Believed to be Britain’s first selfie addict, Danny Bowman, 19, first began posting selfies of himself at the age of 15.

The teenager shared with the Mirror that he would spend 10 hours a day taking up to 200 photos of himself on his mobile.

Selfies are self-portrait photographs, usually associated with social networking and typically taken with a digital device.

Bowman told the Mirror : “I was constantly in search of taking the perfect selfie and when I realized I couldn’t I wanted to die. I lost my friends, my education, my health and almost my life.”

The search for the perfect selfie turned into a two-year addiction after his aspirations of being a male model ended when a casting agency rejected Bowman, which eventually led the teenager to drop out of school, lose weight and attempt suicide.

According to the Mirror, the teenager is not alone – that’s the scary part. According to Dr. David Veal, a psychiatrist at the London clinic where Danny was treated: “Danny’s case is particularly extreme. But this is a serious problem. It’s not a vanity issue. It’s a mental health one which has an extremely high suicide rate.”

Danny has been selfie-free for seven months and is now working with charity Fixers to raise awareness of mental health issues in young people. Visit http://www.fixers.org.uk/ for more information.