I think that I was pretty late to the game when I decided that I was going to do Botox. I was about 30 when I finally decided to take the needle on and combat the aging process. It was a tough decision. It was hard for me to pull the trigger to inject my angelic face with The Botox because I tend to live my life more on the holistic side.
Before Botox, I had tried all the creams, all the potions, and even the much praised “Vampire Facial”, but nothing seemed to get the results I wanted (meaning my face frozen). After I took the plunge, I finally got what all the hype was. I literally had the skin of an infant or at the very least an infant that had a smoking problem. My wrinkles definitely weren’t gone, but they were suspended in time.
So when I heard a girlfriend of mine tell me about a study done that revealed that Botox was actually making people sad, my face gave an attempted frown that sprang back to attention. The whole incident was very confusing. Later that evening, I did a little further investigating of this crime against humanity.
Psychologist Michael Lewis of Cardiff University had actually found that women being injected with the Botulism toxin, were more prone to depression. The study took group of women, treated half of their foreheads and the other half their laugh lines to a dose of the Botox. Two to four weeks later, both groups of women took q&a questionnaires. The women who had had their laugh lines injected and “removed” had 50% more symptoms of depression.
What the actual fuck? I thought that once we started to feel good about ourselves, treat the things we dislike about our faces or bodies, that we would be happier??? Quite the opposite.
Dr Lewis said: ‘The expressions we make on our faces affect the emotions we feel. We smile because we are happy but smiling also makes us happy. (The Daily Mail)
So in order for our brains to feel happiness, excitement, surprise, etc, our faces have to be walking the walk too. We can’t trick our brains to thinking we are happy when we are crying at every phone company commercial (if you’re a kid of the 80’s, you’ll get this reference).
So what’s the verdict? To Botox or not to Botox? I think for me, I will keep my Botox at a minimum and continue to search out the treatments that lean on the less sad side. Paging Dr. Zoe….
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