What is body Image?

Positive and Negative

Body Image is how you see yourself or how you picture yourself in your mind or a mirror and the thoughts and feelings that accompany it. It can include what you believe about your appearance, how you feel about your body, and how you control your body or physically experience it. Many people have concerns about their body image and thy often focus on weight, skin, hair, or the shape or size of a body part. Overall body dissatisfaction appears to persist throughout majority of a persons life. In a review a study mentioned that older females were more likely to be satisfied with their bodies in comparison to young females. Body Image (negative and positive) applies to both male and female, but research shows that males are less likely to talk about it or seek help

Positive and Negative

A negative body image often involves being overly focused on comparing your size, shape or appearance to unrealistic ideals It includes holding yourself to a thin-ideal or and athletic-ideal may cause you to develop unhealthy self talk, low self-esteem or disordered eating patterns. When a person has a positive body image they understand their self-worth doesn't depend on their appearance. A positive body image includes; accepting and appreciating the whole of ones body including how it looks and what it can do, having a broad concept of beauty, having inner positivity and more

What does negative body image lead too?

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

This is a disorder of "Imagined ugliness". What individuals with this disorder see in the mirror is a distorted image of what they actually look like. Often these individuals will spend hours examining, attempting to conceal, or obsessing over their perceived flaws. Some people even spend thousands of dollars on plastic surgery to improve their bodies

Anorexia Nervosa

This disorder is characterized by an extreme fear of gaining weight and these individuals actually perceive their bodies as larger or "Fat" even when they are underweight

Bulimia Nervosa

Individuals with this disorder are also very dissatisfied with their bodies and have extreme concern with body weight and shape

Depression

In many instances, individuals with depression often have a distorted view of themselves and believe they are less attractive than what they actually are

Why does negative body image need support?

Having an positive body image helps children and young people feel good about themselves and supports their mental health and wellbeing for life. Teaching people positive body image young will help prevent things like depression, eating disorders, anorexia etc. In Australia alone around 1 million people suffer from an eating disorder. Many social media platforms have taken over the lives of teenagers, young adults and sometimes even adults, and its shaping peoples minds to believe that you have to be skinny and have abs etc. to be pretty and it makes us insecure about what we look like. This is leading towards many mental illnesses and comparisons to bodies in the media. It has been discovered that 87% of women and 65% of men compare their bodies to ones depicted online. Helping people change body image from negative to positive can help lower the comparison percent and help reduce some of the mental illnesses surrounding it. There are quit a few people in the media who promote positive body image but the unrealistic standards outweigh them majorly

Ways to raise more awareness about body image?

- Positive talk: It might be helpful to be mindful of the ways we speak about our bodies even in just casual conversations for example "I feel so fat today", "They don't have the body to wear that" Because constantly speaking about our bodies or others' bodies in ways that imply weight or youth is one of the starting point for negative body perception.

- Focusing on physical activity and healthy eating for the benefits they provide in terms of social connection and overall psychological wellbeing, rather than just a route to gaining muscle or losing weight, may also be a good approach to a positive body image.

- Write down things you like about yourself and how your body helps you do everyday tasks and appreciate this

- Experiment with different looks and styles and find a style you feel yourself in

- Remind yourself that true-beauty is not skin deep

- Surround yourself with people that make you feel good and are positive

- Recognize that not everyone looks the same and you don't have to compare yourself to people because you are perfect in your own way