Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Health Body Image

Close your eyes for a moment and try to picture your body. What do you see?

• Your body image is a combination of how you see yourself and how you think other people see you.

Big, tall, fat, thin – it doesn't seem to matter. No matter how you look, most likely there is something about your body that you don't like. This is only natural. However, most people realize that there are some things, about their body, that they simply cannot change.

• For example, if a woman comes from a long line of big hipped women, most likely genetics will dictate that she too must accept that fact that she should not waste her time and energy trying to 'slim' down her hips, because it is simply not going to work.

• There are those, however, that are unable to accept their body and go to extreme lengths to try to alter their appearance. This can manifest itself in such physically destructive pursuits as repetitive plastic surgeries, self-mutilation, or eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.

A negative body image is psychological disturbance, which is often connected with low self-esteem. Low self-esteem can be triggered by a number of different mechanisms including sexual abuse and the distorted images of beauty perpetrated upon the public by the media.

• Often people with a negative sense about their own body are unable to perceive how they really look. For example, many sufferers of anorexia still see themselves as fat, even when they are near death from starvation.

The results of a negative body image can include:

• Obsessive dieting and exercising.
• Failure to participate in social situations because the person is fearful about what other people may think about how they look. For example, someone who thinks that they are fat may not want to wear a bathing suit in public.
• Wearing overly concealing clothing.
• They may indulge in drugs or alcohol to distance themselves from the mental anguish they are feeling.
• Fear of intimacy because you don't want your partner to see you undressed.
• Health related problems that are a byproduct of an eating or compulsive disorder.
• In extreme situations, a negative body image can result in suicide.
• Death - according to ANRED (Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders) 20% of all people with severe eating disorders die.

Children as young as six have fallen prey to the outlandish quest for the perfect body. About half of all elementary school children diet, weigh themselves daily, or are so concerned about being thin that they suffer from anxiety and guilt when eating fattening foods! These fears and misconceptions often advance to the point that many children develop eating disorders that negatively influences their emotional and physical development.

• Due to the wide spread epidemic of 'negative body image' among young women, they suffer, disproportionally, from eating disorders.
• A negative body image is not just a 'girl' thing. This disorder also affects males. In many instances, it manifests itself by obsessive exercising, as the male attempts to mold his body into a stereotypic G.I. Joe physique.

Body image is, to a large extent, a byproduct of a person's self-esteem. Therefore, if you like and respect yourself, you will accept the body you have and learn to live with it.

• This does not mean that you will cease to exercise or that you eat yourself into obesity. What it does mean is that you will not obsess about your body image. Consequently, when you do diet or exercise, it will be for health reasons, not to modify your body to match someone else's ideals.

• Seek out professional help.
• Throw out your scale.
• Be positive; tell yourself, daily, that you like yourself and your body.
• Be honest with yourself.
• Work on gaining confidence. If you are confident in your day to day life, you will also become more confident about your physical appearance.