Nowadays the “ghost” of body dysmorphia is following more and more people, mostly teens, every single day due to a constant overrating of people’s body images by society. All over social medias, it is common to see skinny and muscular models promoting an ideal body shape that should utopistically fit everyone. This influence has been causing several problems to young people, which are still learning to accept and appreciate their own bodies, related to body image, body dismorphya and, in the worst case scenarios, eating desorders.

BDD: WHEN THE MIRROR BECOMES AN ENEMY

Walking in front of a mirror obsessively, being disgusted by your body, feeling like a huge set of flaws and hating yourself every single day for the way you look: this is the so called “BDD” (body dysmorphic disorder). This kind of disorder brings with it many consequences that affect everyday life, even the easiest actions. Going to school, concentrating, getting dressed without stressing out, being able to think about more than just your body: those are all problems related to BDD.

A simple mirror becomes an enemy, something to be afraid of, however people with BDD highly depend on it, due to the constant urge to “body-check” themselves. Checking to see if there are more flaws to point out becomes essential, a constant thought.

THE MAIN TRIGGERS

Different forms of bullying, such as: body shaming, fat shaming, and slut shaming, are one of the principal couses of BDD. As a matter of fact, they usually lead to low self-esteem, that is related to body dysmorphic disorder. People effected by BDD face social difficulties resulting from embarrassment and shame related to their appearance.

Social media may not always be the cause of body dysmorphic disorder, however it often acts as a trigger and it can contribute to worsen existing symptoms. For instance, “ideals” of appearance are constantly presented to teens through social media, this can trigger their development of the illness.

FEELING CONFIDENT IS NOT THAT EASY ANYMORE

As it may be clear, being proud and confident about our bodies is becoming more and more difficult. Several people suffering from BDD are aware of how important it is to love theirselves, however it is not always that simple. Some influencers on social medias teach teens to appreciate the body they are living in, on the other hand others are posting pictures (often edited by professionists on photoshop) of perfect bodies, that are far away from reality.

It is important to fully understand that what we see on Tik Tok, Instagram, Youtube or Facebook is rarely something real, achievable. Most of the pictures posted by influencers are posed, edited, taken after several tries in specif places with specific lights.

WORKING OUT AS A SOLUTION

Working out and going to the gym might be seen as a solution to better ourselves. This idea is right as far as we decide to workout for ourselves and not to please other people. There is nothing wrong to workout, eat better, just because we want to feel better in our skin, for ourselves.

It becomes a serious problem when we overtrain, become obsessed with healty eating and when our only aim is to please someone else. There is no point in forcing us to workout if we hate going to the gym, just because we want to look a certain way to impress a boy/a girl.

There is a difference between not accepting our body due to other people’s comments and wanting to change something to feel better for us, for our health.

THE KEY TO ACCEPTANCE

Accepting and loving ourselves is not easy, it will never be. People are always going to comment on what we eat, what we do, how we dress and how we generally look. Those comments, obviously never asked but always given, are often mean and can be harmful for some people. The difficult part is learning how to handle those comments, without letting them win over our confidence.

There is no perfect body, beauty standards, unfortunately, exist in every culture: they never stay the same in the years and they change from country to country. There is more in life than having defined abs or being super skinny.

Acceptance and “self-loving” are two concepts that need to be build day by day, without hurring up. All human beings are different, this process for someone may be fast, for other people may be slower, either way is fine.

Everyone is enough and valid: no matter the way they look, a number on the scale will never define a person’s value.