Who taught you to hate how you look?

Preface- I am not a psychiatrist nor do I claim to be. I probably need a psychiatrist more than I can function as one.

As an injector, helping clients look and feel better about themselves is my job. I have one interesting observation to report. My career is plastic surgery and anesthetics. I see men and women and people of all ages and walks of life.

Some of these lovely people are absolutely haunted by comments of ridicule they have received about their physical appearance. These comments have come from family, boyfriends, husbands, ex- lovers, even childhood bullies.

The emotional scars are so deep that the person begins to feel they are defective and ugly. They usually need a great deal of therapy coupled with plastic surgery to even begin to feel OK within their skin.

So my message really is to never ridicule your lover, your spouse and certainly not your child. Never ever comment even in a casual, offhanded way on their physical appearance.

If you don’t like something about someone it is cruel and emotionally unkind to let them know about it especially on a regular basis. Even if it is meant as a joke. It is really is not funny. They might never recover. And what a burden to believe that you are ugly and inferior.

I hope that more loving parenting, and more loving partners await us and that we can begin to heal from some of these damaging statements.

Jeanna Masone ANP-C