In the quiet space between self-improvement and compulsion, Hebrew University researchers have found a troubling pattern: one in five Israeli women who undergo cosmetic procedures show signs of addiction-like behavior, driven not by vanity alone but by the deeper wounds of low body esteem and the relentless mirror of social media. Published this summer in the Journal of Health Psychology, the study of over 1,600 women asks a question that grows more urgent as cosmetic procedures rise 40 percent globally — at what point does the pursuit of the self become a flight from it?
Study: 1 in 5 Israeli women show addiction risk from cosmetic procedures
Psychological harm and compulsive behavior affecting women's mental health and financial wellbeing through repeated unnecessary cosmetic procedures.