Pursuit of Perfection: Signs of Muscle Dysmorphia

When people become profoundly dissatisfied with their bodies and engage in obsessive, harmful behaviors to enhance their muscle size, they may be suffering from muscle dysmorphia.

The Link Between Body Checking and Eating Disorders

Most of us want to present our best selves when we venture into the world, whether that means dressing a certain way or choosing a particular hairstyle; the mirror allows us to have some level of control over how the world sees us, and that can be an empowering, even comforting feeling. But there is […]

Teens and Body Image: What Should Parents Know?

In a recent poll, nearly two-thirds of parents said their teen feels self-conscious about their appearance 1. Spot the early signs of negative body image and help your teen develop healthy self-esteem. For parents, it can be shocking to see how early children start forming opinions about body size and physical appearance. As social media […]

Photo Editing Apps and Eating Disorders

Social media platforms can be extremely damaging to people’s body image and self-esteem, especially when one stops to consider how many hours a day many people spend on social media. As social media users are bombarded with photoshopped images of people who appear perfect, they tend to compare themselves to these unrealistic and unattainable beauty […]

3 Signs You Have Body Dysmorphia

If you have a child or know a child, you can probably agree that children are perfect. Sure, they’re noisy and messy, and unpredictable at times. But those gap-toothed smiles and chubby feet and poking-out bellies? Perfect. Unfortunately, we don’t always view our own bodies in such a positive light—especially as we grow. We can […]

Body Image, Body Checking, and Body Avoidance: Obstacles for Eating Disorder Recovery

Written by Kate Fisch, LCSW – AVP of Clinical Partnerships, Eating Disorder Network A common stumbling block on the road to eating disorder recovery is ongoing negative body image thoughts. Even after someone has progressed towards recovery by significantly decreasing their eating disorder behaviors and repairing their relationship with food, negative body image concerns commonly […]

Examples of Body Dysmorphia

Let’s talk bodies. Everybody has them—see what we did there? But not everybody loves what they got. We would venture to say that most of us have felt insecure about our bodies from time to time. Today we’re going to look at a more extreme version of body dislike called body dysmorphia. We’ll talk about […]

Diet Culture: How It Hurts and How to Heal

Diet culture or the idea of maintaining rigorous appearance standards is a dangerous yet pervasive element of modern society. Unfortunately, it is a problem that is not going away anytime soon. Without understanding the impacts of diet culture, the challenges and struggles it creates can lead to significant physical and psychological difficulties. What is Diet […]