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Post by Admin on Jan 2, 2018 18:15:37 GMT -4
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Post by Noura Mahdi on Jan 2, 2018 19:50:22 GMT -4
I agree with Sir Simon Wessely in that Selfitis should not be considered a mental disorder. There is definitely the possibility of the link between low self confidence and the frequency of selfies taken. In this situation, the individuals are using a temporary method to boost their confidence just as alcohol gives temporary relief to patients having difficulty sleeping. Therefore, when the effect wears off, the individuals are back to the same problem they were avoiding initially. Also, with new jobs that are arising from the web, a person who take numerous selfies may actually get paid for doing so and may consider themselves a photographer.
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Post by Carol Njoki on Jan 3, 2018 21:30:28 GMT -4
I agree with the author of the article, Knapton, S. that caution should be taken in labeling complex human behavior under one label. I think that selfitis is probably more of a subset or an example of a more established mental disorder rather than a disorder on its own. For example, it could be a contribution to cluster B of personality disorder which are: Borderline, Histrionic and Narcissist personality disorder or it could be an example of Substance abuse disorder.
As a contribution to Cluster B personality disorder the person in this culture that takes a lot of selfies can be given as a stereotypical example of behaviors. For example, selfies that overstates ones importance in a person who has narcissistic personal disorder; fills the sense of emptiness in someone with borderline personality disorder; or hypersexualize and/or dramatize the life of a person with histrionic personality disorder.
As an example of substance abuse disorder, taking selfies in this culture could be seen as a substance and the overindulgence or dependence on taking selfies could be seen as substance abuse just like dependence on alcohol.
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Post by mjshallcross on Jan 5, 2018 13:01:20 GMT -4
My initial reaction to the article is agreeing that "Selfitis" is a mental illness. Although it was developed as somewhat of a hoax, and a topic that is laughable to some in the academic community, taking selfies is a practice that is here to stay and obsession over said practice should warrant more attention from the Psychiatric community. From personal observation of friends, family, colleagues, and anyone else I interact with on social media, whom I believe post a lot of selfies, are in my opinion not truly happy with themselves or their lives. These individuals use selfies as an outlet to garner attention and accumulate positive responses from their followers in order to boost confidence and feel wanted. Posting a selfie is not a glimpse into one's daily life as most are inclined to believe, instead, it is a highlight from that individual's day or experience at that point in time. No one is going to post a selfie after they just rolled out of bed and have not gathered themselves physically or emotionally. Selfies that get posted have something the user is looking to highlight or flaunt to their followers and the user is posting that particular selfie to receive likes, comments, shares, direct messages, or other forms of contact or affirmation that they are wanted and valued.
However, this practice is not just limited to taking selfies. I believe it includes posting anything on any form of social media. As stated in the article, posts are highlights from the user's life, and are not truly representative of how happy or successful a user may be in reality. Further investigation by researchers into this practice may lead to inclusion of individuals with "Selfitis" into a personality disorder cluster, as suggested above by Carol. However, I am more inclined to include individuals with "Selfitis" in the Cluster C personality disorder category (Avoidant, OCD, Dependent). I think Cluster C is more applicable because posting multiple times on social media is obsessive, and relying on outreach from followers is dependent. It will be interesting to see how the discussion evolves in the academic community.
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Post by cabarloaf on Jan 6, 2018 15:51:40 GMT -4
I think that, while the study appears to present overindulgent, selfie-taking as a mental illness that only targets certain individuals, I would be more inclined to see this as just a possible growing social phenomenon (or even norm) regarding the change in our world’s technological advances. If we think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs… After our basic needs (food, water, safety), we have psychological levels that relate to the esteem and belongingness amongst peers. Thus, in order to satisfy those needs, one may compare himself/herself socially to derive the behavior to reach self-fulfillment.
However, just like any evolution in culture and resources, a population of folks can have a tendency to develop cravings and rituals that may take them “over the edge” so to speak, in which the real problem becomes balancing quality and scale of an experience. An example would be the consumption of sugar and fat, which were previously precious resources; over time, the overindulgence of these resources has lead to a strong correlation with obesity and DM.
Perhaps, in due time and with the help of this ‘Selfitis Behaviour Scale’, I could consider that yes, Selfitis is a mental condition with certain individuals, but, until then, I would personally just observe the changing times and the new cultural “norms”.
