Do You Suffer From The 'Selfitis' Disorder? Take This Test To Find Out

Researchers devised a test so that you can find out whether you suffer from 'borderline', 'acute' or 'chronic' selfitis (stock image)

'Selfitis' – also known as the obsessive taking of selfies – seems to be a genuine mental condition, according to research.

Psychologists have devised a test that shows where you fit on the 'selfitis' scale.

That term was first coined in 2014 and it was part of a spoof news article by the American Psychiatric Association which claimed that selfitis was a mental disorder.

Following that, researchers from Nottingham Trent University and Thiagarajar School of Management in Madurai in India investigated whether this phenomenon was true.

After confirming that ‘selfitis’ indeed exists, the researchers tested out a framework for assessing the disorder's severity on volunteers. They said there are three categories of 'selfitis' – 'borderline', 'acute' and 'chronic'.

Borderline selfitis happens when individuals take selfies at least three times per day but don't post them on social media.

Somebody is classed as acute if they take three selfies per day and does post them online.

You're a chronic selfie-taker if you tend to have an uncontrollable urge to take pictures of yourself around the clock and post them to Facebook and Instagram over six times a day.

Take the test below:

Read the statements and for each one give yourself a rating of one to five, where five is 'strongly agree', and one is 'strongly disagree'.

The scores are as follows:

0-33 Borderline

34-67 Acute

68-100 Chronic

1) Taking selfies helps you better enjoy your environment

2) Sharing your selfies creates healthy competition with your friends and colleagues

3) You gain enormous attention by sharing my selfies on social media

4) You can reduce your stress level by taking selfies

5) You feel confident when you take a selfie

6) You gain more acceptance among your peer group when you take selfies and share them on social media

7) You are able to express yourself more in your environment through selfies

8) Taking different selfie poses helps increase your social status

9) You feel more popular when you post your selfies on social media

10) Taking more selfies improves your mood and makes you feel happy

11) You become more positive about yourself when you take selfies

12) You become a strong member of your peer group through selfie postings

13) Taking selfies provides better memories of the occasion and the experience

14) You post frequent selfies to get more ‘likes’ and comments on social media

15) By posting selfies, you expect your friends to praise you

16) Taking selfies instantly modifies your mood

17) You take more selfies and look at them privately to increase your confidence

18) When you don’t take selfies, you feel detached from your peer group

19) You take selfies as trophies for future memories

20) You use photo editing tools to enhance your selfie to look better than others

The scale, which runs from 1 to 100, was compiled after several tests on focus groups with two hundred participants that looked at which factors drove the condition of selfitis.

The team then tested out the scale by surveying 400 participants.

The research, published by the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, was conducted in India, where there are the most Facebook users.

India has had the greatest number of deaths related to selfies! That's when someone dies while trying to take a photo of themselves, according to a research published in July.

The study looked at figures from March 2014 and September 2016 and discovered the country accounted for 60% of all such mortalities.

The physiologists discovered that typical ‘selfitis’ sufferers were attention seekers and usually lacked self-confidence. They always post pictures of themselves hoping that they'd boost their social credentials and feel part of a group.

As the paper authors wrote: 'As with internet addiction, the concepts of selfitis and selfie addiction started as a hoax, but recent research including the present paper has begun to empirically validate its existence.'

Reference: Daily Mail