Height Dysphoria

If you are genuinely unhappy because you think that you are not tall enough and would like to be a little taller, you might suffer from a condition called height dysphoria or height neurosis.

Height dysphoria or height neurosis is a term that refers to a body image disorder where the patient is unhappy and distressed because they either are short or perceive themselves as short. It is worth noting that this may be irrespective of the actual height and irrespective of how other people see them. Although there isn’t available data about its prevalence, it is considered to be a relatively common condition.

Some cases of height dysphoria are related to cultural and societal norms and expectations, while some others are career related. Careers pathways like show-business, modelling, sales, police and military work require confidence, and people ask for the confidence boost of a height lengthening procedure.

Candidates for cosmetic procedures, including cosmetic limb lengthening, do not have a functional problem and they resort to surgical solutions to manage the psychosocial burden of their body variations. This means that in some cases, patients need to be psychologically evaluated to exclude a more severe obsessive mental condition which is called body dysmorphic disorder or a psychosis before a cosmetic procedure is undertaken. This is particularly important for height lengthening procedures, where the complexity and duration of the treatment poses significant mental and physical challenges to patients.

References
1. Horney, Karen (1950). Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization. W.W. Norton & Company
2. Ranke MB. Towards a consensus on the definition of idiopathic short stature. Horm Res 1996 45(Suppl 2):64–66