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Post by Cynthia Kudji on Jan 7, 2018 4:19:19 GMT -4
In regards to should selfies be designated as a real diagnosis is an interesting subject. I think that anything done in excess can become a problem. To be honest, many children find themselves in this category when it comes to video games. We had a patient in the clinic this week that was spending 12-15 hours in front of the television playing video games. Her parents also reported that she would not engage in any other "normal" teenage activities. Even when Dr. Antin recommended to her to choose an outside activity, she was uncomfortable with the idea. I think that selfies when done in excess, one must consider low self-esteem or those that are "often lacking self-confidence, who were hoping to boost their social standing and feel part of a group by constantly posting images of themselves" as a potential driving force for this condition.
Cynthia Kudji UMHS Medical Student 3 |
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Post by Ashley Harris on Jan 7, 2018 17:49:56 GMT -4
I do not believe that taking selfies should NOT be labeled as its own disorder. Many people seek attention to boost their self-esteem. They can also edited the photo with many options to portray the image they want. I feel that people feed their egos with selfies now because it is more accessible and takes less work to do it. People just have found another way to get attention with instant feedback, which makes them feel good. Therefore, It can be done more often making it an addiction like the rest of social media. I believe the lack of self actualization drives people to take selfies more often for confidence and confirmation from others.
Ashley Harris MS3
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Post by Jared Stephens on Jan 7, 2018 20:28:10 GMT -4
When I first starting reading the article, I also agreed with Michael that Selfitis was worth exploring as a mental disorder, despite the initial report being a hoax. The Selfitis Behavior Scale listed in the article seemed to provide a good initial framework for judging whether the behavior of taking selfies is occurring on a level that patterns other psychiatric disorders (e.g. causing functional impairment, done to relieve stress, boosting mood or esteem). However, it seems to me it could be better categorized to exclude people who are taking pictures for memory or reflective purposes. The statements by Dr. Mark Salter at the end of the article seemed to change my mind a bit, and I ended up agreeing with him that trying to generalize human behaviors with distinct labels can be detrimental, as it gives legitimacy to contrived conditions. The comparison to academic papers, however, was a little bit of stretch in my opinion. While “selfitis” seems to be a collection of symptoms from other psychiatric and personality disorders, namely narcissistic personality disorder and OCD, I think it is ultimately a societal disease reflective of the times rather than an individual mental health condition. Overall, I think "selfie" behavior should be monitored when exploring a patient's psychiatric health, whether it is given a specific label or not.
Jared Stephens MS3
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Post by Sean Zadeh on Jan 8, 2018 1:23:44 GMT -4
I agree with the comment at the end of the article by Dr. Mark Salter. I believe the behavior scale and levels are missing one crucial component - the urge to take selfies interfering with the person's well-being. Nearly all psychiatric disorders in DSM-V require some level of negative impact on that person's life. Without a detrimental impact this phenomenon shouldn't be considered a disorder. I do believe, however, that a person's compulsion to take a selfie can reach a level that qualifies it to be called a disorder but the criteria/suggestions in the article should be changed.
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Jorge Hernandez Canciobello
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Post by Jorge Hernandez Canciobello on Jan 16, 2018 10:19:54 GMT -4
I agree with Dr. Mark Salter. "Selfitis doesn't exist, and it shouldn't exist”. We need to understand that our world is a completely different one than 10 years ago, and it is changing technologically so fast that will be a completely new world in the next 5 years. Communication networks has been changed the most. All this change can be a terrible problem, a NEW DISORDER, mostly for people that are not so attach to the “new trends” and give more value to the “old fashioned” physical human interaction of a good talk.
This is a very controversial issue, and you will find defenders from both sides, but I will keep it simple when I ask a patient about "selfitis": "Is this behavior something that is disrupting yours or someone else’s life? Is it marking any impediment in your social or occupational functioning?"
Today's world is full of new jobs that are focused in social media. Thousands are working and living of those "selfies". Today you will find famous people for their youtube channels or their instagram accounts. It is a different world and we as physicians cannot stay in the past, we need to understand how it works to better assess and treat our patients.
