Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, admitted on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" this Monday that she had long worried her son had an addiction to plastic surgery.

Speaking to the media queen in the sprawling Encino, California home she raised the Jackson 5 and their other siblings after moving from a modest home in Gary, Indiana, 80-year-old Katherine Jackson said that Michael became obsessed with perceived physical inadequacies once his body began changing during adolescence.

"I felt so bad for him. He'd say, 'I'm just so ugly, I don't want to go out there.' To a mother, all of her children are always beautiful," said Jackson, while shaking her head. "And so one day, he decided, 'I'm going to get my nose done.'" At the time, Jackson supported her son's cosmetic surgery wishes, saying she hoped the small physical change would finally put his concerns to rest and make him happy.

But as the star transformed dramatically, in both the public and his family's eyes for decades to follow, it became clear that the singer had not stopped at just one surgery -- and that his nose continued to bear the brunt of repeat procedures that never seemed to satisfy expectations.

"I hear that people get addicted to that plastic surgery, and I think that's what happened to him," Jackson told Oprah. "I had told him, 'That's enough, why do you keep going?'" added the mother, who also admitted she had tracked her son's plastic surgeon down for a chat and implored the doctor not to perform any more work on Michael. "If he comes there and wants you to work on his nose, just tell him you did it...and don't change it," Jackson said she told the doctor.

Plastic surgeon Brian S. Glatt of Premier Plastic Surgery Center of New Jersey says that Jackson's preoccupation with his nose may point to a condition called Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD).

"People affected by BDD typically are excessively concerned about and overly preoccupied by a perceived defect in physical appearance. Usually this is a concern which is either out of proportion to what is really there or is completely perceived by the patient and cannot be appreciated by someone else," says Dr. Glatt.

The condition usually develops in adolescence, though symptoms may not be apparent until well into adulthood because sufferers are so adept at hiding their neurosis. "Teasing or excessive criticism or other life experiences may act as a trigger for susceptible people, but is not thought to be the cause. No cause is known," Dr. Glatt adds.

As the popularity of plastic surgery has increased along with the spotlight on celebrities who opt for multiple procedures, BDD is a phrase that more people have been throwing around to describe cosmetic surgery addicts. But Arie Winograd - LMFT, director and founder of the Los Angeles BDD & Body Image Clinic -- says that the condition is often misrepresented and not understood, and that you shouldn't assume that anyone who gets a lot of cosmetic surgery has it.

"Just because someone gets multiple cosmetic procedures does not necessarily mean that they suffer from body dysmorphic disorder. In fact, many individuals with BDD never get cosmetic work done because of the concern that they may further damage what they already consider to be defective," Winograd tells StyleList.

What's more, patients with BDD very commonly have other related mental issues, like obsessive compulsive disorder, anorexia and bulimia, and social anxiety disorder. Other typical accompaniments can range from trichotillomania -- the uncontrollable pulling out of one's hair -- as well as, compulsive skin picking, hoarding and hypochondriasis -- or the debilitating fear of falling victim to a serious disease. Winograd says that such anxious behaviors often come bundled together.

"Individuals with BDD do have compulsions, which are behaviors done in response to the constant negative and intrusive thoughts they have about their appearance -- also known as obsessions. Compulsions often involve mirror checking, mirror avoidance, constantly touching the body part which they consider to be defective, reassurance seeking, comparing themselves and their body parts to those of other people, and many avoidance behaviors," says Winograd.

Effective treatment includes psychotheraphy and the use of medications to control obsessive urges, though Dr. Glatt says the biggest challenge is simply getting the patient in the door. "Treatment is generally very difficult, and it is hard getting these patients to even seek treatment as their insight is generally very poor concerning their psychological condition," says Dr. Glatt.

Even though not all BDD patients are plastic surgery addicts, Dr. Glatt says he has been seeing more patients that he believes may have the disorder. "The condition is more common than most practitioners realize, and it is very easy to get fooled by a patient into operating on them if you are not keenly aware of BDD and look out for it," says Dr. Glatt, who adds that he sees patients whom he suspects of having BBD come into his practice at least monthly, if not more often.

"These patients are very difficult to manage, and need to be handled carefully. They will generally get very upset and angry when refused surgical treatment. You must explain to them that they are not 'crazy,' but you just cannot see what they see. We try to guide them to a therapist who specializes in BDD patients, but despite all efforts, most patients will usually instead find another plastic surgeon to operate on them," says Dr. Glatt.

When "The Hills" star Heidi Montag recently made news for undergoing ten plastic surgeries in one day at the young age of 23, critics threw around the term "BDD," as is often the case for other open cosmetic surgery veterans like Priscilla Presley and Dolly Parton. Yet, Winograd makes one surprising distinction: true BDD patients would cower away from admitting to and discussing surgical work out of crippling feelings of shame.

"Individuals who truly suffer from BDD rarely divulge that they have had cosmetic work. Those individuals in the media who openly flaunt their many aesthetic procedures often do not have BDD -- they may have what is known as narcissistic personality disorder," says Winograd.

Somehow, we don't doubt that.

The king of pop's former mother-in-law went through her own cosmetic surgery problems recently -- which involved silicone injections gone terribly wrong.

Click here to see more celebrity plastic surgery disasters.