the Thiagarajar School of Management (TSM) in Tamil Nadu began investigating the phenomenon after a hoax story appeared in the media in 2014 claiming ‘selfitis’ had been classed as a genuine mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association.

“While the story was revealed to be a hoax, it did not mean that the condition of selfitis did not exist,” Griffiths said. “We have now appeared to confirm its existence and developed the world’s first Selfitis Behaviour Scale to assess the condition,” he said.

The scale was developed using a large number of focus groups with 200 participants and the scale was tested via a survey of 400 participants.

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Participants were based in India because the country has the most users on Facebook, as well as the highest number of deaths as a result of trying to take selfies in dangerous locations.

Three Levels of Selfitis

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The findings, published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction confirmed that there are three levels of selfitis.

Borderline - taking selfies at least three times a day but not posting them on social media.
Acute selfitis - taking selfies at least three times a day and posting each one on social media.
Chronic selfitis - the uncontrollable urge to take photos of one self round the clock and posting the photos on social media more than six times a day.

Why Do They Take So Many Selfies?

Six motivating factors were identified:

Selfitis sufferers typically seek to increase their self-confidence
Attention seeking
To improve their mood
To connect with the environment around them (to create a record of memories)
To increase their conformity with the social group around them
Being socially competitive

Janarthanan Balakrishnan, assistant professor at TSM explained that those with the condition suffer from a lack of self-confidence and are seeking to ‘fit in’ with those around them, and may display symptoms similar to other potentially addictive behaviors.

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“Now the existence of the condition appears to have been confirmed, it is hoped that further research will be carried out to understand more about how and why people develop this potentially obsessive behaviour, and what can be done to help people who are the most affected,” he said.

Source-Medindia