Selfitis' needs doctor's help

Hyderabad: Worldwide the most number of selfie-related deaths have been from people falling off high buildings and mountain cliffs. In India the most deaths have been water-related or near railway tracks.

A report by researchers from the US National Library of Medicine states that there have been at least 259 deaths between 2011 and 2017 which can be attributed to taking selfies at unsafe locations, leading to falls, drowning and transport accidents. And India leads the list with 159 deaths in the same period.

“Research has shown that 93 million selfies are posted every day around the world on different social platforms. Selfie-clicking becomes an obsession with people. ‘Selfitis’ is a genuine mental condition and people who feel compelled to continually post pictures of themselves on social media may need help from mental health professionals. The term was first coined in 2014 to describe obsessive selfie-taking, with the American Psychiatric Association classifying it as a disorder,” said Ms Priyanka Padhi, a psychologist from Hyderabad. 

She said selfitis may indicate a narcissistic personality  extreme self-centredness and a grandiose view of oneself. Narcissists have an excessive need to be admired and have a sense of entitlement. 

These impulsive selfie takers take the risk of getting into dangerous situations to take unique and out of the way selfies, such as on the edge of a mountain cliff, very close by a waterfall, dam or river, or on the railway tracks. 

“These persons lack empathy; sometimes they take a selfie where there has been a natural calamity such as a tsunami or floods, or with someone who is lying dead. We also see self-objectification the tendency to view their own body as an object based on its sexual worth, thus taking a selfie or video during intimate moments,” Ms Padhi said.