Body Image issues?

[lawrawrrr]

Hey all,

As we kick off with our Mental Health Awareness Week activities I wanted to get a thread started around the main topic of body image.

Have you ever struggled with body image issues?

I've always grown up seeing "girls are suffering with x yand z because they're comparing themselves to models in magazines" but honestly I didn't really experience that much myself. I was always quite skinny and although I've got a lot of issues with my body I wouldn't say it was necessarily body image, just health stuff!!

But lately I've been feeling literally so bad about the way my body looks, it's "bigger" in all the wrong places and I just hate it. I've been going through a really crappy time over the last few weeks and it's just magnified EVERYTHING I have issues with I don't know how to shake myself out of this funk and learn to "love my body" like you see people say!!!

[Samantha]

I remember I used to never put on weight when I was younger, and I ate like a pig! I started putting weight on I want to say in college, but it's never been an issue as such. The problem for me has always been the stuff I've eaten, at my old job the only thing nearby was McDonald's so I'd go there often, and it wasn't until it shut for 6 weeks due to refurbishment that I realised the negative impact it was having on my body. After it reopened, I didn't go to it for months and I actually lost 7lbs because of it, and I've kept the weight off which I'm glad about!

Again nowadays it's just the rubbish I eat more than body image. However, my size is all over the place e.g. I can fit into 6-12 t shirts, but I'm a 14 on the bottom half and have been for years (there's nothing wrong with that, and I'd probably say I was more of a 12, but I like stuff baggier and more comfortable). Although, if you want to really feel good about yourself - I kid you not I went in Primark the other day and saw this dress I really liked, unfortunately it was a child's size dress so I forgot about it. Then I decided to find the biggest one I could (age 13-14 years) and try it on, it fit perfectly and it made me feel great (I used to fit into Primark's children clothes when I was about 18, so I'm glad I still can)! The dress is lovely too.

Adding onto this, a few years ago, I would never ever consider wearing a bikini. I have a bit of a belly (it has flattened a bit, but not so it's not noticeable). However, it was last year that I found some bikinis I liked, they were affordable so I thought I'd try it. Nowadays, a bikini is all I generally wear, I find that if you're on holiday no one really cares what you look like or what you're wearing and they also don't know you!

[Zak]

Yes, my sedentary lifestyle has made me gain weight recently. I don't like taking my shirt off (or going swimming, things like that). It's so hard to keep the weight down when you're inactive for what.. 21 hours a day?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Funny enough, I am very slim but haven't ever been bothered by my body image. I've always worn speedos when swimming, felt confident on nights out and taking my shirt off in public. But, when I went to Sri Lanka over New Year it was the first ever time I felt slightly self concious or more disappointed in myself than I ever had before - because I had been drinking beers through November/December, got some belly fat. It was nothing bad but I thought OMG and from that point on cut down on food, no more beers and it went away.

One thing that's really affected me is changing jobs - my old job was literally a gym workout everytime I went, and my new job isn't demanding in that way at all. I'm going to be hitting the gym now over summer. With me, soon as I see anything arising i'll jump to action and cut it out. I will *never* let myself get fat.

[lawrawrrr]

I remember I used to never put on weight when I was younger, and I ate like a pig!

SAME this is the hardest part i'm so not used to moderating my diet

i'm going away in like 4 weeks and im genuinely considering starving myself the 2 weeks before cos I just can't seem to moderate what i eat ((

(also love the sig haha)

[Triz]

Yup and it's something I can't change... At least not without about 15k (I've looked into it before) but honestly I'd love to be able to afford it but even if I had 15k spare, I could think of far better things to spend it on...

Basically I'd need to be pretty rich to have it done, to the point where 15k isn't a right lot of money. I struggled with my insecurity of mine for many years, especially during my school years, and although my confidence has got better, the insecurity is there, but as I get older I start to give less shits on what people think about me, thus my insecurity gets better.

[Zak]

but as I get older I start to give less shits on what people think about me, thus my insecurity gets better.

I'd like to know if this is a trend. As I've gotten older, I've found this too. Anyone else?

[Neversoft]

I'd like to know if this is a trend. As I've gotten older, I've found this too. Anyone else?

There's a line in a song by Daughter that goes: "You're too old to be so shy." That always really stuck with me. But I think Sofia Coppola summed it up pretty succinctly in Lost in Translation: "The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you." That tends to come with age.

[FlyingJesus]

I was naturally small and slight growing up no matter what I ate, but when I got to my late teens I began obsessing over staying that way and was very unhealthy with my eating habits. I found myself lying about how much I'd eaten through the day and making sure any pictures of me showed how thin I was above anything else. When I realised that I was seeing myself as fat despite being skin and bones, I stopped trusting what I thought I looked like and focused on numbers instead, thinking that they can't lie, and so became obsessed with what the scales told me I was rather than the camera.

Eventually I forced myself to stop doing weigh-ins at all (and haven't actually weighed myself for years now) and so because I already saw myself as fat I'm not sure when I actually BECAME fat lol but that happened and I stayed that way for a while, aaaaand now I'm larger than I'd like to be but much smaller and healthier than I was a couple of years back. Slowly getting the equilibrium right between excess and starvation *+*+*+*+ not sure that I'll ever actually be happy with my body though tbh

[scottish]

story of my life

was fat, still see myself as fat, but people get annoyed at me for calling myself fat when I'm apparently not

I don't eat enough most days then weekends I'll usually eat too much, it's a hard life man

I exercise 6 days a week though

forever fat