Body Image

“Mirror, Mirror”

Eating Disorders

• 8,000,000 people in the United States have diagnosed eating

disorders

• 90% of people diagnosed

with eating disorders are

women

More Statistics

• 10% of U.S. girls and women are suffering from eating disorders

• 50,000 will die as a direct result

• Eating disorders and substance abuse have the highest mortality of all psychiatric disorders

Quote

“If we place pornography and the tyranny of slenderness alongside one another, we have the two most significant obsessions of our culture, and both of them focused upon a woman’s body.” Kim Chernin

 

Cosmetic Surgery

• “Cosmetic surgery is the fastest growing medical specialty. Throughout the 1980’s as women gained power, unprecedented numbers of them sought out and submitted to the knife.”

Naomi Wolf

• Men are beginning to enter into cosmetic surgery with the same desire as women to fit the cultural norm.

Origins of Body Image

We are not born with a body image. We learn it from family, peers, the press, movies, and television. Our culture reinforces only certain images.

A relationship has been demonstrated between the development of personal boundaries and body image.

Susan Orbach, Fat is a Feminist Issue Hunger Strike: Anorexia as a Metaphor for Our Age The Women’s Therapy Centre InstituteEating Problems: a Feminist Psychoanalytic Treatment Model have

Body Image Is:

• Mental• Physical• Emotional• Perceptive• Imaginative

Men’s Image Issues

• Glamorous “macho” figures:

• Tough• Muscular• Competitive• Athletic

Media Influence• Models

• Health and fashion magazine covers

• Computer doctored photos

• “Barbie” and Arnold Schwarzenegger

• Music-video queens and kings

• Movies, billboards, television

The Diet/Fitness CrazeWe are influenced through:

• Diet foods• Diet commercials• Diet centers• Diet books• “abs” and workout videos• Health clubs• Body size talk• Fashion

The Media Influence

• Billions are spent on cosmetics, new diets, and clothes

• We are constantly trying to reshape and remake our bodies into the media image

Personal BoundariesPhysical Limits

• our skin distinguishes between what is inside and outside of us

• we determine what to physically put into our bodies and how we take care of ourselves

Personal Psychological Boundaries

A person with strong psychological boundaries helps others but maintains his or her sense of self and has an intrinsic sense of self

A person with weak psychological boundaries has an extrinsic sense of self and can’t maintain boundaries:– might have sex with anyone who wants them as a way

to try to feel “whole”– might find it painful to be alone

Personal BoundariesPsychological & Emotional Limits

• boundaries are based upon how we were held and touched early in life (or not touched)

• early touching provides us with sensory information

• consequently, our boundaries may be clear or unclear

• maintaining limits that are within our value system is essential

Body Image

• Directly related to self-esteem

• Developed through interactions with others

• Reflects our mental picture of ourselves

• Contains our thoughts, feelings, judgments, sensations, awareness and behavior

Body Image Questionnaire

You Can Develop a Healthy Body Image

1. Listen to your body, and eat only when you are hungry.

2. Be realistic about the size you are likely to be based on your genetics and environment.

Developing a Healthy Body Image

3. Exercise regularly doing something you enjoy.

4. Expect normal weekly and monthly changes in weight and shape.

5. Be gentle with yourself – work toward self- acceptance and forgiveness.

Developing a Healthy Body Image

6. Ask for encouragement from friends and family when life is stressful.

7. Make some life decisions about what is most important to you and pursue them.

The Three A’s

Attention – listening to internal cues

Appreciation – enjoying the pleasure your body can provide

Acceptance – accepting what is instead of longing for what is not

What You Can Do

• Force yourself to look for your good points in the mirror

• Decide which of the cultural pressures prevent you from feeling good about yourself

• Exercise to feel good about yourself

What You Can Do

• Give up dieting and bail on the scale

• Eat healthy

• Challenge size-bigotry and fight size discrimination by refusing to speak negatively of others

• Don’t let every new inch or curve upset you

Enjoy Your Life

Work on focusing your thoughts and energy toward the unique and amazing person you are rather than focusing on what you believe you are not.