Selfie lovers have mental issues

Compiled by ROYCE TAN, ALLISON LAI and R.ARAVINTHAN 

INDIVIDUALS obsessed with taking selfies, even to the point of risking their lives, lacked love in their childhood, claimed motivation expert and counsellor Hushim Salleh as reported by Sinar Harian.

He based his assessment on the many patients he has had at his counselling centre.

“They are actually lonely and they are driven to find their own entertainment.

“They want to stand out in society but at the same time, they have a psychological problem and a split personality,” he said, adding that this group of individuals were also introverts.

Hushim said his patients also admitted that they did not mind if their photographs drew criticisms, as long as they obtained their satisfaction.

Universiti Malaya consultant psychiatrist Assoc Prof Dr Rusdi Abd Rashid said the trend of taking selfies had yet to be classified as a chronic mental illness but it had reached a worrying level.

He added that psychiatrists worldwide had classified it as a mental disorder in recent years.

“A study conducted in the United Kingdom and India on 225 youths showed that 65% of them have the Selfitis Behaviour Scale (SBS) problem,” he said.

The SBS states that those who take at least six selfies and upload it on their social media accounts daily are classified under chronic selfitis (obsessive selfie taking).

Acute selfitis are those who do it at least three times a day while borderline selfitis are those who take selfies but do not upload them on social media.

Dr Rusdi added that the act of taking selfies were related to narcissistic personalities for those who had psychiatric illness such as anxiety disorder and addiction.

> A RM1.2mil hybrid sports car was wrecked after the vehicle skidded into a drain along Jalan Gua Musang-Kuala Krai in Kelantan, reported Kosmo!

The driver of the BMW i8 was believed to be avoiding an animal crossing the road when he lost control of the vehicle. The car belongs to a “Datuk Seri” businessman but was driven by a 34-year-old man during the accident.

The driver and his passenger escaped unscathed.

> Singer Ifa Raziah was furious when she found out that several personal photographs of hers were used by people to promote slimming products.

Utusan Malaysia reported that the 43-year-old was giving the promoters 24 hours to remove her pictures or face legal action.

“There’s nothing wrong for them to run a business but I really pantang (find it a taboo) when there are people who take advantage like this.

“If you really want to use my photograph, follow the right procedure. Appoint and pay me,” she said on her Instagram account.

Ifa said she was down to 58kg from 72kg by eating fruits and avoiding sweet drinks.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.