Body Image Issues

[HappyKoi]

Hearing what was said during the debates on Monday night brought up a lot of my body image issues.  For a lot of women, myself included, sometimes "feeling fat" can happen when you're feeling depressed or having a low self-esteem moment.  There is a lot of connection in women (and in some men) with how you look, how much you weigh, and your worth as a person.  This is especially true for people with eating disorders.  Do any of you have body image issues?  If so, what triggers you?  How do you handle a day or a moment where you feel that you are "fat" or "ugly"?

 

[PurplePanda999]

OMG, do I have issues. I won't allow anyone to take a picture of me. I feel like I am the ugliest person in the world.

 

[LionTurtle]

I've had body image issues for many years.  There are times I feel like I look alright but most of the time I just feel ugly. I've deleted all images of myself off of social media and will not allow myself to be tagged in pictures, nor do I let anyone even take my picture.  

 

[Choochoo]

I don't think I have body image issues but I am realistic so I feel like any dislikes I have about my body at any point in time has some merit at least and I'm not just exaggerating it in my mind excessively. Though I guess this isn't true all the time as I may have passed some phases wherein I was a bit depressed and probably did feel like I was a lot fatter than I really was, but generally I try to just keep my head geared towards realism as much as possible. 

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

I don't have much problem with feeling ugly. Of course, I don't think I am handsome but I am confident that I won't give babies nightmares. However, I do have a bit of a problem with being fat. That's because I have a bit of fat around my waist. This has been a persistent problem for many years. I have tried reducing my food intake and all that happened was that the bit of fat became a bit of a flap. Not much improvement there. Now I am trying planking. Hopefully, this will firm up that little bit of fat around my waist.

 

[hades_leae]

If you don't like the way you look then change it, don't let this international problem of body image issues keep you from changing your body to what you want to look like. There are so many people out there who believe you should accept the way you look even if you are the fattest person around, and be happy with that image. 


In reality, these people don't want to look the way they do, if you are over weight, and you want to be much smaller and muscular, then work for it instead of trying to force yourself to accept something that you don't want. Then when you hear people talking about body acceptance, you can tell them the same thing I said, change what you don't want, and stop trying to force yourself to accept something you know deep down inside you don't want.

 

[Alex]

Part of the problem in society is that it has become so superficial. Looks do matter, but actually underneath it all we are the same, flesh, bones and blood. I had a friend who was pretty and then she got cancer and her medication and treatment meant she lost her hair and gained weight. She realized that her looks had gone, and that it was more important what was underneath. Sadly, she died and her husband gave away all her clothes and fashion items as she used to be a shoe designer.


When something like that hits you, you then realize looks are less important than health.

 

[kelden]

Well I don't like to be taken pictures because I feel almost always left a poor impression on photo. I don't know, perhaps is just only my crazy complex of inferiority and I look fine on pics. But I can't help but see myself as portrayed wrong on pics.

 

[djanx]

Do any of you have body image issues?  If so, what triggers you?  How do you handle a day or a moment where you feel that you are "fat" or "ugly"?

Well, okay. So, I used to have those issues. Its not just women who face those issues. I mean, right out of college, I got into this super hot tech company. They had Gold's gym within their premises. And I used to workout a lot. As a result, I got the "chiseled" physique that I always dreamed of, and consequently the kind of people who I started going out on dates with also changed. I mean I even dated a supermodel for a while. And then I got into a relationship with this picture perfect girl. The whole thing was based on? Attraction. And so, a few months later when I gained a little weight, she literally gave me a lot of hard time just because of the weight. I felt worthless because in my mind, I had moved on from the attraction phase and I felt that even if I would let go, she would be fine with it, but she clearly wasn't. Anyways, the moment I realized that it was never going to move forward, I RAN away from her  


It took me a few weeks to get my head together. Later, I started dating again. And I realized something - the whole body shaming thing was a scam! I mean look, its all about confidence. And when you look good, you have a lot more confidence. The advertising agencies know this and they try to sell us these really unhealthy standards of body types. The reality is that everyone is beautiful/handsome in their own way and they themselves should get to decide whether they look good or not. No advertiser or stranger or even close friends should matter. Your body, your choice. You can choose to look however, and if someone shames you for it, then they're not really your friends. Unless you're like a zillion pounds overweight, in which case the desire to "get fit" should come from within because there is so much to see in this world and the longer you live the more you'll see!

