Body Image and Its Impact

Feb 17, 2025 | Body Positivity, HAES, Self-Acceptance

Two hands positioned as if protecting or embracing a diverse group of white paper cutout figures, representing different body types, abilities, ages, and life stages. The text 'Body Image and Its Impact' is displayed in bold, colorful letters at the bottom of the image.

As humans, our mental health and physical appearance go hand-in-hand, often impacting one another. We frequently see this in how we look: our age, appearance, and/or our body image. Depending on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, what we think about our body image results in our own satisfaction with ourselves.

The concept of body image can result in our body’s shape, size, or weight (Tort-Nasarre, Pollina Pocallet, Artigues-Barberà, 2021) which can be the direct result of our mental health. As we move through this article, we will dive into the background of body image, its impacts, ways to help improve it, and learning self-acceptance.

Body Image and Its Effects on Mental Health:

Body image is a wide concept with many differing thoughts, some of which can make the individual feel disconnected from themselves. Experiencing negative thoughts about your body image can lead to low self-esteem, creating feelings that may lead to further mental health disorders.

“One in five adults, (20%) felt shame, just over one-third (34%) felt down or low, and 19% felt disgusted by their body image in the last year”
(Mental Health Foundation, 2019)

These feelings such as disgust or shame can lead to or be a part of eating disorders. Eating disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, ARFID or PICA may or may not be associated with body image depending on the person. Having these symptoms and feelings towards oneself can impact other thoughts about oneself or the choices and behaviors that one makes in their life. An important aspect of eating disorders is that they can often co-occur with other disorders, such as anxiety, depression, OCD, and more. It is important to seek further evaluation from a professional if you are having negative thoughts about your body which are creating unhealthy patterns or behaviors in your life.

Social Media:

Social media and body image can impact one another as well. Over time, the “perfect” body or the ideal body has changed and continues to change, creating expectations and unrealistic beauty standards. Creating expectations that do not fit your specific body can cause shame or negative thoughts toward your self-image. Comparison is a common use, and it has become even more so with the rise of social media. It can be best to identify your triggers associated with comparison and social media, such as unfollowing people who are enhancing these negative thoughts. This can also be improved by reducing the amount of screen time we use with social media.

A study done by the American Psychological Association worked with 220 undergraduate students ages 17-25 who used social media for at least two hours a day and saw improvements in their thoughts towards their appearance. The studies showed, “Our brief, four-week intervention using screen time trackers showed that reducing social media use yielded significant improvements in appearance and weight esteem in distressed youth with heavy social media use” (Goldfield, 2023).

Being aware of both internal thoughts and external factors or triggers that may lead to decisions or negative thoughts is important to be aware of. Also, as a society, we often associate our ideal body with happiness, which is often not true, it comes down to our overall health, both physical and mental, that is most important.

Early Years:

How we view ourselves can start to change at any moment and studies have shown that this change can occur as early as childhood. In recent surveys with the Mental Health Foundation, they found that 29% of the younger population was impacted by what their families worry about and talk about with body image (Mental Health Foundation, n.d.). In the same article, it states,

“Reviews of the research suggest that parents can affect their children’s body image in both direct ways (comments or criticisms about weight and appearance) and more indirect ways (parental eating behaviors and attitudes toward their own bodies and appearance)”
(Mental Health Foundation, n.d.)

As a parent, guardian, or influential person in the younger generation, there needs to be a sense of awareness of the impact that we have on those we teach, help and guide. When struggling with body image or related issues, parents or guardians need to recognize the projection (positive or negative) that can be given from others.

When working on finding the starting point when thoughts, feelings, or behaviors about body image begin to change, it can be helpful to create a timeline. From the earliest moment to the present, talking or writing down memories and getting into the words, behaviors, thoughts, or feelings that are associated with it. This might take time and energy to decompress these things and may need to be done with a mental health professional.

Health at Every Size

(HAES):

While it can be hard, it is important to separate yourself from others when working through body image issues. Comparing your body to another person’s body will only lead to unrealistic expectations. This is because each body functions uniquely, one person’s body may love running as a form of exercise while another may love doing yoga. Another person’s body may have a hard time digesting gluten while another person may have no gluten issues, the list goes on. There is no one size fits all with our bodies. Health at Every Size (HAES) is an approach many dietitians and mental health professionals use to help accept our bodies for what they are and provide a healthy approach to food, exercise, and care.

HAES is used to help widen our perspective that everybody will look different from one another because each body needs and reacts differently to things. HAES approach is to accept and focus on our health rather than how our body looks, which can be done with social, physical, spiritual, and emotional health. If we are not taking care of our bodies by getting enough sleep, laughing with friends, or doing something that provides happiness, our bodies can react negatively to that. It is important to find balance with those things to take care of your body’s needs.

