Body image and psychiatry are deeply intertwined. Negative body image can cause and maintain psychiatry, and psychiatry frequently worsens how we feel about our bodies.
How Negative Body Image Drives Psychiatry
- Chronic dissatisfaction with physical appearance depletes psychological resources
- Body shame — a particularly painful form of shame — directly drives psychiatry
- Comparison of body to social standards is a primary psychiatry trigger
- Body image concerns often involve the same negative self-evaluation patterns as psychiatry
How Psychiatry Affects Body Image
Psychiatry 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 Psychiatry 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 psychiatry
- Therapy: CBT and ACT effectively address both body image and psychiatry