With the widespread popularity of visual-based social media platforms, photo-editing filters and standardized internetinfluencer aesthetics keep reshaping public body-image cognition. Cosmetic treatment-seeking patients constitute a high-risk susceptible group exposed to appearance-related information on social media. Compared with the general population, cosmetic treatment-seeking patients commonly present psychological traits such as externalized self-worth. Long-term exposure to appearance-related social media content can induce and aggravate their depressive mood. Meanwhile, postoperative depressive status may in turn increase individuals’ passive browsing of medical-aesthetic content and excessive appearance-focusing behaviors, forming a vicious cycle between psychology and behavior. From the perspective of psychiatric clinical practice, this paper systematically sorts out the conceptual connotation of social media exposure and its exposure characteristics among cosmetic treatment-seeking patients, analyzes the mechanisms whereby social media exposure triggers depressive mood in this population, and discusses their bidirectional interactive effects. Relevant clinical improvements and intervention measures are put forward accordingly, so as to provide theoretical reference and clinical evidence for psychological risk prevention in medical aesthetic institutions, diagnosis and treatment of comorbid patients in clinical psychology departments, as well as early prevention and management of appearance-related emotional disorders.