What a great forum! I have just been reading through some of the posts and the discussions that go on are very supportive and interesting.
I have a specific interest in body image for two main reasons, firstly I have experience of body dissatisfaction and body image problems first hand and know how distressing and life limiting it can be. Secondly in our culture with it�s obsession with image it seems more and more people are experiencing discrepancies between how they look and how they would like to look, and also distortions; seeing their own bodies in very subjective ways.
For example, material magic you mention that when the problem is yours it always seems 10 times worse, in fact others may not even notice it� MsConfused you mention that everybody tells you are not fat but it doesn�t make any difference and so on and so on. It seems from the surface that one of the major causes of disliking your body is down to what others might think about it or say about it, so then why does it make no difference when those �other people� genuinely say you look fine?
I am currently working within a university setting looking specifically at ways people can make themselves feel better i.e. self-help treatments/therapies for body dissatisfaction and people who feel they have body image problems.
I take a very open approach to this, as there is very little understanding regarding what it is that actually makes us feel better. Hence the reason I am writing here. I wanted to ask people who have suffered, or feel they are dealing with some form of body dissatisfaction what makes them feel better? There may be some here who feel they have dealt with their problems and now feel comfortable within themselves� Perhaps you still feel in the thick of it, but you have experienced times when momentarily you felt better, maybe just for an afternoon or an hour, what was it that triggered that temporary comfort? Could be anything, a friend challenging your ideas of yourself, walking your dog or watching a sunset� Anything. I would really value you contributions on this one.
All the best,
Adam
- I have put details of a study I am currently running in my signature. We have around 230 women in the UK taking part, but we need to get the numbers much higher if possible. It is entirely online so anyone in the world can take part!
