Is Negative Body Image Normal?

What is something that almost every woman deals with every day, and almost every man is completely puzzled by?

It’s negative body image, and it’s become so “normal” now, that we barely recognise it’s a problem. I’d like to propose that negative body image is ‘usual’ but it’s not normal.

So what exactly is negative body image, and how do you know if you have it? Read this list, see how many sound familiar.

• You feel uncomfortable about part of all of your body, to the extent that you sometimes won’t go out because you feel like you have ‘nothing to wear’
• You apologise for or explain away your weight around others.
• You criticise your body and/or your weight around others.
• When you think about your body, you feel like you have to go on a diet, or work out to change or improve some part of it.
• Walking down the street, you compare your body or parts of it, to other women.
• You feel like you’re bigger than your friends say you are.
• You are extremely conscious about something about your body, such as the size of your stomach, the shape of your nose, or how many wrinkles you have.
• You closely watch what you eat, counting the calories or carbs, so that you don’t ‘get fat’.
• You try not to think about fat at all, instead you interchange words like healthy for ‘thin’, but you really mean thin.
• The number on your bathroom scales telling you your weight, affects your mood for the day – if it’s a low number you feel great, if it’s higher than you were hoping for, you feel depressed, anxious and self-critical
• When you go clothes shopping you leave having bought nothing and feeling depressed
• You feel like others’ behaviour or expectations are pressuring you to change your body.
• When you think about your size or shape, you feel anxious or depressed.
• You over-exercise to maintain your weight (over-exercise is more than an hour a day with the purpose of affecting weight, unless you are a professional athlete).

Body image, both negative and positive, is something that we all learn from those around us.

Negative body image can be unlearned, by being willing to notice your own fat talk about yourself and others. You can also tap into resources like my ten day day Body Bliss body image course.

It is possible to change negative body image, it’s my dream to have every woman and every man truly know that diversity in size is what is ‘normal’.

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