Getting a little work done has never been easier, cheaper, or more socially normalized. A new study suggests the answer to “what’s the harm?” is a bit more complicated than people assume.
Research published in the Journal of Health Psychology by a team at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health found that among women who had undergone cosmetic procedures, 1 in 5 showed signs of moderate-to-severe risk for addictive use over their lifetime. Across the full sample of 1,614 women, the past-year risk rate came in at 6.8%, higher than Israeli figures for gambling addiction (2.6%) and gaming addiction (2.9%) among women, though those comparisons come from separate studies using different methods.x
Researchers measured addictive use by adapting a substance-use disorder questionnaire for cosmetic treatments—asking things like whether women had tried to cut back and couldn’t, or kept returning for procedures despite negative outcomes. The clearest risk profile that emerged was women who felt bad about their bodies and also had compulsive social media habits. On their own, neither factor was that predictive. Together, they were.
Getting Cosmetic Work Done May Be More Addictive Than People Realize, Study Suggests
That combination has been showing up across the research in the bigger picture. A 2024 study in Frontiers in Public Health found that passive social media use and photo-editing apps were significantly linked to body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) symptoms, and a separate 2025 review in the International Journal of Dermatology noted that patients with BDD symptoms who undergo cosmetic procedures rarely experience lasting relief — they continue finding new perceived flaws and return for more.
Another systematic review analyzed 25 studies involving nearly 14,000 participants and found that social media significantly influences decisions to undergo procedures in the first place.
What the Hebrew University study adds is a clearer picture of scale. The global cosmetic procedure market grew 40% between 2019 and 2023. Gambling disorder and gaming disorder now have formal recognition in the WHO’s ICD-11 diagnostic system. Addictive cosmetic procedure use has neither, despite these numbers suggesting it may be at least as common.
Age didn’t matter in the findings—women in their late 20s were as likely to show warning signs as women in their late 60s. The researchers acknowledged the study’s limits: a single point in time, an Israeli sample only, and the question of causality cuts both ways. Getting procedures might drive women toward social media for validation rather than the reverse.
The authors called the findings “concerning.” That’s putting it mildly.
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