BODY DYSMORPHIA

Have you ever been in a mental space where you had this love-hate relationship with your body? Or you never really liked how your body looked? Have you ever considered that you might have Body Dysmorphia Disorder?

So, I did a little research, and according to “Google”, body dysmorphia is a mental illness involving obsessive focus on a perceived flow in appearance. When I first read this, my reaction was Google whyy😭?! I think the definition is too extreme. In simpler terms, body dysmorphia is being overly obsessed with your body image.
Truth is, we all have gone through this at some point in our lives. Some have it more evident than others. I don’t exactly know the point in my life when I became extra cautious of my body because when you’re younger,all you care about is playing with your friends, eating till you get so filled up you can barely walk, and all of a sudden you grow older,and you start looking at the mirror way too much and you start to point out your Imprefections.

Body Dysmorphia makes you doubt yourself. It’s like you wake up feeling like the best version of yourself and you sight a glimpse of yourself probably in a mirror and this obscene amount of self hate washes over you. It makes you seek reassurances from people whose opinion should not matter in the first place, you might even find your self taking genuine compliments as insults. Body dysmorphia is indeed a bitch.🤧

Personally, I think body dysmorphia has a lot to do with the rapid change in trends. When I was younger, everyone wanted to be referred to as “lepa”, it was the most fashionable thing. Every aunt then would buy weight loss pills just so they can be a tad bit skinnier. This days, it’s fashionable to be “thick in the right areas”. It’s a lot of pressure because trends change, and having to adapt to each change can be difficult especially when it concerns bodily changes and the society we live in has not made this pressure lesser in any way.

I believe it all transcends to self-love. I read an article sometime ago, the writer said“self love is expedient, and it is a must you practice self love”. In as much as I believe in that, nobody talks about how hard it can be to love yourself especially when you don’t feel confident in your skin, or when you have been conditioned to think you don’t really need to love yourself . Self love is a process, you would probably still hate yourself while going through this process but then it would be one of the biggest highlights of your life, this process would make you cut down on people and things that don’t make you feel confident and you would probably feel bad in the moment about It but you won’t regret this decision. Self love is really worth it.