HAES also goes into finding foods and nutrition that work for that specific person, and listening to the body’s needs while providing less focus on dieting. It also focuses on our inner health such as our levels with our heart rate, blood pressure, and more that can be detrimental to our overall well-being (Muhl Heim, 2022). To begin this process, there may be mental hurdles to work through and may need additional support through a mental health professional.

Ways to Help Improve Body Image:

Getting in tune with your mind and body is an important first step. How does your body make you feel, think, or act? These deeper-rooted feelings are keys to dive into. Body image is split into four parts: perceptual body image (the way one views their body), affective body image, (the way one feels about their body), cognitive body image (the way one thinks about their body) and behavioral body image (the behaviors oneself chooses to do with their body) (National Eating Disorder Collaboration, n.d.).

All four of these components are important for a healthy relationship with body image. Focusing on these areas, their impact, when or where they started, and how to reframe or look at them differently can help improve a healthy relationship with oneself. Using these concepts can help to identify our mindset we have created regarding our bodies and working on improving it with a variation of perspectives.

Objectifying Yourself:

Asking yourself these questions, are you objectifying yourself? Are you just looking at your body image for what it looks like rather than the functionality of it? Bodies can do incredible things such as move, sustain itself, or create a living human. When we decide to look at our bodies for just what they look like, we begin to lose focus on the value our bodies have. Our bodies can walk us to work, digest food or feel butterflies. Our bodies can also take us on adventures, find friendships and seek out happiness. When we objectify ourselves and let our negative feelings about how we look let us choose what to do, how we think, or our feelings about ourselves, then we lose the value our body brings.

An example of this is: Let’s say you are going to the beach with your best friends, but you are worried about wearing a bathing suit because of how it looks on your body. Take a moment and think further about your values and what is important. You may value friendships, getting outside, or swimming, all of which may provide happiness to your life. Now stop and wonder: Am I going to let the way I think or feel about my body take away from the other values I have in my life? This is easier said than done, the self-awareness and practice can help you to realize how the values your body can bring you overpower the negative thoughts. You will start to realize how you are more than what your body looks like.

The Unwelcome Party Guest:

Having negative thoughts and feelings about ourselves, especially our bodies, is normal and universal. One way that can help those struggling with this is by learning to accept that those feelings are there and not run away from them or let them decide who we are. The metaphor The Unwelcome Party Guest is used in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help allow space for our thoughts to be there but also create distance, finding a balance for them. In this metaphor, the unwelcome party guest is someone who is creating unwanted thoughts or feelings that may often cause distress (Contextual Counseling, n.d.).

These thoughts often happen in our heads and can be seen with thoughts like, “Don’t wear that skirt out, your thighs look too large.” When you hear these thoughts, it is important to accept they are there without judgment. Hearing those negative thoughts may lead to changing your outfit because of your thoughts about your thighs. What ACT or the unwelcome party guest teaches us is that we can have these thoughts or emotions but we can also take control of them and not allow them to determine our decisions.

If we allow too much space for those negative thoughts and let them determine our decisions, then that unwelcome party guest is winning. If we choose to focus on actions and feelings that we want for ourselves and lead to a more meaningful and valued life.

Our Wants/Needs Vs. Shoulds:

Looking at our bodies, we can be impacted by many things, experiences growing up, social media, friends, and more. It is important to focus on our own, individual needs. Somatically, our bodies react to pressure or expectations, sometimes driving us forward to get a goal done or providing stress that can feel never-ending. If we can allow ourselves to take a step back and provide self-awareness of our expectations and whether they are realistic or not, we can be more mindful of our needs. When we think about our wants and needs we can prioritize ourselves, versus what may feel like what we should be doing to keep up with an expectation.

With HAES, an approach to it is to find physical movement that is fulfilling and works for your body. For example, if I decided to go on a 3-mile run every morning, which I hated and dreaded every day but I had to do it to help lose weight, this would be categorized in the “shoulds”. I am not putting myself first or my wants and needs. Instead I am being driven by a goal of changing my body and losing weight instead of providing myself happiness. My body will feel that emotion because it is not happy with my decisions or approach. If I were to decide to go on a walk with my friend every morning for an hour, even though it may not burn as many calories, but it makes me happy to get movement and catch up with a friend, my body is going to react positively. When I choose to put my wants and needs first, my body will thank me for it. By becoming more aware of healthy choices, accepting who we are, and creating a healthy lifestyle, we can create a life with value and meaning.

Conclusion:

All this to say, it is important to be aware of how we think of our body, our health, our triggers (both internally and externally), and our wants/needs so that we can view ourselves as more than just a body to provide a healthy lifestyle. If you or someone you know is struggling with negative thoughts or behaviors with their body image or mental health related to it, please seek out professional guidance from a mental health professional.