 A teenage selfie addict says he was so obsessed with taking the perfect selfie that he spent 10 hours a day taking up to 200 photos of himself. Danny Bowman, from Newcastle upon Tyne in Britain, says his “excrutiating” addiction almost killed him and is determind to share his story. The 19-year-old lost almost 13kg and dropped out of school after his two-year obsession spiralled out of control. Danny started posting selfies on Facebook when he was 15. His “friends” would post cruel comments that took a huge toll on his self esteem.  “One told me my nose was too big for my face and another picked on my skin,” he told The Mirror. “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.” The aspiring male model was sent into further turmoil following an agency casting session in 2011. “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,” he said. “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.” This was the beginning of his two-year addiction. He would wake up early before school, just so he could take dozens of selfies. “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.” Danny would sneak out of class to take selfies in the bathroom. He found himself in the headmaster’s office every day and was always late for school. He dropped out of school so he could stay home taking selfies and started drastically limiting his food intake. “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 (57kg) to 7 stone (44kg) but I still saw an overweight monster in the pictures.” After a heavy selfie binge in December 2012, Danny attempted suicide, but was luckily rescued by his mother and taken to hospital. He was later referred to a top psychiatrist at a London Hospital.  His phone was confiscated for periods of time, and he was forced to go outside without his phone. “It was excruciating to begin with but I knew I had to do it if I wanted to go on living,” he said. But Danny now says he has not taken a selfie for seven months. “It sounds trivial and -harmless but that’s the very thing that makes it so dangerous,” he said. “It almost took my life, but I survived and I am determined never to get into that position again.” News.com.au
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