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John S.B Castillo MS4
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Post by John S.B Castillo MS4 on Jan 21, 2018 16:39:48 GMT -4
I can somewhat agree with Sir Sir Simon Wessely and it shouldn't be a mental disorder of its own but included or described under Narcissistic Personality Disorder and should focus on the behavior and action in order to get a perfect selfie. As with many other activities, taking selfies can range from healthy to neutral to unhealthy. Healthy by expressing yourself, communicating with others, and interacting with the environment. If it can safely get you out and about, thats just great. However, it can be unhealthy if taking a selfie means you can fall off a bridge and fall to your death, its definitely not worth it.
In the end, certain activities become problems once it beings to cause harm to yourself and others. A quantified amount of selfies would not be able to identify healthy to unhealthy behavior. Any number of selfies a day wouldn't be so bad if done appropriately without interfering with work, school, relationships or any other necessary activities of daily living but most importantly not putting oneself at risk of harming themselves or others.
John Castillo MS4, Our Lady of Fatima University
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Post by Bianca Ram MS3 on Jan 28, 2018 15:51:28 GMT -4
I completely agree with Sir Simon Wessely that it should not be a mental disorder. People are more outspoken and are more accepting of themselves and others since “selfies” became a thing. However, I do believe there is a correlation with low self-esteem and the need for validation through “selfies” posted on social media and the comments from strangers being left on the post. For example, on Instagram when persons post “selfies”, they tend to keep checking the amounts of likes and comments they receive in a certain time frame. Depending on how many likes or comments made, they themselves deduce whether the photo of themselves/”selfie” is worthy or accepted by society. I believe the problem lies where people leave negative comments on a person’s “selfie” and the individual internalizes it as being unworthy by society. This issue then affects their self-esteem and thus their psyche.
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Ahmed Abdelwahab MS3
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Post by Ahmed Abdelwahab MS3 on Feb 5, 2018 11:06:15 GMT -4
I believe that the findings published by the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction regarding "Selfitis" does have some merit. Psychology Today defines addiction as "a condition that results when a person... engages in an activity that can be pleasurable but the continuation of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary responsibilities and concerns, such as work, relationships, or health (Psychology Today)." Therefore, if a person is taking selfies frequently enough that her/his life is measurably affected in a negative way, then that behavior should fall under a mental health addictive disorder. Like anything else, it is the degree to which a person engages in an activity and the level of detriment she/he allows it to have on her/his life that should classify a practice as an addictive disorder or not. Psychology Today. (2018). What Is Addiction? Retrieved from www.psychologytoday.com/basics/addiction. |
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Post by JamarArcher on Feb 19, 2018 14:27:54 GMT -4
I do not believe that “Selfitis” should be considered a Mental disorder in of itself. The characteristics of a person exhibiting “Selfitis” can be used to possibly diagnose an already existing mental disorder such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The reason persons take/post a lot of selfies varies from person to person with some persons (like celebrities) doing it as a way to satisfy fans and others post numerous selfies as a way to seek validation from peers or the general public, with the latter exhibiting more signs of low self esteem which could lead to depression and eventually Body Dysmorphic Disorder if comments on said selfies are more negative than positive. In conclusion, I agree with the final statement of Dr. Mark Salter, “Selfitis doesn't exist, and it shouldn't exist. There is a tendency to try and label a whole range of complicated and complex human behaviours with a single word. But that is dangerous because it can give something reality where it really has none."
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Post by JanelleDepradine on Feb 22, 2018 21:49:43 GMT -4
I find the actual existence of “Selfitis” hard to fathom. If “Selfitis” is associated with cravings for selfies, withdrawal symptoms or interferes with major obligations at work, school or home then this condition would definitely be a cause for alarm. Also, if in reality there are persons out there who get pleasure directly from the act of merely taking a selfie and posting it then psychiatric intervention is of vital importance. In my opinion, the real obsession is with one’s social media standing. The amount of posts, likes and followers gives a fictitious sense of importance to the profile owner. As a young lady with a social media presence, I have witnessed the bitter rivalry that also comes along with it. I firmly believe, it isn’t so much the act of taking and posting selfies that’s addictive but it is the attention and feelings of self-worth the poster so desperately craves that renders them OBSESSED. Taking and posting a selfie is just an easy and effective means to obtain it. I don’t agree with the notion that “Selfitis” is a legitimate medical disorder. In a generation where the utilization of social media is more prevalent than ever, of course certain behaviors that are unique to it will arise i.e. taking/posting selfies. In life moderation is key but as humans we tend to overindulge and one selfie a week just might not be enough for some.
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