OPRAH: Hooked on Plastic Surgery at Age 28

[Guest guest]

http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200502/20050208/slide_20050208_101.jh

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is only 28 years old and has already had 26 plastic surgeries.

says she first became a slave to the scalpel after one critical

comment from her then husband. " My ex-husband told me that my nose

was

too big, that my boobs were too small, so eventually I got a boob job

to stop the comments, " says. " I just moved from a bad

relationship with him to a bad relationship between me and my

reflection. After the divorce, plastic surgery became an obsession

for

me. "

was just 25 years old when she had a brow lift. She's also had

Botox, cheek implants, three nose jobs, veneers on her teeth, three

lip

implants, two boob jobs, three breast lifts, and liposuction on her

arms, stomach, hips, thighs, and knees. says that the total

cost

of her plastic surgeries is about $80,000.

But even all these surgeries have failed to stop from

scrutinizing her imagined imperfections.

" I still see a lot of things that are wrong, " says. " I still

want

other things done. I'm unhappy with stretch marks left from

pregnancy,

and I

would like a tummy tuck. I still see imperfections in my nose and

wrinkles around my eyes and all kinds of stuff. I mean, it just

depends

on the day. It's been a battle that I've had with my poor self-esteem

that started a long time ago and the continuous need to feel like I

should fit in somehow, and I never can fit in. .I'm obsessed with

it, I

don't know what an addict is. I've never been addicted to drugs. I've

never been addicted to alcohol. I've never been an alcoholic. So if

this is what addiction is, then, yes, I'm addicted to it. I think

about

it all the time. "

is 's 18-year-old younger sister. 's plastic

surgeries

have made feel insecure about her own looks. " I feel like

she's

rejected my looks as well as hers, " says. " I'm self-conscious

about the way my nose looks now and how my eyebrows are too low or my

breasts are too small or my hips are going to become too big. "

At the same time, is disturbed by her sister's radically

altered

appearance.

" Honestly, I don't think she looks as good as she would if she had

never had plastic surgery, " she says. " I think that she looks

plastic.

I think fake almost, and materialistic. When we walk down the street,

it's noticeable. It's almost kind of like a circus clown. I think she

cut herself short. She was beautiful even before she had her

surgery. .

It hurts to know that my sister has changed her face so much that we

don't look alike. "

Dr. Etcoff is a psychologist who teaches at Harvard Medical

School. She's also written a book called Survival of the Prettiest,

The

Science of Beauty.

" We're a nation obsessed with beauty pursuing it at all costs, " Dr.

Etcoff says. " We see images of perfect beauty everywhere. We see

extreme makeovers now. People will do so much to be beautiful. When

I'm

listening to [], what I hear is a profound lack of

self-acceptance, contentment, even a self-loathing that fuels all

this. "

Dr. Etcoff says that likely suffers from a common condition now

known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). BDD often strikes people in

their teens. "

It's a psychiatric problem where people are pre-occupied with an

imagined or very slight defect, " Dr. Etcoff says. " They can't stop

thinking about it. They've checked the mirror all day. They spend

hours

thinking about it. They'll ask people, 'How do I look?' And what

happens is, everyone says, 'Sure, I think about my looks.' But it

becomes so preoccupying that it's torturous. It becomes an

obsession. "

Cheryl, a mother of two, admits she is addicted to liposuction-and

what

was once a quick fix has now turned into an obsession. Cheryl's had a

breast reduction, liposuction on her lower abdomen, " love handles " in

the back, as well as a tummy tuck and tightening of her lower stomach

muscles. Cheryl's obsession is taking a toll on the entire family,

especially her husband Brad. The plastic surgery bills have put the

family in serious debt, and Brad is working three jobs to work on

paying off Cheryl's plastic surgery tab. Now, Cheryl wants

liposuction

on her legs. If she goes through with it, Brad has threatened

divorce.

" It wasn't an argument, " Brad says. " You get it done, and I'm

leaving.

I mean, it's over. I'm prepared to get a divorce and take our kids.

I've had enough with the plastic surgery. Our household can't take it

anymore. It doesn't benefit me and it doesn't benefit my children.

It's

not only a

financial thing. It's hard to live in a house where somebody is

always

so unhappy about themselves. I have an 11-year-old daughter and a

9-year-old son. I don't need them growing up to be obsessive about

their weight or their looks. "

Cheryl says, " He's tired of it all. We can't afford it. I mean, we

refinanced our house to do this. So I need to stop. "

In her quest to get the " perfect face, " decided she wanted

's nose. Although her plastic surgeon told her she

could

never have 's nose, insisted. She has had a

total

of three nose jobs and says, " The last time I went in there [the

plastic surgeon] said to me, 'I'm warning you. If I do this, there's

a

very good possibility your nose will completely collapse and it will

be

flat on your face. And we will have to start all over again.' And I

said, 'I'll roll the dice.' "

's words hit home for Cheryl. " I'm done, " Cheryl says. " I

can't. I

don't want to roll the dice. A light bulb went off. I have two

children. And my husband. To roll the dice with my life, to lose my

kids, lose my husband.I'll stick with my legs [the way they are]. "

Hope Donahue, author of Beautiful Stranger, was a beautiful society

girl obsessed with being pretty. At 22, she used her credit cards to

pay for her first plastic surgery, a nose job. At 23, she had a

facelift. By age 24, she'd had a total of five surgeries.

Horrified by what she was doing to herself, her parents had cut off

her

allowance and Hope was stealing to pay for her plastic surgery.

Desperate, this former debutante began posing nude to support her

addiction.

" I was so broke and so desperate for money and attention that I ended

up in a bondage photographer's studio, " says Hope. " That was

horrifying

but that was the moment where I realized what I was doing. I did hit

bottom that day. . I walked out of the studio and I called a

therapist

and started therapy. "

Today, Hope calls herself " a recovering addict. " She says, " If I had

not had access to plastic surgery and plastic surgeons, I'm sure I

would have had another addiction. And whether it would have been

anorexia, bulimia, cutting myself, it's the same pain. "

Hope had her last surgery 10 years ago to remove her breast implants

but confesses she has since " fallen off the wagon " and

had " procedures "

such as Botox and collagen injections. Each time, Hope says, it felt

like " I had failed. "

Hope says recovery has been a constant struggle. " I've booked and

then

cancelled prior to surgery four nose jobs, " admits Hope. " I can't

fool

myself anymore. I cannot fool myself into thinking that a smaller

nose

is going to equal a happier me. I know that doesn't work anymore

because I tried that. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the very real dangers of breast implants, please visit:

www.BreastImplantAwareness.org