Price of Perfection

May 27, 1999 on CBS at 10:00 PM

Summary

Teen-agers undergoing plastic surgery, a bodybuilding routine that dominates one man's waking hours, a fear of gaining weight that leads to a girl's heart attack and blindness and an obsession with nose size that keeps another man from leading a norm... (more)al life: In one form or another, all of these people are pursuing physical perfection. 48 Hours takes a look at some people who will do almost anything to achieve their vision of perfection. But have they gone too far? Has our society. Alicia Mitchell seems like a typical teen-ager. But she has struggled so much with eating disorders that she has been hospitalized more than 50 times. Is 16 too young to have cosmetic surgery? Not for some girls. Meet some teen-agers so unhappy with their looks that they are going under the knife. As a kid, Rob Ashton was chubby and shy. Now he's a bodybuilder who lets nothing get in the way of bigger pecs and better muscle definition. Is he sacrificing too much, even his health? Two men are so convinced that they are ugly they have shut out the world. They suffer from body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD. Can intensive treatment and a new drug regimen help them break out of a warped self-image? Find out.

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Season 12 Episode 32

May 13, 1999

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Class of 2000: Driven to Extremes
Season 12 Episode 34

Jun 10, 1999