Body Image Struggles During a Double Pandemic

I know I’m not alone in observing how many people are struggling with their body image right now (whether formally diagnosed with an eating disorder or not). After all, there are so many scary, sad, anxiety-provoking and rage-inducing events happening in our world right now, and it feels like we have so little control over any of them. This is hard to take. What many of us do when we feel out of control is look for something we feel we *can* control—and diet culture, which feels more pervasive than ever right now, is always trying to convince us we have greater control over our bodies and our weights than we truly do.

It makes so much sense, then, that we would pin all of our dissatisfaction, all of our pain and anger and frustration, on to our bodies, now more than ever. Bodies that are innocent and blameless; bodies doing nothing more than their critical job, which is to try and keep us alive (during a double pandemic, no less).

Realizing how much morality and self-worth we mistakenly connect to our bodies, to our choices and behaviors around food and movement, is an important first step in recovery. Unpacking and exploring how we came to internalize these messages—which systems of power and oppression guide them and have a vested interest in perpetuating them, for their own gain and not ours—is another.

And sometimes, as Waheed suggests, the healing work can start with this simple apology—even though that word doesn’t really sit right with me, because having internalized this toxic messaging is so far from our ‘fault’. If an apology doesn’t feel right to you either, maybe it’s an acknowledgment, instead—that you have treated your body in ways it never deserved, for reasons that aren’t your fault, for reasons you may not understand yet. Maybe that’s where we begin. In acknowledging, in beginning to dream of a world where we accept ourselves and our bodies, where we treat them as the truly incredible vessels they are, and respect and appreciate them for all they do for us. A world where we begin to see how little our bodies matter to our unconditional self-worth.

You can start with this acknowledgment even if you still bear hatred towards your body, still feel shame in it, by the way. This is a beginning—we start where we start. And if you can’t yet visualize a world where those tough feelings and hurtful behaviors lessen, a world where kinder, more compassionate responses can move in and take their place, let those of us who can see that world—who have begun to inhabit it—support you. We have faith in you, and the changes you are capable of making, with respect to your body image and self-compassion and beyond.