Preventing Negative Body Image and Eating Disorders

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Preventing Negative Body Image and Eating
Disorders
We live in a society that is extremely
pre-occupied by body image where we are bombarded
everyday about how we should look, how we should
dress, how we should act.
We hope that if we understand more about how to
resist some of these pressures, we can feel
better about our bodies and can all work together
to promote a healthier social environment that
can decrease at least some of the risk factors
that can lead to problems like eating disorders.
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Facts and Figures
75 of American women are dissatisfied with their
weight.
So are 41 of American men.

• Amongst American high school students, 44 of the
  females and 15 of the males were attempting to
  lose weight, and 28 of the males were attempting
  to gain weight by building muscles
• 50 of American women are on a diet at any one
  time
• Between 90 and 99 of fat reducing diets fail to
  produce permanent weight loss
• 2/3 of dieters will regain the weight within a
  year. Virtually all will regain it within five
  years

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What are Eating Disorders?

• There are three main types of eating disorders
• Bulimia
• Anorexia
• Binge Eating

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Major Characteristics of Bulimia Nervosa

• Frequent episodes of BINGE-EATING
• A rapid and sometimes automatic consumption of
  food in a discrete period of time
• A feeling of LACK OF CONTROL
• Powerlessness felt during the binge, often
  followed by an anxiety about anticipated weight
  gain and mood swings
• Recurrent PURGING
• Attempts to undo the effect of the binge by
  dangerous methods like self-induced vomiting,
  diet pills, excessive exercise, and/or laxatives
  or diuretics
• Frequent, intense, and DISTORTED CONCERNS ABOUT
  SHAPE AND WEIGHT
• Including a conviction that body shape and
  weight are crucial factors determining
  self-esteem, and a strong drive for thinness and
  a fear of fat.

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Warning Signs of Bulimia Nervosa
The chances of recovery increase the earlier
Bulimia is detected. Therefore it is important
to be aware of some of the warning signs--you
could be in the position to really help someone!

• Possible evidence of BINGE-EATING
• Appears to eat large amounts of food (esp. high
  calorie food) without gaining weight
• Large amounts of food purchased or shop-lifted

• Evidence of SELF-INDUCED VOMITING
• Catching the person in the act
• Leaves the table immediately after eating and
  goes to the bathroom. Glands under the jaw are
  swollen.

• Evidence of PURGING
• Enthusiastic discussion of ways to eat a lot
  without gaining any weight. Possession of large
  amounts of laxatives or diuretics
• Unexplainable paleness and complaints of
  dizziness
• Unexplainable muscle cramps, or heart and kidney
  problems that are unusual for teenagers

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Unhealthy body image can start at an early age.
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ANOREXIA NERVOSA
Major characteristics might include

• Extreme and irrational fear of becoming fat
• Strong determination to become increasingly
  thinner
• Significant weight loss
• Distorted perception of body shape
• Difficulty in accurately interpreting and
  managing hunger and other internal impulses like
  anger
• Abnormal hormonal functioning
• In females absence of 3 or more menstrual cycles
• In males significant lowering of sexual function
  and desire (due to lowered levels of testosterone)

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BINGE EATING DISORDER

• Several primary symptoms
• Frequent episodes of of eating large quanitties
  of food in short periods of time often secretly,
  without regard to feelings of hunger or
  fullness
• Feeling of being out of control during binges
• Eating food rapidly without really tasting it
• Eating alone
• Feelings of shame, disgust, or guilt after a binge

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Causes of Binge Eating
Research is still being done on
binge-eating disorder, but doctors estimate that
about 25 of obese individuals suffer from
frequent episodes of binge eating. More and more
research shows that a chemical imbalance in the
eating centers of the brain may be responsible.
Contrary to popular belief, this is NOT an issue
of will power.
People suffering from binge-eating disorder can
be either average or above average weight.
Binge-eaters often express distress, shame, and
guilt over their eating disorder. Many have a
history of depression.
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What Causes Eating Disorders?
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Some factors might include

• Social Factors
• Cultural pressures that glorify thinness and
  place value on obtaining the perfect body
• Narrow definitions of beauty that include only
  women and men of specific body types and weights
• Cultural norms that value people on the basis of
  physical appearance and not inner qualities and
  strengths

• Psychological Factors
• Low self-esteem
• Feelings of inadequacy or lack of control in life
• Depression, anxiety, anger, or loneliness

• Interpersonal Factors
• Troubled family or personal relationships
• Difficulty expressing emotions or feelings
• History of being teased or ridiculed based on
  size or weight
• History of physical or self-abuse

• Biological Factors
• Scientists are still researching possible
  biochemical and biological causes of eating
  disorders. In some individuals with eating
  disorders, certain chemicals in the brain that
  control hunger, appetite, and digestion have been
  found to be imbalanced. The exact meaning and
  implications of these imbalances remains under
  investigation.

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Male Body Image
Eating Disorders are not just problems for
women
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Impossible Ideals

• Men must be
• lean
• muscular
• broad shouldered
• narrow through waist
• and hips

• Men are under growing pressure to conform to
  impossible body standards. The body proportions
  set out by the artificial ideal are as impossible
  to meet as the Barbie standards set for women.
  Because of this societal pressure, we are seeing
  a growing number of men who are unhappy with
  their bodies.
• 41 of all males in the US report being
  dissatisfied with their weight.
• Many of these men would like to lose weight but a
  significant portion of them would like to gain
  muscle.

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Prevention Working Together

• Males need to be part of the prevention effort
• They can help to change societal ideals and
  minimize the pressures to conform to impossible
  weight ideals, not only for themselves but also
  for women.

