Teen left bedridden by Snapchat addiction
A teenager has opened up about her dangerous addiction to Snapchat filters, which got so bad it left her unable to get out of bed.
After downloading the Snapchat app last year, Maisie Hazelwood found herself taking selfies more often than usual – applying all sorts of ‘attractive’ filters to herself to ‘improve’ her pictures.
She started off by just taking the odd selfie to post on her social media feeds, but as time went on, her addiction to the app became dangerous.
“My favourite filter was one that gave me longer eyelashes and a nose piercing, which made my face look absolutely flawless – any spot or blemish I had would disappear,” the 19-year-old said.
“But then I fell in love with how it made me look, and it took me away from the reality of my own looks.”
However, after eight months of using the app, it began to stop working on her phone, meaning Maisie, from the UK, was left unable to take her usually filtered photos.
She had become so addicted to the ‘filtered look’ that without that option, she couldn’t bear to look at herself without one.
She hated what she saw – so much so, that she became bedridden and unable to look in a mirror.
“I completely shut myself out and wouldn’t let anyone see me, as I thought people would laugh at me for being such an ugly person in comparison to what they saw on Snapchat,” she admitted.
“The fact I couldn’t get myself out of bed some days because I was so petrified to see myself without a filter was something I didn’t expect could happen from an app.
“I also didn’t notice how reliant I was on the app until my family asked me to send them recent photos of myself, and I had no photos of me without filters on.”
In order to regain control over her life, and stop herself from being controlled by the filters in the app, Maisie deleted it and forced herself to just use the normal camera on her phone.
“My confidence was solely online in these pretty filtered photos – and I had no confidence in real life – not even enough to look at myself in the mirror,” she said.
“So I forced myself to delete the app. I felt a great sense of relief and, even though it took a while, I was slowly able to go outside again and accept what I looked like in the mirror.”
She is now learning to love her appearance again, after becoming so addicted to Snapchat that she couldn’t recognise her face without a filter.
“At this point, I hadn’t taken a photo without a filter on in almost a year, so it really opened my eyes to the fact I needed to kick the addiction,” she said.
“Now any time I take a selfie I make sure it’s on the normal camera without a filter and – even though it takes me about 200 takes to find a perfect one – I get there in the end.
“I want people to know not to let their natural beauty get lost in a world of filters.”
Snapchat said that helping its community to communicate is a top priority.
The company pointed out that they introduced AR Lenses as a way to make people feel more comfortable talking to the camera to make it more stress-free.
With reporting by Caters News.
If you’re experiencing feelings of anxiety or depression contact Beyond Blue or PANDA for support.
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