There have been talks going around for a few years how the media and the film industry has impacted many young people to be conscious about the way they look forcing them to be body-conscious but nobody seems to be talking about how more than these outer influences your family may be the main culprit behind your negative body image issues.
I have been a chubby girl my entire life and I never really did care about the way I looked until my parents started talking about it and constantly advising me about what should I eat and what should I skip. They would frown upon me if they caught me eating something sweet which was frustrating. Slowly this crawled into my subconscious mind and I started disliking the way I looked. I ate a lot to hide my insecurities then out of guilt, did double workout sessions which led to me throwing my back which thankfully experts from Rockville Chiropractor could help me recover from. The truth is, after I lost extra weight, I still felt like an unattractive person as negative body image had ingrained in my brain.
These are some ways in which my family influenced my mindset and pushed me to be body-conscious;
Parents the Role Models:
Parents are role models of any kid hence when parents start getting conscious about how they look, somewhere the kid learns that from them.
My dad is a fit guy, but he always kept talking about how he constantly worked out to remain fit. This conversation used to happen almost every day and after a while, it started feeling as if I was being taunted because I was not as conscious and fit as him. I started distancing myself from any of their conversations thereby.
Family Criticism:
This is a very common scenario in every family where the members start commenting and showing concerns when the other person gains weight without realizing the psychological impact it creates. I started gaining weight after my puberty and for the next 10 years, I constantly heard discussions about my weight which stressed me out more forcing me to binge eat.
Projecting Your Bad Choices on Kids:
Parents who have made bad choices in their lives do not want their kids to make the same. I understand the emotion involved is out of concern, but this can be daunting at times.
Just because my dad had got diabetes when he was 30, due to being overweight does not mean I will have the same issue. By the way, I am 35 now and I am still healthy.
A Lack of Emotional Support:
the worst possible thing most families do is to give lectures about weight loss techniques but forget to give emotional support and empathize with the person. When I was growing up, I only wanted my parents to understand my eating disorders and help me get over it, not blame me for overeating.
Once a person becomes body-conscious, it is quite difficult to come out of it. I have tried to reason out all the rights and wrongs. but the truth is that I still get a little conscious about the way I look and I can speak with confidence that I am still not over it. No media or film industry has the power to influence us as much as our own family can and with so many families not realizing how their concerns are turning their kids to become body-conscious, I think it’s high time we should stop blaming external elements and learn from our mistakes.