According to Apple Daily, the woman, surnamed Yang, who killed herself by asphyxiation, might actually have been struggling with dysmorphophobia, a mental disorder that causes patients to dislike their own bodies excessively.

The victim's family said that Yang felt she had become ugly after receiving cosmetic surgery to create double eyelids, a physical trait that is considered to be a sign of beauty in many Asian countries.

Yang thought her eyes had become disproportional in size after her surgery and believed the "ugliness" of her face was scaring people away from the family's breakfast shop, continued the family.

Mental health expert Hsu Cheng-tien said people with dysmorphophobia are extremely critical of their looks and often undergo cosmetic surgery to change what they don't like about their bodies.

One celebrity suffering from the condition is Michael Jackson, who has had at least 30 operations done on his face. Other dysmorphophobia celebrities include Uma Thurman and a local Taiwanese star, Gu Jie, who has no qualms about publicizing the details of her cosmetic surgeries.

Even after having surgery, said Hsu, most patients are only satisfied with their new look for a short period of time before finding more faults with their appearance. The doctor also said dysmorphophobia is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Victims of such a disorder often experience anxiety and social awkwardness.

According to another Chinese-language newspaper, Yang was a good daughter in the eyes of her neighbors. In her suicide note, she apologized to her parents and said she longer wished to subject her family to the indignity of living under a "dark cloud."

Yang's mother was quoted as saying that everyone thought her daughter had beautiful eyes, but she noted that such praise seemed to make no differnce as she was excessively critical of her own looks. The victim's father said his breakfast shop business usually hit a low during the summer season because schools are not in session, and his daughter's looks had nothing to do with the lack of customers.

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