Plastic Surgery

Dr. Robi Ludwig

Dr. Robi Ludwig filled in for Larry King the other night and, as usual, the sub was better than the host. Even Ryan Seacrest was better than Larry. His questions are just so lazy...But the point is, Dr. Robi should have her own show. She is intelligent, personable and asked great questions. Her only problem was that her guests were all sort of lame. The plastic surgeon misunderstood most of her questions, the "Human Ken Doll" was so far gone he wasn't much of a guest, the woman who posed nude to pay for surgery was steeped in "recovery" language and the woman who was semi-normal seemed hyper-vigilant at separating herself from the others.

I think addictions are really fascinating. I would have liked to actually delve into that aspect more and look at the parallels all addictions share. I'm sure they must have a process they go through that is very comforting: the consideration of procedures (research), the meetings with doctors, the anticipation of the surgery, the actual surgery, the recovery, the results then they probably miss the whole scenario and start all over again.

I can see where it starts off being the desire to change something physical but I bet many of them are addicted to the actual surgery and what happens before and after. Almost like some women are addicted to being pregnant. Sometimes it's less about the baby and more about being pregnant. A sense of purpose. A road map of behavior is provided. I wouldn't be surprised if many PS addicts share similarities with Baron Munchausen's Syndrome. That is to say they enjoy the attention from the medical community.

I am fascinated with different kinds of addictions. I, at one time or another, have been addicted to or displayed addictive behavior regarding:
-Cigarettes
-Marijuana
-Prescription Pain Medicine
-Cocaine
-Alcohol
-Sex
-Food/Eating
-Shopping (Spending Money)
-Exercise/Body Image

By addiction, I should say wanting to stop and being unable to stop. Being driven compulsively to drink, snort, fuck, spend, fight, eat etc. and never finding any satisfaction from it yet needing to do it over and over, again and again.

I know this kind of behavior runs in my family and the only thing I can really do to combat this is just understand myself and what void I am/was trying to fill and keep away from certain situations/people/activities etc.

I find it equally fascinating that some people, most people probably, have no problem saying "no" to another drink or whatever. For me it's about excess until you crash and that is just as likely to manifest itself into 4 straight hours of intense exercise or Vicodin + Valium + Ambien chased down with a Martini.

But back to plastic surgery: Personally, it has never appealed to me. I feel fortunate to not have the specific issues that drive so many people to it. It surprises me, though, because I was not a pretty site as a teenager. Mushy body, bad skin, glasses. I had a very negative physical self-image yet I always had a million friends due to the positive response to my personality. And I think that was a good thing because I don't think beautiful kids and teens and young adults work on their minds as much as they should. So, maybe I was Truman Capote to a bunch of Babe Paleys back in the day but somehow, as I matured, I got good looking. The bottom line is I have a good head of hair and a great body and those 2 things count for a lot in the physical world, especially the gay male physical world. You can take a guy who is so ugly, so homely yet stack huge pecs and massive bis and quaking quads on him and every fag will be talking about how "he's so hot, like a wrestler!"

So my advice to regular, non-entertainment industry people thinking about plastic surgery is:
1) Work on your mind
2) Work on your body
3) If it's majorly clear it will help (baaaaad nose, no boobs, etc.) go for it
4) But if it's something like botox, forget it. Botox is so lame and people look so different after it. Freakish. Smooth like marble. It's very eerie and so easy to spot.
5) But it's very serious and remember you could die. Look at Olivia Goldsmith.

And please, someone give Dr. Robi her own show. Just not on MSNBC. Everyone who gets their own show on MSNBC crashes fast.