 

[sidney]

I think even the most gorgeous people have some sort of body issues that are too petty for the regular looking folks, since I see a lot of celebrities having plastic surgery when they already look fine, like Kim Kardashian or her sister Kylie for example. Some people just seem to be not content with their looks. Luckily for me, for the most part, I am content with how I look, although it can certainly be improved with some weight loss and make-up, even if I already look good without it, haha.

 

[Surrender]

My body image has improved over the years and now as long as there are no cameras being pointed at me I feel fine about myself, when I used to worry constantly.  And I looked much better before, so I don't know what I was so hard on myself for.  


But I do get upset sometimes when I see pictures now, I don't like to see how my body has changed and aged, I prefer to live in my head where I am still young and beautiful, lol. 

 

[amy88]

I think to a degree we all feel like this - human nature seems to want better at all times, and honestly I weigh 115lbs at 5'4" (pretty skinny) but still find myself having fat days where I feel like I am an elephant. I blame a lot of it on hormones making women especially feel like we are heavier/more bloated...

 

[kgord]

Even though I think there is a big difference between being fat and being ugly, I do feel ugly because of my weight alot of the time. I don't like  my picture taken, nor do I like being compared to thinner people. It is sad that we have to have our self worth tied to our appearance, and even sadder that it is tied to our weight, but socieity puts so much emphasis on both weight and appearance it is hard to shake that off.

 

[rikka]

I think my body issue is my face. Other people consider me pretty but I don't consider myself that way. To me, I look ordinary and blend with other people seamlessly so I don't get picked from the crowd. The pro probably about feeling about having an ordinary face is that I blend with everyone else. The only issue I have with regards to my face is I don't trust everyone else's camera, no matter if we are office colleagues or friends. I don't have a nice angle whenever I look so I only trust my parents' or close friends' cameras. This is the reason why I don't take selfies.

 

[Laneorexorcist]

Yes. I am a man and I'm currently dealing with a lot of body image issues. I am a really skinny person but I have a little bit of belly and that makes me incredibly insecure about myself. But it's also kind of my fault because I have really bad eating habits... until a few weeks ago I used to consume a lot of sugar and junk food and I was okay about it because the rest of my body seemed to be not getting fat... But now I have almost completely cutted off junk food and sugar of my diet, and I'm starting to do some excersise. I feel a little bit better about myself since I started. . 

 

[Panic57]

I think my clothes trigger me half the time, they never seem to hang off me the way I want  to or feel a certain way.  I never seem to feel comfortable in any of my clothes and I've lost weight.  I guess, i do feel fat when I'm depressed but I usually feel fat first and that makes me depressed.  I can sometimes feel self-concious when I'm in a group of people my age who are stick thin and they give you the look.  That look of contempt wondering why I'm not skinny like them.  It's hard to explain that I've already lost over 40 pounds but I still am and look obese.  you can't see my struggle with fighting my weight and that can be depressing.

 

[DDNatureLover]

I've been a lot thinner than I currently am, and I've also been heavier. Even when I was thin, I was never totally secure with how my body looked. I think a lot of it had to do with growing up with a mother who was always on a diet, always eating low fat, using fake sweeteners, etc., and hearing comments about my a$$ spreading from one end of the room to the other. I belonged to two gyms and worked out a lot when I heard that, so I think it would be unusual to not have body image issues in that environment. For the most part, I am more concerned with my health and how my body functions at this point, but there are things I would still like to improve about the way I look. 

 

[Livia]

I have been struggling recent with the way I think about myself. I had a super awful breakout when I was younger and from that point on I haven’t been confident at all. I guess you could say this is a post asking for help, what do you do to make yourself love yourself again? I can’t look in the mirror and forget about looking at my body. I look at my body or my skin and I burst into tears. What can I do? I’m the lowest I’ve ever been

 

[janemariesayed]

I have been struggling recent with the way I think about myself. I had a super awful breakout when I was younger and from that point on I haven’t been confident at all. I guess you could say this is a post asking for help, what do you do to make yourself love yourself again? I can’t look in the mirror and forget about looking at my body. I look at my body or my skin and I burst into tears. What can I do? I’m the lowest I’ve ever been

Why don't you like what you see in the mirror? If you are underweight, then put some on. If you are overweight then lose some weight. If you don't like your face, then pluck your eyebrows, put some makeup on and get your hair the best you can. Dress yourself up like you are ready to go to the queens' tea party. You will feel brilliant in your self and start to like yourself more.