Jackson's death should teach us about disorders

He was my third-grade heartthrob. He was a fabulous dancer. He was a brilliant musician. He was a pop icon. He was accused of pedophilia. He may have been a drug addict. He probably was mentally ill.

I am not a doctor but I believe Michael Jackson suffered horribly from several illnesses. We, the lifelong gawkers, sat in the front row for years and watched the slow and pathetic progression of these horrific mental illnesses.

Michael Jackson brought out the worst in us. We treated him like a carnival freak. We viewed his nose and his skin color as entertainment, not evidence of extreme mental illness. We eagerly paid the price of a tabloid magazine to gain admission to his bizarre, sick world.

In his death we continue. Was it an overdose? How often did the nanny pump his stomach? How could he not have a will? Was he really broke? How could he have spent all that money? Didn't he buy rights to the Beatles' hits? Two autopsies? A public viewing? What about the kids?

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How about we use Michael Jackson's death as an opportunity to learn about a psychiatric condition called body dysmorphic disorder, formerly known as dysmorphophobia, an excessive preoccupation with real or imagined physical defects? The illness often begins in adolescence and affects women more than men. It has a drastic impact on quality of life and often leads to social phobia. It has a suicide rate twice that of depression.

Sound familiar? It's not just Michael Jackson. It is the women with absurdly plumped lips, bizarre pointy noses and pert breasts on a 65-year-old grandmother. It is the millions of dollars spent on cheek and butt implants, too-taut face lifts and let's not even mention surgeries on body parts that don't see the light of day.

Why are surgeons allowed to disfigure mentally ill people? How difficult is it to see the line that divides quietly enhancing cosmetic surgery from garish maiming?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Freaky is not. Do cosmetic surgeons screen their patients for BDD? Do they refuse to perform surgery on these people? Do they refer them or even suggest these patients see a psychiatrist? Just because a patient has the money and a surgeon has the ability does not make it right or ethical.

Should Michael Jackson's surgeons be held responsible for indulging his illness? Many anguished families organize interventions or even seek involuntary court commitment for family members with other mental illnesses, such as alcoholism, addiction, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, bulimia and anorexia. Are there interventions for BDD?

Michael Jackson was fatally consumed by his mental illnesses. I mourn for his family who watched him suffer for years and now live in the anguish of wondering whether there was more they could have done to help him. I mourn for his children who grew up with a mentally ill father. I mourn for the gifted artist we lost.

But I have nothing but disdain for the surgeons — blinded by Michael's money and celebrity — who created the tragic sideshow called Michael Jackson. ¦