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Societal Weight Prejudice (Weightism)

• Thin is good, beautiful, moral, powerful
• Fat is ugly, lazy, sloppy, morally weak,
  undesirable
• Style, impression, and image gt substance and
  character
• Your appearance (weight, shape) is the most
  important thing about you

• There is a strong social message that somehow
  thin is good and fat is bad. We are taught to
  judge a persons character by how they look
  physically.
• In Western cultures, slenderness is a criterion
  for attractiveness, success, control, and being
  good. This is particularly true for women.
  Muscular bodies are criteria for strong, mature,
  and capable men.
• Fat and overweight people are judged as ugly, a
  failure, out of control, lazy, and responsible
  for their own badness.

These irrational judgments are a form of
prejudice and discrimination, just as racism and
bigotry are. The prejudice against fat and
toward thinness is called weightism and is an
unfair and sad aspect of our culture.
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An important part of an individuals self-concept
is body image.

• Visual Component How you see yourself when you
  look in the mirror
• With poor body image, you might have a distorted,
  unrealistic perception of your shape. You might
  perceive parts of your body as larger or smaller
  than they actually are
• Mental Component What you believe and think
  about your appearance.
• With poor body image, you might believe yourself
  to be ugly or unattractive because you are
  convinced that only certain types of features are
  attractive. Or you believe that what you like is
  irrelevant, and all that matters are the
  characteristics of which others approve.
• Emotional Component How you feel about your
  body, including your height, weight, and shape.
• With poor body image, the combination of your
  distorted perceptions and your self-rejecting
  ideals leads you to feel ashamed, self-conscious,
  and anxious about your body.
• Kinesthetic Component How you feel in your body,
  not just about your body.
• With poor body image, you might not feel
  comfortable in your body. You do not express
  yourself with and through your body, for example
  in sports or dance.

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ROLE OF THE MEDIA
One thing we can learn to do is fight the
messages sent to us by the media industry
Media messages like advertising and celebrity
spotlights more and more are defining what is
beautiful and what is good. If we buy into
their unrealistic ideals, we give the media great
power over our self-esteem and body image.
A study of 4,294 network television commercials
revealed that 1 out of every 3.8 commercials send
some sort of attractiveness message, telling
viewers what is or is not attractive. These
researchers estimate that the average adolescent
sees over 5,260 attractiveness messages per
year. Often the goal of these messages is to
make you viewers feel inadequate so that they
will buy products to fix their problems.
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• RECOMMENDATIONS for COMBATTING
• EATING DISORDERS
• Dont look at body magazines, look at REAL women.
• Athletics Focus on what your body can do rather
  than how it looks.
• Fight weightism. Its a form of bigotry,
  intolerance, prejudice and is socially unjust.
• Develop perspective. What really matters? Its
  not just about looks.

• TIPS FOR BECOMING CRITICAL
• VIEWERS OF THE MEDIA
• Advertisers create their message based on what
  they think you will want to see and what they
  think will affect you and compel you to buy this
  product. Just because they think their approach
  will work with people like you doesnt mean it
  has to work with you as an individual.

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• PREVENTING EATING DISORDERS

A ROLE FOR ALL OF US LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND HOW
WE ALL CAN PLAY A ROLE IN PROMOTING AN
ENVIRONMENT WHICH IS RESPECTFUL AND WHICH PRMOTES
RESISTANCE AGAINST SOCIAL PRESSURES TO BE THIN
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PRINCIPLES OF PREVENTION
A job for everyone

• Every student can play a role in prevention. We
  all can help promote an environment which is
  respectful and resists social pressures to be
  thin.
• Prevention and treatment are not just a female
  issue or a youth issuethey are a community
  issue that involves boys and men, as well as
  girls and women, in many ways.

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What To Say to a Friend

• Set a time to talk privately where you wont be
  interrupted
• Avoid placing shame, blame or guilt
• Avoid giving simple solutions.
• Express your continued support and let them know
  you care about them. This is the most important
  thing you can do. Then be patient. It takes
  time, it isnt easy. You are not trying to cure
  them. You are helping them through difficult
  times, being a true friend in a time of need.

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What to Do Step-by-Step
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1. Be sensitive to shame...It can look like
defensiveness and denial.
WHAT TO DO STEP BY STEP
2. Focus on emotions, stress, isolationnot on
appearance and weight. They already worry too
much about both.

• 3. Focus on what is going on for your friend
  emotionally.
• Express your concerns using I statements rather
  than you statements.
• I am worried about you.
• Is there anything I can do to help you?
• I dont like it when we act as if nothing is
  wrong, because my sense is that something is very
  wrong.

4. Avoid lecturing about the medical dangers of
eating disorders. It will likely backfire.

• 5. One conversation is rarely enough. Repeated
  connection and nonjudgmental listening is usually
  needed for a person to feel safe enough to
  actually talk about what is going on and then do
  something about it.
• Encourage your friends to get help, but dont
  force them.

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Loving Supportive FriendsAlways Help
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Some DOs in Reaching Out

• Speak to the person in private

• Tell them what specifically has made you concerned

• Tell them how you feel

• Let them have time to respond

• Listen carefully and nonjudgementally

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Some DONTs in Reaching Out

• Dont speak to an adult with out speaking to the
  person whom youre concerned about
• Dont give advice about appearance
• Dont confront the person with a group of people
• Dont diagnose
• Dont get into an argument
• Dont be judgmental

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Resources
Private Practitioners
Web Sites
Free Community Eating Disorders Support Group
Books
Teachers, Counselors, School Nurse
Overeaters Anonymous
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Conclusions

• Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful
  committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
  its the only thing that ever has.
• Margaret Mead