Body image is a term that refers to the combination of thoughts and feelings we have regarding our body shapes.
What we see in the mirror represents only a small fraction of body image. While we contemplate ourselves, memories, assumptions, and generalizations pass through our minds.
If all this results in an unfavorable body image, the risk of suffering from an emotional disorder called body dysmorphia increases.
Body dysmorphic disorder represents a mental health condition that requires you to focus on perceived flaws in your appearance even though such defects remain either small or hidden from others.
You may feel so embarrassed, ashamed, and anxious that you may avoid many social situations.
Positive Body Image
In a positive body image, the person has a clear and accurate perception of their body.
A positive body image lets individuals view and respect their body, understanding it is part of their whole existence and their personality remains the cornerstone in forming their identity.
This emotional state enables the individual to feel at ease in their physical self.
Negative Body Image
A person will develop a negative body image if their appearance differs from the expectations set by their family and society as well as the media norms.
Those who experience negative body image contrast their features to others and develop feelings of embarrassment along with physical self-doubts and discomfort.
Your perception plays an essential role at this moment.
People with a negative body image often have an unrealistic view of themselves.
Thus, they can see their image distorted and unreal, exacerbating reality or exaggeratedly valuing their image.
The phenomenon of negative body image can cause some individuals to develop the mental disorder Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD).
A BDD patient views their physical characteristics negatively, which drives them to undertake destructive body-shaping procedures (surgery and hormone treatments, etc.).
This can lead to mental health problems, such as depression, and can also lead to other physical problems.
How Is Body Image Formed and Developed?
It can be developed through the comments that other people make about us.
Messages and/or explicit or implicit comments that we have received throughout our personal history from family, friends, and acquaintances about our bodies.
It can also be formed through the social funnel. What is socially considered desirable about the physical appearance?
Everything that is pressed on social networks, television, and social circles. Social pressure is a very big drawback today for a real and healthy body image.
What Influences the Unfavourable Body Image?
Body image doesn’t develop in isolation. Family, culture, and environment, including social media platforms, television, and film, convey negative and positive messages about our bodies.
For a person with a negative body image, that her body does not match the images promoted by the media is a big problem; it becomes a problem.
However, the image that is conveyed as an ideal is often unnatural, especially when it comes to advertising. We are exposed to unrealistic and, on many occasions, unnatural models.
The fashion and beauty industry sets strict canons that the majority of the population does not fit into. But its influence is such that it can affect physical, mental, and physical well-being because not everyone can understand it.
In this way, we will be more interested in buying products that are slimmer or more muscular to delay the effects of age and/or to appear younger, to appear taller or slimmer, etc.
But all of this can create emotional insecurity, which can make a person more susceptible to developing a negative body image.
On the other hand, these negative thoughts and feelings can be perpetuated through interactions with others.
What Can You Do to Feel Better?
Some people think that they have to change their physical appearance first and then feel good about themselves.
But having a good body image is not synonymous with having a great body or an exuberant physique at all, and you don’t need to have a perfect body to have a good body image.
We ask you several important questions:
- Do you not like your body image, nor are you able to see anything positive in it?
- Do you constantly think about that specific feature of your physique that you cannot accept?
- Are you not able to accept your current appearance?
- Do you want to alter your physical traits even though numerous others believe you don’t require transformation?
- Do you stay away from beaches or swimming pools because looking at and being seen in swimsuits causes distress?
Several affirmative responses to the preceding questions indicate a negative body image, which affects your personal self-esteem.
Put yourself in the hands of a professional therapist, an expert in positive psychology, who will help you identify the problem and find your way to a positive body image together.
