Guest Author - Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen

No wonder we struggle with our body image, weight loss, and diets: “You’ve got to realize that for advertisers, that’s the main goal, to make you feel bad,” said Dr Hawkins, eating disorders specialist.

If that’s advertisers’ main goal, then they may have succeeded. The more thin, air-brushed images of perfection we see, the worse we feel about our own bodies. Reading women’s magazines and watching just the commercials on mainstream television is almost guaranteed to make you feel dissatisfied with your weight, shape, personality, career, hair color and style, and even your partner.

Nicole Hawkins is a doctor at the Centre for Change eating disorder clinic; she spoke to a large crowd on November 17, 2006 at the Utah Valley State College. Body image problems aren’t just a challenge for women and teenagers, said Dr Hawkins. By age 10, 80% of girls are on a diet. By age 5, 14% of girls are dieting.

When I was 5, I didn’t even know what a diet was – I was 12 before I started counting my calories.

Research has shown that girls are more afraid of getting fat than of nuclear war, losing their parents, or getting cancer. This actually makes a bit of sense to me, because it seems that threats of war, losing parents and a serious illness may be less “real” than getting fat. Maybe pre-teen and teenage girls are so overexposed to beautiful thin models, celebrities, and movie stars that they can’t comprehend the more serious problems in life. Or, perhaps more likely (given the “adult” problems to which youth are exposed), weight is something that can be more readily controlled than nuclear war, parents, or illness. Weight gain is scarier because it may affect girls’ lives in a different way – a way that involves peer judgment, criticism, and disapproval – which can seem more painful and real than the thought of nuclear war or cancer.

Dr Hawkins said that once you feel bad about yourself, you want to find a way to fix your problems. That’s natural and even healthy – but, as she said, most quick-fix solutions don’t work. What does work is changing how you view your body and self.

A primary quick-fix solution is plastic surgery, which has risen dramatically since 1992. Breast implant surgeries have increased 676%, buttock lifts 991%, and liposuction by 472%. The number one requested graduation gift in California is breast implants. And the number one granted graduation gift in California? Breast implants.

But, as Dr Hawkins states, surgery doesn’t fix self-esteem or body image challenges. They can create a whole new set of problems: breast implants need to be replaced every decade – and they may rupture. Liposuction isn’t a one-time surgery; it must be repeated continually to be successful.

The only way to permanently put away body image problems is with old-fashioned techniques: exercise, eating healthfully, and maintaining healthy levels of self-esteem and self-acceptance. These old-fashioned standbys are perhaps more difficult to achieve than the new-fangled ones like plastic surgery – but they’re much more durable and reliable in the long run.

Source: The Daily Herald, Central Utah’s Newspaper