Danny Bowman, 19, also dropped out of school, didn’t leave
his house in six months and lost two stone trying to make himself look better
for the camera
A teenager became so obsessed with taking the perfect selfie
he tried to kill himself when he failed to do it.
Danny Bowman, 19, spent 10 HOURS a day taking up to 200
snaps of himself on his iPhone.
He dropped out of school, didn’t leave his house in six
months, lost two stone trying to make himself look better for the camera and
became aggressive with his parents when they tried to stop him.
Finally, in a drastic attempt to escape his obsession, Danny
took an overdose – but was saved by his mum Penny.
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Obsessed:
Selfies almost killed Danny
Now the lad, believed to be Britain’s first selfie addict,
is battling back towards a normal life after intensive hospital therapy to
treat his technology addiction, OCD and Body Dysmorphic Disorder – an excessive
anxiety about personal appearance.
Danny says: “I was constantly in search of taking the
perfect selfie and when I realised I couldn’t I wanted to die. I lost my
friends, my education, my health and almost my life.”
But Danny is not some bizarre one-off case in a world where
smartphone and social media obsession is spiralling upwards. The top
psychiatrist at the clinic where Danny was treated revealed addiction to
taking selfies is becoming so widespread it is now is a recognised mental
illness.
“Danny’s case is particularly extreme,” said Dr David Veal
who’s clinic has weaned the teen off his iPhone. “But this is a serious
problem. It’s not a vanity issue. It’s a mental health one which has an
extremely high suicide rate.”
The selfie craze has swept social media over the past five
years, with stars, politicians and even Pope Francis posting shots online.
Last year, the Oxford English Dictionary named it word of the year after
research showed its frequency of use had soared 17,000 per cent in 12 months.
Danny is one of millions caught up by the craze – only for
it to prey on his vulnerabilities.
He says: “The only thing I cared about was having my phone
with me so I could satisfy the urge to capture a picture of myself at any time
of the day.
“I finally realised I was never going to take a picture that
made the craving go away and that was when I hit rock bottom.
“People don’t realise when they post a picture of themselves
on Facebook or Twitter it can so quickly spiral out of control. It becomes a
mission to get approval and it can destroy anyone.
“It’s a real problem like drugs, alcohol or gambling. I
don’t want anyone to go through what I’ve been through.”
He first posted selfies on Facebook when he was 15. Danny
says: “People would comment on them, but children can be cruel. One told me my
nose was too big for my face and another picked on my skin. I started taking
more and more to try to get the approval of my friends.
“I would be so high when someone wrote something nice but
gutted when they wrote something unkind.”
His ambition was to be a male model, but a casting session
at an agency in 2011 sent him and his selfie-taking into turmoil.
Danny recalls: “They told me that my body was the wrong
shape to be a model and that my skin wasn’t up to scratch. I was mortified.
“When I got home that night I stood in front of the mirror
and took a photo of myself. I didn’t like it so I took another. Then before I knew
it I had taken about 30, discarding each one.”
It was the beginning of his two-year addiction. Within a
fortnight he was taking up to 80 selfies before he even left the house for
school.
He says: “My alarm went off and I would take 10 pictures
before I had washed. Then I would take another 10 after showering and another
10 after moisturising.
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"I swiped through them on my phone. I would change the
lighting and take another 10, or go into another room and take another 20.
"Then I would spend hours looking at them, scrutinising
my features and skin. I took selfies in bed, in the bathroom, and all day into
the early hours.
“I would pore over pictures of my idol, Leonardo DiCaprio,
and then take selfies in different poses, trying to look like him. But I felt
so ugly.”
Soon, Danny started sneaking out of lessons three times an
hour to take pictures in the toilet.
He says: “I would become really anxious and need to know
what I looked like. I’d take pictures in the toilets mirror then lock myself in
a cubicle to look at them until a teacher came to find me.
"I’d never been in trouble in my life but suddenly I
found myself in the headmaster’s office every day. Taking selfies was making
me late for school all the time.”
Danny dropped out of school at 16 so he could stay at home indulging his addiction. And he was desperately losing weight in search of the
perfect snap.
He says: “I would limit myself to an apple and a bowl of
couscous a day in a bid to be thinner and improve my skin. I had dropped from 9
stone to 7 stone but I still saw an overweight monster in the pictures.”
His worried parents Robert and Penny – who are both mental
health nurses – tried to confiscate his phone. All it did was make their
usually placid boy aggressive.
But no matter how many shots he took, Danny never liked any
of them. And after a heavy selfie-binge in December 2012 he took an overdose at
his home in Newcastle upon Tyne.
“I’d taken over 200 pictures that day and looked at them
over and over,” he says. “I couldn’t see any that I liked. I couldn’t take any
more and just started popping the pills.”
Luckily Penny found him and he was rushed to hospital.
Danny says: “I woke feeling groggy, in pain, with my parents
devastated at what I had done. All I could think about was what I would look
like in my next picture. I needed help.”
He was referred to London’s Maudsley Hospital. Danny says:
“At first they would take my phone from me for 10 minutes, then half an hour,
then an hour.
“It was excruciating to begin with but I knew I had to do it
if I wanted to go on living.
“They made me scruff up my hair and walk down the street
without my phone and no way to see what I looked like. Gradually I realised
everyone wasn’t looking at me. I didn’t need to check my appearance the whole
time.”
Pose: He
searched for perfect look
Selfie addiction is so new there are, as yet, no statistics
on it.
But expert Dr Veal says: “The common treatment is where a
patient gradually learns to go for longer periods of time without satisfying
the urge to take a photograph, along with therapy to address the root cause of
the problem.
"This can be anything from low self esteem to problems
with bullying in the past.”
Danny’s relieved dad Robert says: “It was the most difficult
time of our lives to see Dan go through this illness.
“We are both qualified mental health nurses and this was
always our worst nightmare. There is a huge lack of understanding about the
dangers social networking and mobile technology can pose if a young person
already has any insecurities – which most do.
“It’s important parents are aware of the dangers and keep a
close eye on their children’s behaviour and seek help if they feel it is
needed.”
Now Danny has not taken a selfie for seven months.
He says: “It sounds trivial and harmless but that’s the
very thing that makes it so dangerous. It almost took my life, but I survived
and I am determined never to get into that position again.”
Danny is now working with charity Fixers to raise awareness of
mentalhealth issues in young people. Visit www.fixers.org.uk for more
information.
Source: mirror.co.uk
