1. Body Image & Eating Disorders
Health Education

2. The Never Ending Pursuit of Perfection

3. Body Image
The perception & evaluation of one’s own bodily appearance (Ryle, 2012)
How you see yourself when you look in the mirror or when you picture yourself in your head
Connected to self-esteem & emotional stability

4. Body Image Positive Negative
Seeing yourself for how you really are & being satisfied & happy
Feeling comfortable & confident in your body
Accepting your unique body & carrying yourself with pride.
Seeing yourself unlike you really are & feeling inadequate
Feeling ashamed & self- conscious
Feeling awkward & uncomfortable in your body
Believing your body size or shape is a sign of personal failure

5. Body Image Influences Family Peers Comments & teasing from parents
If family members have had a weight issues
Comparing yourself to siblings & other family members
Peers
Comments, jokes, teasing
Attempting to fit in
Comparing oneself to friends

6. Cultural Influences
Different cultures & historical time periods have different ideas about what makes someone beautiful.

7. The Media Creates unrealistic standards impossible to achieve
“The body type most commonly depicted in today’s popular culture is a body type attainable to roughly 4% of the female population. These models are about 9% taller & 16% thinner than the average woman. Therefore, no amount of dieting or exercise will make that body type attainable for 96% of the female population” (Ryle, 2012).
Women are becoming increasingly less satisfied with their bodies.
80% of college women report body dissatisfaction.
As people are exposed to more media content, they become more compliant & accepting of the depicted messages (Machia and Lamb 2009).

8. The Media And then there’s Photoshop…
“I feel like it looks like someone else. It’s a bittersweet story. You look better, but it’s a lie.”
– Erin Heatherton (Victoria’s Secret model)

9. The Media
Women are highly sexualized in the media & sexually objectified
Self-objectification – women learn to view their own bodies as sexual objects, which makes it easier to treat it as such.
This has negative psychological effects on body image & increases unhealthy & disordered behaviors.
Important contributor to the prevalence of eating disorders

10. Anorexia Nervosa
The restriction of food & the refusal to maintain a minimal healthy body weight.
Behavior includes:
Limiting or excluding food from diet
Weight Loss Methods
Vomiting, laxative abuse, insulin abuse, excessive exercise

11. Anorexia Nervosa Struggle for Control
Self- esteem & self–worth are directly tied to body shape & weight
Weight loss is viewed as success
Weight gain (perceived or real) is viewed as personal failure

12. Anorexia Nervosa Symptoms Health Concerns
Dramatic, rapid and obvious weight loss
Obsession with calories
Fear of gaining weight
Perceiving yourself as overweight when you are not
Persistent dieting
Health Concerns
Loss of menstruation
Hypertension
Low heart rate
Death

13. Bulimia Nervosa
Binge eating, purging, & other compensatory behaviors in order to lose weight & prevent weight gain.

14. Bulimia Nervosa Behavior Weight Loss Methods Reward within itself
Coping with uncomfortable feelings & stress of every day
Consumption of larger than average amounts of food
Secret binges
Impulsive binges
Weight Loss Methods
Vomiting
Over-exercising
Laxative enemas
Diuretics
Chew-spitting
Fasting
Insulin abuse, Ipecac abuse
Strict diets

15. Bulimia Nervosa Triggers Emotional Eating
Dissatisfaction with body image
Boredom
Prolonged dieting
Dysmorphic mood (depression, anxiety, irritability, sadness, & restlessness)
Emotional Eating
Food binges help numb negative feelings
Shame follows binges
Individuals usually have low self-esteem because they feel like they have lost control

16. Bulimia Nervosa Health Concerns Esophageal tears Cardiac arrhythmia
Digestive issues
Dental problems
Electrolyte imbalance

17. Compulsive Overeating
Unhealthy bouts of binge eating followed by depression
Food is used as a method of coping with unwanted feelings

18. Compulsive Overeating
Behavior
Episodes last throughout a specific day
Relieves unwanted feelings of stress
Binges conducted in secret
Individuals will eat normal size portions with others, but consumes larger portions when alone
Triggers
Anxiety
Depression
Stress
Boredom
Body image dissatisfaction
Prolonged dieting

19. Compulsive Overeating
Symptoms
Hiding food
Binge eating
Eating when full
Eating in private because of embarrassment
Fixation with body weight, shape, or size
Eating more rapidly than normal
Habitual eating
Health Concerns
Diabetes
Hypertension
Cardiac problems

20. What can you do about this?
“If you talked to your friends the way you talk to your body, you’d have no friends left at all.” Be your own FRIEND & love yourself for who you are.

21. Asking for Help UWG Health Services: (678) 839- 6452
UWG Counseling Center
NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association): (800)