The most ambiguous and most cacophonous topic of recent times: is having aesthetics addictive?
Aesthetics and addiction are really interpreted today as if they are one concept after the other.
But is that the case?
In the Turkish Language Society (TDK), addiction is defined as “The state of being dependent on something or someone, subjection”.Addiction is a multifaceted issue, in fact, addiction does not only occur around one cause. We can summarize that in most cases, people choose to follow the path to addiction if they develop a state of well-being based on the benefits they can obtain most easily and quickly.
Then why do we have the fear that aesthetic applications are or can be addictive? In this sense, we can formulate two statements: can a person be addicted to aesthetic applications? Or are aesthetic applications addictive? Let’s examine these statements together.
Can a person be addicted to aesthetic applications?
Actually, this can be explained in terms of what we build our self-confidence on. For example, some statistics have shown that a beautiful woman or a handsome man is more successful in recruitment processes, or that beauty and admiration are advantageous in finding a partner and being accepted in social circles.
Then I bring you a hypothesis,
The benefits of the patient after the aesthetic procedure may motivate them to have these more strongly than anything else. In other words, a woman is less motivated to spend the effort to lose her belly with sports and diet compared to the benefit she gets in a short time with plastic surgery and in the final form.
In this case, a person can pursue these benefits more strongly and insatiably, so if a person, thinking of nothing but a minor excess in the hips at the beginning, gets rid of these hips with aesthetic surgery, and sees that this benefit carries him/her to an upper status regarding both appreciation and self-confidence in the social environment, with simple reasoning, of course, his/her breast, stomach, waist, belly, lip, butt, face may follow, and a continuous aesthetic benefit may cause a person to focus on this procedure and the social benefits obtained from it.
It would be simplistic to consider aesthetics as a villain here.
We have many reasons for our pursuit of more likes, of always being more beautiful. Some of these reasons may be on the surface, and some of the reasons may be deep down in the need for approval, appreciation, or visibility.
The fact that aesthetic plastic surgery is associated with “addiction” is the fact that the efforts are paying off. Yes, for many of us, aesthetic plastic surgery can indeed be the architect of “beauty and well-being” that cannot be achieved with effort, time, and endeavor. But this ” addiction” to well-being is a purely subjective state.
Concepts such as aesthetic surgery, philosophy, religion, and social and cultural status cannot define and fulfill the feeling of being satisfied and content with oneself. It is about one’s own personal journey and is unique to that person.
The paradox is that in trying to be better and more beautiful, we lose touch with ourselves. If we know what we do and have done for what reason by objectively considering our need for external approval and appreciation, we do not evaluate aesthetic applications as related to addiction.
It is obvious that the search for excellence and perfection brings endless dissatisfaction. Nothing in the universe can relieve this discontent and dissatisfaction. As an aesthetic plastic surgeon who has performed thousands of operations and applications, let me tell you a secret: I can stretch your face, plump your buttocks, and fully flatten your stomach. But I cannot make you peaceful and content, happy and self-aware in that body and soul.
Hoping for the times we become what we are, find the inner peace in that state, and act with choices, not addictions…
IS AESTHETICS ADDICTIVE?
