How is body shaming affecting one’s mental health?

Body shaming. A phrase well said and more often used. What is this body shaming and what is the need to discuss it? Mocking at someone about the way that they look is body shaming and its aspects are uncountable. Body shaming is done based on your weight, height, color, hair, body shape, muscles, or in any way that concerns your appearance. It happens a lot more frequently. What’s more annoying is the fact that most people don’t even realize that they are body-shaming someone. They just do it for their selfish reasons.

Causes for Body Shaming 

Why does this happen? We are groomed in a society where we have always seen each other finding faults in others. We find it as a way of insulting or humiliating someone or showing them down. But we fail to understand, that someone’s appearance is not their choice. It’s just the way that they are. And even if it is their choice, we should learn to respect each other’s choices. One should avoid making fun of others because we don’t realize what’s at stake. Effects of Body Shaming  We don’t just discourage someone when we mock them for their physical appearances but we also make them incapable of being confident about their selves. If you are body shaming someone or if someone else is doing it to you, it affects your mental health in both cases. Some commonly seen effects of body shaming are anxiety, depression, overthinking, eating disorders, stress, etc. which give rise to an unhealthy lifestyle. When you body-shame someone, you do not just make them feel bad about themselves. But, you also leave them to desire and appreciate the way someone else looks. It narrows down your mindset and the way you judge or view things around you which is not beneficial for either party. Amidst the embarrassment of not looking in a particular way and the stress to achieve that sort of body and looks, one’s mental health is harmed. That is the very reason that it should be stopped immediately. They overthink it which results in anxiety and can often lead to depression.

Impacts of Body-Shaming on our society 

Teenagers are more sensitive and vulnerable to the changes happening to them and around them. Thus, body shaming affects them more than adults. Studies have shown that one in every five adults. And one in every three teenagers suffers from the adverse effects of body shaming. They feel ashamed and disgusted by their own body and try to isolate themselves from the very world that they should enjoy. This is such an influencing factor that the market today is flooded with materials that help you to look the way you want to look. There are belts, edible items, supplements that can either help you gain weight or lose weight. There are surgeries to remove unwanted fat. Also, there are methods to grow hair or build muscles artificially with the help of supplements or surgeries, and whatnot. Such ways are not just launched in the market, they make significant amounts of profit because they are wildly practiced by people of all ages and genders. A huge number of people wait for the sale and then just buy these products. They don’t waste any time researching because they are so obsessed with the way they look that they ignore the harmful effects these products can have on their bodies.

Conclusion 

We don’t understand that looks are deceptive and the only expectations we have to live up to, are ours. We don’t owe our life to anyone so the way we choose to live is no one else’s concern. And we should focus more on maintaining a healthy body, not a pretty one. Moreover, we should not take too much stress about our looks and appearances. We should be more focused on our body’s needs such as nutrition, water, proper environment, hygiene, sleep, etc. And provide it with all its needs. At the end of the day, our body’s job is to fight against any kind of disease and keep us healthy. Its job is not to look flattering to please others.