When Surgeries Get Botched By There Own Doing

Some people are so desperate to change way they appear that they have glued back their own ears, tried to iron the wrinkles off their face and even cut open their stomachs in botched DIY tummy-tucks, according to a top psychologist.

Dr David Veale, a psychologist at the celebrity Priory Hospital in London, was speaking to an audience of psychologists at a conference in Bristol organised by the Centre of Appearance Research.

He said that the rise of 'DIY cosmetic surgery' was being driven by a celebrity culture which made people dissatisfied with their own bodies.

He said: "I have seen desperate people in the past who have glued their ears back and cut into their stomach in a bid to be thin.

"The worst case I am aware of is a man who did a DIY nose job. He pushed a chisel up his nose and then replaced the cartilage he had taken off with a chicken bone.

"These are very extreme cases but they do happen. Some people just can't live with there body's and are very, very desperate and their image of themselves is totally distorted.

"These are people who can't afford to go to a surgeon. I have had women who have drawn what they think they look like and you wouldn't believe how wrong they really are."

The psychologist also warned that desperate people - especially women - were feeling pressurised with the increase focus on beauty.

"DIY cosmetic surgery is used by the most depressed and the most desperate of people," he said.

"Over the past few years it has increased and this is the result of our society. We now focus more on looks than we have in a long time.

"And this is linked with the amount of money that is around. The people who have lots of money can afford plastic surgery and then as a result are putting more of a focus on looks and outer beauty."

Dr Veale said that this worrying trend for DIY cosmetic surgery was, in part, fueled by celebrity culture.

"Celebrity life is not the same as taht experienced by most of us and it's important we don't see what's normal for celebrities as desirable in our everyday lives."

Delegates at the conference called for plastic surgeons to make greater use of psychologists to ensure patients with severe body-image disorders do not undergo unnecessary operations. Are you feeling drastic measures are nessasary ?