Dysmorphia

I decided to post my reflection paper where I wrote about dysmorphic disorder. It took a lot of thought because it's a very personal subject to me, but also very important. If you don't know what dysmorphia is please read the article that is featured in my paper. It's an important disorder that not enough people know about.

Body Image

I went to the New York Times website and put the term “body image” in the search box. After a couple unrelated articles were listed, I found one titled “When Ugliness is in Patient’s Eye, Body Image Can Reflect Mental Disorder” http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE1DF1331F931A35753C1A967958260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1. Although not the most compassionate title, it caught my eye so I decided I would read it.

The article was about dysmorphic disorder, and how it’s a relatively new formal diagnosis, and recognized mental disorder. It is rarely diagnosed, only when people have such severely critical images of some aspect of their body that it impedes their ability to do their daily activities. It also talked about how people’s self-perception of their body has gotten increasingly worse over the years and even mentioned how 31% of ten-year-olds at an elementary school “felt fat”. I thought that was heart-breaking. Children should not have to deal with that kind of negative thinking and pressure. The article also mentioned the media and how women compare themselves to models and “unattainable standards” so they are more likely to be unhappy with their bodies.

I had a very easy time relating to this article because I was diagnosed with dysmorphia when I was in high school. I had an eating disorder for a little while, although not an extreme case, and still have issues with food and some pretty bad body image problems. I thought it was normal for girls to feel bad about some aspect of their bodies, but mine got so bad that I wore baggy clothes all the time and a bandana to cover my hair because I was so self-conscious. I tried to play it off as “I wanted to be comfortable” and that I didn’t want to wear clothes that would be uncomfortable to sit in class in, but I knew that wasn’t true. I actually still won’t wear shorts, and get extremely uncomfortable in a bathing suit but I have a very supportive boyfriend who tries to get me to realize that I’m “beautiful”.

I think the body image problem is an example of oppression with a defined norm. The models on TV and in magazines and the guys in movies with six-pack abs and perfectly symmetrical faces are the norm in this case. Everyone else is either judged, or judges themselves in relation to this unobtainable ideal, which makes for a lot of unsatisfied people. It is a lot of pressure to try and live up to the norms and standards that are set for us by the media, and it’s quite exhausting.