When the body becomes an obsession, a blog about Body Dysmorphia

Hello again keep smilin’, it’s been just over a month since my last post and I have spent this time deliberating what to write about. This month I wanted to look at Body Dysmorphia and get some real experiences from someone who has recently received treatment for it, so here it is….

For those who are not familiar with the term Body Dysmorphia allow me to explain, it’s basically where a person would obsess about a particular feature of their body and become concerned and pre-occupied about it. There have been a lot of reports of people going to extreme lengths to satisfy their pre-occupation by using cosmetic surgery amongst other methods to try and change this feature. What this will never fix is the psychological problem that this really is, the distorted image of self is what needs to change, not the feature itself.

Some of the most common insecurities include the skin, hair, weight and nose. These body ‘niggles’ account for the majority of dis-satisfaction in people with this disorder although anywhere on the body can be the subject of scrutiny.

I could write facts all evening about the disorder, but to me that does not show the true face of what’s really going on. I was recently lucky enough to speak to someone willing to share his experiences with me.

As we got to talking it turned into a fascinating conversation about body image, Dysmorphia and everything in-between. He is a 17 year old guy for the UK but did not want his name in this blog.

He explained to me how it all began when he was 12-13 years old and he found it difficult to maintain friends, he withdrew from his parents and the friends he did have and found himself very anxious in social situations. This is what he believed led to him developing Body Dysmorphia.

He was telling me how his obsession with his body centred on his face and hair and how he would constantly compare himself to other people in magazines, the television, the internet and just walking down the street.

“The ideal are the people I see in the media.. on TV, in movies, on twitter/websites and people on the street too that I compare myself to as I walk”

“their perfectly chiselled bodies and perfect faces and perfect tans, that’s just what society thinks is ideal for men and I know, rationally, that they are an extreme minority, but the extent to which we’re bombarded with it makes us feel like, the odd ones out, like we’re ugly freaks or something. Whenever I walk down a street I always feel so uncomfortable, telling myself I look anorexic and hideous”

We went on to talk about how he would go and tan, wax and any other beauty techniques in time for the summer,

“basically I’m ashamed of my body   and I want to do whatever I can to try and be attractive”

I asked one very simple question at the end of our discussion, how could this be changed, how could we stop people from feeling this way? “less media portrayal of ‘beauty’” was his answer.

Now while I largely agree that the media has their part to play and they have a responsibility to the wider public to be reasonable in the way they portray people and image I also feel that we owe it to ourselves, as individuals to embrace ourselves for who we are.

It was great to get an insight into this topic from someone who has been and is still to an extent going through this experience and relationship with his body, one that he is trying to combat while still feeling overwhelmed by the over-sexualised and picture perfect images we are all too frequently exposed to.

Body Dysmorphia is yet another psychological condition which can cause people great discomfort in their appearance, it can lead onto eating disorders, depression and can also lead to people taking extreme risks to achieve what they consider to be ‘normal’.

What needs to be addressed is the way we look at ourselves and most importantly how we deal with the everyday stresses that life has to throw at us. After all while Body Dysmorphia has a large rooting in the way you perceive your body image, a very large part of it is to do with your emotions, how your feeling, and how you feel about yourself as a person.

If you ever feel like this, the best thing you can do is seek help early, by talking to someone about it. Talking really does help, and can help rationalise your feelings and how you feel inside your own skin, after all we only have one body, so we should all learn to embrace it, love it and accept it for the true beauty it holds.

See you next month!

Nick