Reid Ewing, ‘Modern Family’ Actor, Confesses Having Body Dysmorphia

Actor Reid Ewing, best known for his role as Dylan in Modern Family, recently wrote about his cosmetic surgery to treat his body dysmorphia.

Ewing admits that he had the mental illness that causes victims to obsess over the way they look. “I had just moved to L.A. to become an actor and had very few, if any friends,” he wrote in The Huffington Post. “I’d sit alone in my apartment and take pictures from every angle, analyzing every feature.”

In 2008, Ewing went to a surgeon to get cosmetic surgery on his face. The surgeon told him that it would be necessary for his career to get the surgery. When Ewing went in, the doctor operated on him to give large cheek implants. “I woke up screaming my head off from pain, with tears streaming down my face. The doctor kept telling me to calm down, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything but scream, while the doctor and his staff seemingly held back their laughter,” says Ewing of the first surgery.

Ewing left L.A. for two weeks to recover, afraid someone he knew would see him. When he came back, he realized that the surgery had left him with sunken cheeks. The doctor refused to correct it, telling him he needed to get used to it. Ewing found another doctor, tried to have it corrected, and realized it had gone so wrong he could move the implant from one cheek to another.

As the years went on and while filming Modern Family, Ewing kept trying to have his face fixed. “Each procedure would cause another problem that I would have to fix with another procedure. Anyone who has had a run-in with bad cosmetic surgery knows this is true.”

By 2012, Ewing had had enough. He swore never to get cosmetic surgery again, even though he says he was still very insecure about his face. It took him six months for him to be comfortable with people looking at him, he says.

Why talk about this now? Ewing says he saw his first doctor in a magazine and on a TV show, giving cosmetic surgery tips. He wrote it “to counter his influence.” Ewing wants to bring awareness to a mental disorder not often talked about today.

PHOTO: HOLLYWOOD, CA – FEBRUARY 15: Actor Reed Ewing attends Sony PlayStation’s unveiling of the PS VITA portable entertainment system at Siren Studios on February 15, 2012 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)