You are living in a society which is increasingly image conscious. Every day you are bombarded with facts, figures, images, tweets, blogs, TV shows and articles about boosting your self-image and improving your inner being with this huge banner of “looking good = feeling good”. Err, really?

Not when there is a huge increase in cases of adults and children as young as 10 being hospitalised for anorexia and treated for mental illnesses related to image consciousness. Not when teens are being abused online by predators who tell them they look sexy, they look desirable, and sadly, they become part of a ‘look good’ vicious cycle. Suicide is becoming a trend for those who just can’t 'fit in'. This is the reality and irony of 'look good, feel good'. People are having sleepless nights trying to play beauty but deep inside they are living a life of the beast.

There is this undeniable, pressurising constant factor of living a certain lifestyle and looking a certain way. In the not too distant past, if it wasn't about the house or postcode you lived in, it was about the car you drove. If you weren't with cool and the gang it was about the fantastic holidays you couldn’t wait to brag about with your work colleagues. If you hadn't quite reached your desired social status, it was about the hunk or honey you just HAD to be seen with linked to your arm.

As if that wasn't hard enough, people have found a new thing to add to this big list and size you up with. Whether you're 65, 37 or 19, it's now all about body finesse, how well your hair sits and how attractive your face looks! What is it that drives this obsession about looks? Should alarm bells be ringing about this craze? Or is it something we have begun to accept? The glossy magazines plastered with picture perfect celebrities and airbrushed models make us feel that we are just simply unattractive if we stay the way we are; agree?

We seem to be on an endless and robotic mission of 'MUST look like them'. It doesn’t help that after deep admiration of Kim K's flawless beauty and Beyonce's curves, we get hit by a million billboards on the way to a Chinese buffet telling us to join this gym and jump on that diet. With a massive surge of guilt, you turn around, go home and reach for the lettuce in your fridge.

It is not just women who are being consumed by this complete infatuation. Men are just as obsessed with mirror looking and are spending more time than ever fixing their hair and building up buns of steel. Gym memberships are currently at an all-time high in the UK but the funny thing is, a lot of us don’t ACTUALLY go! If we do, it’s for a quick social or that all-important selfie to be instantly uploaded to Facebook or Instagram.

Looks have also been linked to the ability to get a job in this already difficult economy. So if you’re not as attractive as your counterpart, he or she is most likely to get the post, leaving your 'ugly' self stuck on the couch all day with a Ben and Jerry's. In the States, people believe in this so much that there is such a term as 'Lookism' and they are vouching for it to become a form of discrimination – I know hey, L O L.

Is it true that you can earn more money and attract a higher earning spouse by just looking better? Will you get better restaurant service or preferred treatment wherever you go because of your looks? What is YOUR definition of perfect? And even when you do work hard to attain this perfection, do you think it is good enough? It is unquestionable - the pressure to look good is on. But why is it? Who is to blame for this atrocity?

I'll leave you with a famous Special K paradox - "What will you gain when you lose?"

Let us know your thoughts on this issue and whether you have been affected by this growing obsession on the 'importance' of looks