There is a generation that has no concept of life without Instagram. Without a hundred ways to crop and filter images of the beach, your lunch, your friends, yourself. Perfection or something close to it is easy to achieve.

The generation before them knew a starker reality in looking for the perfect angle. This is a generation that was inundated with posters, billboards, glossy magazines. This was the golden era of photoshop. That is, the time when every image and every body was doctored, but the masses were still innocent and didn't necessarily know.

That's my generation I'm talking about. We thought those models ate or exercised their way into those bodies.

We are still so overwhelmed by images of perfection that most of us are familiar with feeling that our physical form could use a little improvement. We may wish to be thinner, rounder, smoother, tighter - somehow more or less than our current selves.

Fortunately, most of us will not experience full-blown body dysmorphia. Perversely, the fact that so many of us are accustomed to feeling a little physically inadequate is why it is suspected that body dysmorphia - or body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) - may be a lot more widespread than the already alarming estimate that it affects at least one in 50 people.

The theory is that because it is so common to want to lose a few pounds or gain some muscles, those suffering from an obsession with imagined or exaggerated physical flaws often fail to seek diagnosis and treatment for what they ought to recognise as a debilitating pathology.

To be clear, envying the gleaming beach bodies of Instagram is not in itself body dysmorphia. Nor is hoping to be frontline-ready in time for Carnival. Neither is BDD somehow a function of vanity or egotism.

Rather, it is an obsession with (occasionally) real or (often) imagined flaws in your appearance - flaws that will be insignificant or undetectable to the impartial observer.

The compulsion to 'fix' these flaws can lead to behaviours such as constant self-criticism, obsessive grooming, the need to hide yourself away from the rest of society. This is what is ultimately damaging to your personal and professional life.

Living with the relentless conviction that you are irretrievably disfigured can of course lead to other serious mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.

It is important to note that eating disorders and BDD are not the same things. If you have an eating disorder, you will be typically focused on your overall weight or body shape.

Someone with body dysmorphic disorder will tend to be concerned about a particular body part. Is your nose an object of distress? Is one of your arms bigger than the other? Can everyone see that weird mark on your neck?

At its extreme, BDD is not so hard to identify. Those suffering most severely may devote more time in a day to trying to fix themselves than they do to work or other responsibilities. They may become incapable of leaving the house owing to their intense anxiety about their