10aPowerPoint® Lecture Outlines prepared by Dr. Lana Zinger, QCC⎯CUNY
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FOCUS ON Your Body Image
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What Is Body Image?
! The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) defines components of body image: • How you picture yourself in your mind • What you believe about your own
appearance • How you feel about your body,
including your height, shape, and weight
• How you sense and control your body as you move
• How you feel in your body, not just about your body
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What Is Body Image?
! Negative Body Image • A distorted perception of your shape, or feelings of
discomfort, shame, or anxiety about your body ! Positive Body Image
• A true perception of your appearance: You see yourself as you really are and you like yourself
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What Is Body Image?
! Many Factors Influence Body Image • The Media and Popular Culture
• Underweight models and celebrities send the message that being thin is best
• Striving to achieve these thin standards often makes people ill
• A study of more than 4,000 television commercials revealed that more than one out of every four sends some sort of “attractiveness message”
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Is the Media’s Mania for Burly Men and Scrawny Women a New Phenomenon?
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What Is Body Image?
• Family, Community, and Cultural Groups • Parents are especially influential in body image
development • Interactions with siblings and other relatives, peers,
teachers, coworkers, and other community members can also influence body image development
• Associations within one’s cultural group appear to influence body image
• Studies have found that European American females experience the highest rates of body dissatisfaction
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Body Image Continuum
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What Is Body Image?
! How Can I Build a More Positive Body Image? • Bust these toxic myths pervasive in our society
Myth 1: How you look is more important than who you are
Myth 2: Anyone can be slender and attractive if they work at it
Myth 3: Dieting is an effective weight-loss strategy Myth 4: Appearance is more important than health
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What Is Body Image?
! Ten Steps to a Positive Body Image 1. Appreciate all that your body can do 2. Make a list of things you like about yourself – minimum 10
things 3. Understand that true beauty is not simply skin deep 4. Look at yourself as a whole person 5. Surround yourself with positive people 6. Shut down negative voices in your head 7. Wear comfortable clothes 8. Become a critical viewer of social and media messages 9. Do something nice for yourself 10. Do something to help others instead of worrying about food,
calories, and your weight
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What Is Body Image?
! Some People Develop Body Image Disorders • Social physique anxiety (SPA)
• The desire to “look good” is so strong that it has a destructive and sometimes disabling effect on the person’s ability to function effectively in relationships and interactions with others.
• Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) • A psychological disorder
characterized by an obsession with a minor or imagined flaw in appearance.
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What Are Eating Disorders?!
• Disordered eating—a pattern of atypical behaviors used to achieve or maintain a lower body weight.
• Chronic dieting, abuse of diet pills and laxatives, and self-induced vomiting
• Not a clinical diagnosis • Eating disorder—A psychiatric disorder characterized
by severe disturbances in body image and eating behaviors.
• Can only be diagnosed by a physician
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Eating Issues Continuum
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What Are Eating Disorders?
! Who’s at Risk? • In the U.S, about 24 million people of all ages meet the
established criteria • Most common among those in their teens and twenties,
although children as young as 6 have been diagnosed. • Obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and anxiety all
play a role • Common among athletes • Male sufferers are increasing, who currently represent up to
25 percent of anorexia and bulimia patients and almost 40 percent of binge eaters.
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What Are Eating Disorders?
! Anorexia Nervosa Involves Severe Food Restriction • Self-starvation • Intense fear of fat • Causes are complex and variable • Nearly 1 percent of adolescent girls meet the criteria for
anorexia nervosa • Highest death rate (20 percent) of any psychological
illness
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What Anorexia Nervosa Can Do to the Body
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What Are Eating Disorders?
! Bulimia Nervosa Involves Bingeing and Purging • Binge and then take inappropriate measures to lose
calories (purge) • Up to 3 percent of adolescent and young females are
bulimic • Often at normal weight or overweight • Caused by a combination of genetic and environmental
factors
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What Bulimia Nervosa Can Do to the Body
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What Are Eating Disorders?
! Some Eating Disorders Are Not Easily Classified • Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS)
• Patients with EDNOS are the highest treatment seeking population
• Represents 40 to 75 percent of individuals with eating disorders
• Binge-Eating Disorder • Often clinically obese • Characterized by eating large amounts of food
rapidly and feeling guilty or depressed after overeating
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What Are Eating Disorders?
! Eating Disorders Can Be Treated • Goal is to stabilize the patient’s life • Long-term therapy • Multidimensional approach
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What Are Eating Disorders?
! How Can You Help Someone You Suspect Has an Eating Disorder? • Learn as much as possible about eating disorders • Set up a time to meet and share your concerns • Provide examples of why you think there might be a problem • Avoid conflicts or a battle of wills with this person • Never nag, plead, beg, bribe, threaten, or manipulate • Don’t talk about how thin the person is or focus on weight,
diets, or exercise • Offer to go along to counseling • Use “I” statements • Stay calm and realize your own limitations
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What Are Exercise Disorders?
! Exercise Can Become a Compulsion • Characterized not by a desire to exercise but a
compulsion to do so • A person may struggle with guilt and anxiety if they
don’t work out • Injuries to joints, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, broken
bones, and stress on the heart • Often plagued by anxiety and/or depression
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What Are Exercise Disorders?
! Muscle Dysmorphia Is a Body Image and Exercise Disorder • When a man believes that one’s body is insufficiently
lean or muscular • Behaviors include comparing oneself unfavorably to
others, frequently checking one’s appearance in the mirror, and camouflaging one’s appearance
• Individuals suffering from muscle dysmorphia have a higher rate of substance abuse (including steroid abuse), and higher risk of suicide than those without the disorder
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What Are Exercise Disorders?
! The Female Athlete Triad Involves Three Interrelated Disorders • Low energy intake, typically prompted by disordered eating behaviors • Menstrual dysfunction
such as amenorrhea • Poor bone density