The Body Positivity movement has been a blessing, helping many of us become more comfortable in our own skin. Unfortunately, body shaming continues to raise its ugly head all too often.
What’s even worse is that this behavior isn’t just offensive but also has a profound and lasting impact on those at the receiving end.
Whether you are male or female, constantly hearing that you are ‘fat’ or ‘skinny’ makes you believe that you just aren’t good enough.
Eventually, body shaming, coupled with our society’s unrealistic beauty standards, starts to mess with your perception of your physical self.
This dissatisfaction for one’s own appearance is described as an unhealthy body image, which increases the risk of a wide range of mental health disorders.
The Mental Health Effects of Body Shaming
1. Eating Disorders
A common argument used by those who indulge in body shaming or fat shaming is that they’re doing it to encourage healthy eating and healthy weight loss.
This defense falls flat on its face when you look at the findings of several studies. Body shaming has a wide range of negative outcomes and one of them includes overeating and an increased risk of eating disorders, as pointed out in a study by researchers from the University of California.
Eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia may not seem like a big deal to some, but they are serious and even life-threatening.
According to estimates from the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), eating disorders affect over 30 million Americans, claiming a life every 62 minutes.
2. Anxiety Disorders
Most of us have some amount of anxiety when it comes to public speaking. Some of us will go to great lengths to avoid making presentations or giving speeches.
For individuals who have faced body shaming, that fear is a lot more real and pervasive. Every situation or social interaction that exposes you to potential body shaming would fill you with anxiety and fear.
Not surprisingly, body shaming increases the risk of anxiety disorders and research shows that social anxiety increases as levels of concern with body image grow.
3. Stress & Depression
The most obvious and immediate effect of body shaming is the sense of shame and guilt.
This leads to an increase in stress levels, which is also linked to higher levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and an increased risk of depression.
As is already evident, body shaming often exacerbates problems with eating or weight, contributing to overeating or eating disorders.
This increases feelings of guilt and self-loathing, leading to a vicious cycle. Findings from one study reveal that victims of weight discrimination are at a 2.7 times higher risk of depression.
4. Suicidal Thoughts
Suicidal behavior and thoughts may sound extreme when you’re emotionally stable and healthy, but the risk is all too real when you’re battling chronic stress, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, depression, or other mental health illnesses.
Although it may seem like a stretch, poor body image has been linked to an increase in suicidal thoughts, especially among adolescents and women.
In a survey conducted in the UK, it was found that 13% of adults had thoughts about suicide because of negative feelings about their body image, with 10% of women and 4% of men actually causing themselves bodily harm.
5. Body Dysmorphic Disorder
In many ways the culmination of body shaming, Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a mental health condition that involves all or many of the conditions listed above.
BDD involves body image concerns that are so severe that they interfere with your ability to live a normal functioning life. Some individuals can get fixated over a perceived flaw, resorting to extreme measures including risky treatments and repeated cosmetic surgery to correct it.
BDD also gives rise to severe social anxiety disorder, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
Sadly, this mental health condition afflicts an estimated 7.5 million Americans, but the real figures could be significantly higher. As confirmed by research, victims of body shaming are at a higher risk of developing BDD.
Overcoming Body Shaming
No matter how strong or resilient you might be, it’s hard to stay immune to the effects of body shaming.
If you feel that you might have body image concerns, anxiety, or depression on account of your appearance (or, to be more precise, because of body shaming), don’t hesitate to reach out for help.
While social media is known to contribute to the toxic climate that allows for bullying, platforms like Facebook also make it easier to connect with support groups.
Here you can find the encouragement and feedback that you need to overcome body shaming. Nothing is more inspiring than learning about the struggles that others have endured to overcome eating disorders or body image disorders.
Adopting a healthy lifestyle with a regular exercise routine can also help bolster your self-confidence and improve your body image.
Do it because of how it will make you feel, not because of how it might affect your appearance. In this regard, the best activity you can take up would be yoga as it helps with self-acceptance and inner peace.
If you find lifestyle changes and support groups to be inadequate, seek treatment from a behavioral therapist or psychiatrist online, as both behavioral therapy and medication can help with anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses linked to body image concerns and body shaming.
Studies show that you can be healthy irrespective of your body shape and size if you lead a healthy lifestyle.
Yet, there are many who cloak body shaming as ‘encouragement’ or ‘motivation’ to get healthy even though we know that it has the opposite effect. If body shaming were helpful, every doctor, parent, and pastor in the world would be a bully.
I doubt that this is the kind of world any of us would want to live in, whether we’re the perpetrators or victims of body shaming.