Social media pressures can lead to "irrational" cosmetic surgery procedures, one influencer has warned.

With cosmetic surgery becoming more commonplace, it is more common to hear about work that people have had done than their regrets around it.

The Unscripted Podcast host and social media influencer Niamh O’Connor told Moncrieff about the dangerous side of her regretted procedures.

Ms O’Connor has had her “ears pinned back”, a “boob job” and her “bum done” – equalling three procedures, but she has had some of them done “multiple times”.

“I've had to go back and get things fixed,” she said.

“The first time that I got my bum done, I got implants, and you could literally flip the implant inside me.

“It was a mistake of the surgeon.

“More recently I got filler and cellulitis - I ended up in hospital for a few weeks over that as well.”

Image: Niamh O'Connor

Ms O’Connor said her recent hospital trip resulted from a procedure done in Ireland, which she said was “interesting” as people usually hear of procedures done abroad going wrong.

People on social media “commenting” on her body drove Ms O’Connor to “making irrational decisions”.

“I think I had kind of started doing social media, and I honestly think that I probably wasn't at the best mental state to be making the decisions that I was, and I was probably making irrational decisions based on my own mental state,” she said.

“When I started social media, I kind of couldn't cope a lot with the judgment and people commenting on how I looked and commented on my body all the time.

“So I think it was just making irrational decisions and I don't think now I wouldn't make those decisions.”

"Addicting"

“People commenting on how you look” has an impact on your mental health, Ms O’Connor thinks.

“You could just be making a dancing video, and people will be commenting on how you look,” she said.
“I think that has an impact on your mental health, which has a knock on effect on making decisions like plastic surgery.”

Cosmetic surgery is “addicting” according to the influencer.

“What happens is you just gain a new insecurity every time you fix one,” she said.

“I think that's why, although it was a horrible thing that I went through having to go to hospital, I think it was for the greater good, because it really, it gave me a wake-up call.”

@niamhoconnnorI need to go HOMEEEE its been over a week 🥲♬ Wedding March to Circus Music - Robert Tolppi

Ms O’Connor said that with age she has become “more accepting” of who she is.

“I think going through so many different surgeries and still not being happy with myself, I realised if I'm not happy with myself how I am, changing it isn't going to fix it either,” she said.

She added that cosmetic procedures like filler are “too accessible”.

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Image: Niamh O'Connor