Cosmeticorexia and Predictions for the Next Editions of ICD and DSM

Having Lunch and Learning New Words

Good afternoon Friends,

I was reading through a mental health newsletter during my lunch break, and came across an interesting word cosmeticorexia aka dermorexia.

The suffix “-rexia” relates to appetite or eating and comes from the Greek word orexis (“desire” or “appetite”).

cosmeticorexia aka dermorexia = culturally reinforced preoccupation or obsession with achieving “flawless” skin that can lead to excessive, age-inappropriate, or compulsive use of cosmetic products and procedures (Stefana, A., & Damiani, G. (2026). Cosmeticorexia: What It Is, Where It Comes from, and Why It Matters. Dermatology and therapy, 16(3), 1445–1449. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13555-026-01685-2)

When I saw this word, I started thinking, what the next editions of ICD (International Classification of disease) and DSM (Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) will look like.

My Predictions:

1. Costemicorexia might go under obsessive compulsive and related disorders.
2. Tied to this, because most of the role social media plays in how we view ourselves (in comparison to others or our perception of what others think of us), social media/phone addiction will be an add on to watch out for. maybe under behavioral addiction, somewhere next to gambling disorder + internet gaming disorder.
3. Would also like to throw in the aspects of ai, the parts that lead to psychosis, suicide + people dating and marrying AI characters. I know this might take us to the drawing board to interrogate what exactly do we mean by a mental disorder (on the flip side, if AI and robots become so ingrained in the culture, this might be edited out down the line)

I cannot wait to see what the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and World Health Organization (WHO), publishers of DSM and ICD respectively, do with all these ‘recent events/realities’.

Also curious how this illness branding will influence the creation/promotion of new/repackaged therapies and medication (if at all), and how relevant industries (beauty + tech) will respond. The future of addiction science/mental health looks exciting, and I am excited to be joining the space.