Body image and highly sensitive person are deeply intertwined. Negative body image can cause and maintain highly sensitive person, and highly sensitive person frequently worsens how we feel about our bodies.
How Negative Body Image Drives Highly Sensitive Person
- Chronic dissatisfaction with physical appearance depletes psychological resources
- Body shame — a particularly painful form of shame — directly drives highly sensitive person
- Comparison of body to social standards is a primary highly sensitive person trigger
- Body image concerns often involve the same negative self-evaluation patterns as highly sensitive person
How Highly Sensitive Person Affects Body Image
Highly Sensitive Person can worsen body image through reduced self-care motivation, changes in appetite and weight, and a general negative lens that extends to physical self-perception.
Addressing Body Image and Highly Sensitive Person Together
- Body neutrality: Not requiring positive body feelings, just reduction of hostility
- Body functionality focus: What your body does vs. how it looks
- Intuitive eating: Reconnecting with hunger and satisfaction cues disrupted by highly sensitive person
- Therapy: CBT and ACT effectively address both body image and highly sensitive person