HOW DOES SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECT BODY PERCEPTION?
In social media, we see that being thin is considered the same as beauty. We are constantly shown the perfect bodies and faces through the media. Thus, perfect, ideal male and female images are formed in the minds of people from an early age. People want to be like the men and women they see on these social media accounts, and they act with the desire to look like them. Due to these reasons, a distorted body image is formed about themselves. At the same time, in these social media accounts, there are behaviors such as making fun of people and making negative criticisms about the image of people, and these behaviors negatively affect individuals.
WHAT IS BODY PERCEPTION DISORDER?
Body perception is the way an individual perceives his own body and the picture he forms in his mind, and it is also closely related to what the individual feels about his own body. Body perception is shaped depending on the experiences that a person has gained as a result of his relationship with his environment. The individual’s weight, height, general body ratio, eye color, height; It is one of the important features that affect the sense of personal competence. And body perception is a way of defining the shape of our body in our minds and the image we form about our body, which directs the life of the individual, determines his social communication. Body dissatisfaction increases as the differences between the person’s body structure, perceived body structure and ideal body structure increase. As a result of this dissatisfaction, body image disorder occurs. In this case, it may not be correct to show the actual body weight or body structure as the only cause of body image disorder, the importance of perceived body structure and ideal body structure should also be taken into consideration.
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BODY PERCEPTION DISORDER AND NUTRITION?
As the difference between the person’s perceived body structure and the ideal body structure increases, the person wants to reach the ideal body structure and starts to strive for it. This is a result of body perception. At this point, people think that if they are not happy with their own body structure, they will feel happy if they have the ideal body structure. For this reason, it primarily turns to popular diet approaches that cause rapid weight loss. Detox diets reach the desired body weight without taking into account their health with low-calorie diets. However, since the effect of these diets lasts shorter than expected and is not sustainable, unfortunately, the lost body weight is regained and the person remains in this unhealthy diet cycle for a long time.
Individuals who think that they cannot get out of this cycle and are bored with the diet adventure, whose unhappiness is increasing, resort to surgical methods as a second step. They are trying to break this cycle by going under the knife. We regret to say that the “sustainable and applicable” principles in the diet adventure come to our attention at this stage as well. Surgical methods fail in people who do not change their eating habits and lifestyles.
The main problem is the eating behaviors that deteriorate while people try all these in order to reach their ideal body structure. Body image disorder often brings along eating behavior disorders in people. Eating behavior disorders such as Anorexia, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge Eating Disorder may develop. We encounter this situation quite often, especially in adolescents, because they are among the groups that spend most of their time on social media.
People do not feel happy in these steps they take without thinking about the health problems that may arise in the following years, and they can enter into a bigger dead end.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
First of all, the person may not realize the body image disorder on his own. However, he definitely comes into contact with many people who support the individual and distance him from the perception disorder. Such as dietitian, doctor, psychologist. Let’s assume that the person starts working with a dietitian who does his/her ethics and profession correctly and enters the diet process. Dietitian sessions, the relationship between the person’s body and happiness in the weeks interviewed; Of course, he will observe and support the meeting with a psychologist by taking steps to get the person away from this perception disorder. I can say that a dietitian and psychologist who do their job well here can change a person’s life.
