Icons From the Age of Anxiety: Patricia Krentcil "The Tanorexic Mom"

It's believed she spends $99/month for unlimited access to tanning bads, but back in the day, Patricia Krentcil (the Tanorexic Mom from New Jersey) was trying to get into glamour modeling. She's just released some pics before her addiction to tanning began.

The New Jersey woman who has denied charges she allowed her 5-year-old daughter into a tanning booth has gained national attention for her own increasingly copper complexion, prompting a suggestion that she suffers from "tanerexia."

Patricia Krentcil, known as the "tanning mom," is facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted of second-degree child endangerment. Child services intervened after a nurse at daughter Anna's school noticed she had a rash and the little girl told her it was from going tanning with her mother.

The owner of City Tropics tanning salon in Nutley, N.J., who only identified himself as Anthony, said Krentcil pays a flat fee of about $100 per month for unlimited tanning sessions, and that she tans about 20 times per month, roughly five days per week. The owner added that Krentcil does the maximum time of 12 minutes in a standup booth.
Her attorney, John Caruso, said Krentcil, 44, wants people to stop judging her by the way she looks, and says that she is a loving mother that would never hurt her kids. Anna is in her father's custody.

Anthony said that employees who were there on the day in question told him that Anna remained outside with her father and brother, and didn't go into the tanning booth while Krentcil was inside.

"I never once in my life let me daughter, especially at that age, go into a tanning booth," Krentcil, who is out on $25,000 bail, explained, adding, "I'm very tan and I've been tanning my whole life."

Concern is growing that the woman might have her own problem now that she has appeared on national television. A comparison of the mug shot taken of her Monday with interview footage of her skin, which was an even deeper bronze when she sat down for a Tuesday night interview, has left cause for concern.

"When you look at this, this is somebody who has a problem who most likely has a condition called "tanerexia," where they just don't realize just how much color they have," New York dermatologist Doris Day said. "She's at higher risk for skin cancer, and it also doesn't send the right message to her child."

Krentcil maintains that her daughter's burn was from the sun -- from a day spent gardening -- and not from a tanning bed.

"It's very wrong to presume something that didn't happen, because it didn't happen," Krentcil said, adding that after she gained national exposure, "all of a sudden like I was a murderer."

Her husband, Richard Krentcil, has said that Anna never entered a tanning bed.

"They wrote the story saying Patricia took her into the tanning booth, [that] they were tanning together," he said. "Totally false."

Krentcil's lawyer adds that he does not believe she is addicted to tanning.
"
Obviously, she tans," Caruso said. "To call her an addict, I think is a real leap. It feels like it's being exaggerated, to be like, 'Well look at her, she must have done this.'

Icons From the Age of Anxiety: The King of Pop Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson (1958-2009): The American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman who is often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. If ever there was a text-book poster boy for the anxiety disorder known as Body dismorphic disorder, MJ would have to be it.

From Wikipedia: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD, also body dysmorphia, dysmorphic syndrome; originally dysmorphophobia) is a type of mental illness, a somatoform disorder, wherein the affected person is concerned with body image, manifested as excessive concern about and preoccupation with a perceived defect of their physical features. The person complains of a defect in either one feature or several features of their body; or vaguely complains about their general appearance, which causes psychological distress that causes clinically significant distress or impairs occupational or social functioning. Often BDD co-occurs with emotional depression and anxiety, social withdrawal or social isolation.

Common compulsive behaviors associated with BDD include:

Compulsive mirror checking, glancing in reflective doors, windows and other reflective surfaces.
Alternatively, inability to look at one's own reflection or photographs of oneself; also, removal of mirrors from the home.
Attempting to camouflage the imagined defect: for example, using cosmetic camouflage, wearing baggy clothing, maintaining specific body posture or wearing hats.
Use of distraction techniques to divert attention away from the person's perceived defect, e.g. wearing extravagant clothing or excessive jewelry.
Excessive grooming behaviors: skin-picking, combing hair, plucking eyebrows, shaving, etc.
Compulsive skin-touching, especially to measure or feel the perceived defect.
Immotivated hostility toward people, especially those of the opposite sex (or same sex if homosexual).
Seeking reassurance from loved ones.
Excessive dieting or exercising, working on outside appearance.
Self-harm.
Comparing appearance/body parts with that/those of others, or obsessive viewing of favorite celebrities or models whom the person suffering from BDD wishes to resemble.
Compulsive information-seeking: reading books, newspaper articles and websites that relate to the person's perceived defect, e.g. losing hair or being overweight.
Obsession with plastic surgery or dermatological procedures, often with little satisfactory results (in the perception of the patient). In extreme cases, patients have attempted to perform plastic surgery on themselves, including liposuction and various implants, with disastrous results.

Common locations of perceived defects:

In research carried out by Dr. Katharine Philips, involving over 500 patients, the percentage of patients concerned with the most common locations were as follows;

Skin (73%)
Hair (56%)
Nose (37%)
Weight (22%)

MJ appears to be another high-profile case of an afflicted person of wealth and celebrity that, instead of being treated for his anxiety disorders, was enabled and exploited. It's a tragedy, because he was a talented, good looking kid and it all went horribly wrong. Avoidance is a bitch.