Price Of Perfection

Some Are Obsessed With An Unreachable Ideal

(CBS)  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 normal 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?

A Very Thin Line: 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.

The Perfect Teen-ager

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.

Build At Your Own Risk: 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?

A Distorted Image: 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.

What Do You Think?

Is America too obsessed with physical beauty? Tell us what you think, on the 48 Hours interactive bulletin board.

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