Negative Body Image: What It Is and Steps Toward Healing

The term body image has a simple meaning. It means the way that we view our bodies. The meaning is simple, but for many people, the term itself can elicit difficult thoughts and emotions. The image we have of ourselves is not simple.

It is not simple because the image that we have of our bodies begins with the relationship that we have with our bodies, and the relationship we have with our bodies is complex. You have most likely heard people use the term body image and most of the time it is used negatively. People often talk about struggling with body image. It can help to put a definition to what people mean when they talk about struggling with body image.

According to the APA

The APA is the American Psychiatric Association. The APA authored The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) (APA, 2013). This manual is a compilation of all recognized mental health disorders. It also includes descriptions of symptoms for these mental health disorders. The section on eating and feeding disorders contains language to help us understand body image struggles.

There is a symptom listed in two different eating disorder descriptions that helps us to define body image struggles. The symptom is described as when “self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body weight or shape” (APA, 2013).

We can break this sentence down a bit to make it easier to understand. “Self-evaluation” refers to judgment of one’s value. “Unduly” means disproportionally or excessively. “Influenced by body weight or shape” means affected by body weight or shape. This symptom could more simply be read “judgment of one’s value is disproportionally affected by one’s body weight or shape.”

It is a symptom of poor body image when we judge our value as a person based too much on our body’s weight or shape. This prompts the question of how we know when the amount of influence our body weight or shape has on our judgement of our value is disproportionate or too much. What is too much or disproportionate influence?

Signs of body image struggle

There are some common indications that a person is basing their value as a person too much on their body weight or shape. These signs include:

• Adapting strict eating rules to affect body weight or shape.
• Overeating (to the point of loss of control) due to anxiety or fear about body weight or shape.
• Over-exercising to try to rid the body of energy or to punish oneself for not having a particular body weight or shape.
• Constant worry or anxiety about body weight or shape.
• Dramatic fluctuations in one’s self-image based on weight or perceived shape.

The common underlying theme is that an inordinate portion of one’s energy (physical, mental, emotional, etc.) is spent on addressing one’s body weight or shape. Those who experience this understand its oppressive, overwhelming, and overbearing nature. It tends to consume a person until it is the only way for them to measure their worth as a person.

It can be a scary place to be. Perhaps this describes you or someone that you love or care for. There is hope. It takes work and willingness to change, but there is a way through this suffering. Peace with our bodies is possible. We must begin, as we have here, by naming what body image is and what it means to struggle with it.

Spiritual Bypass

Scripture can offer us helpful insights into what body image is for humans, made in the image of God. But, before bringing Scripture and theology into this topic, I find it necessary to point out harmful ways that this can be used, to avoid misuse.

There is a concept in counseling called spiritual bypass. This is defined as using spiritual beliefs or truths to avoid, dismiss, or bypass suffering. The result is that the person suffering is left feeling that they are a bad Christian because they continue to suffer despite knowing the truths of their faith. This is a harmful practice and can be a true temptation for many faithful Christians with good intentions.

This is important to identify, so that we can avoid using this when faced with a person experiencing body image struggles. The Christian Church is radically different than many other religions in its understanding of the human body; in particular, because of its belief that our bodies are intimately tied to our eternal souls. We believe that, because our bodies have eternal value, for the Christian, this will continue into eternity through our glorified bodies.

Sometimes, the temptation is to simply share the truth about the human body with someone who has body image struggles and expect the belief in that truth to heal the suffering. This is harmful and should be avoided. A careful study of Scripture does reveal truths about the body and, more pertinent to this discussion, it reveals truths about body image.

My intention in bringing these truths into this discussion is threefold: to see how God receives humanity when they first experience confusion in their body image, to understand the current state of humanity’s body image after the fall, and to discuss paths of healing. The person who has body image struggles needs to be listened to, understood, and led to healing, not simply be told what to believe about the goodness of the human body.

Body Image in Scripture

The first appearance of what we might now identify as body image struggles is in Genesis, at the beginning of salvation history. Its cause and God’s response are fascinating and should inform our approach to it today.

In Genesis 3, what many call The Fall occurs. The serpent puts doubt into the hearts of Adam and Eve about the goodness of God. Then they eat from the tree that they were forbidden to eat from. They fall from their state of grace with God. God then calls out for Adam and Eve, trying to find them. Adam tells God: “…I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself” (Gen 3:9-11).

Many scholars interpret this to mean that humanity, after the fall, had a distorted view of their bodies. As one noted theologian and philosopher wrote: “These words reveal a certain constitutive fracture in the human person’s interior, a breakup, as it were, of man’s original spiritual and somatic unity” (John Paul II, 2006).

Somatic refers to the body. There is a split between the spiritual and bodily in humanity. We still feel this today. The term body image itself projects this truth. The term body is singled out as separate from the person as a whole. As Christians, we would say that this condition is the result of the fall from grace and will not be perfectly healed until we have our glorified bodies.

This separation lays the foundation for the difficulties that we experience around our body image. However, the term “body image” can also be deceptive, in that it makes one think that body image can be healed independently of the rest of the person. Christians believe that we are embodied spirits. One important element of working toward a healthy body image is to draw the rest of the person into the process and unify body and soul.

There is an underlying rupture between body and soul in each of us, but those who experience what we might call clinical body image struggles experience it on a level that is much more intense than those who do not. There can be many different reasons for this. Anything that changes how we view the world around us has the potential to change the view we have of our bodies and can lead to this particular struggle.

It could be increased stressors in life, trauma, a desire for control, an environment that promotes equating the value of a person with a particular weight or shape of the body, or projecting emotional difficulties onto the body. God’s response to Adam and Eve experiencing this initial rupture has much to tell us about how to receive those who experience body image struggles today.

God’s Response

God’s response to Adam declaring his nakedness and hiding tells us so much about God and body image. Genesis reads, “Then he asked, ‘Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!’” (Gen 3:11). God knows that something not good has entered humanity’s relationship with their bodies. Someone other than God is telling them something about their bodies.

This, I believe, is the crucial part of this exchange and something that would be beneficial for us to consider regarding body image struggles. In the way that Adam talks about his body, God knows that something disordered has entered his body image. He also knows from the way that Adam is treating his body, hiding. He knows immediately that something is broken. He invites Adam to reflect on what this is and put words to it.

Who or what told you?

It is important to ask this same question of those who suffer from body image struggles. It is important to wonder what has led them to the view that they have of their body and their feelings toward their own body. This is part of restoration and healing, discovering what or who has contributed to one’s body image struggles.

When a person suffers from body image struggles, the person develops a narrative and a set of beliefs about themself and their body. To work toward healing, these must be identified. As God models, the question to be asked is “Who told you?” Often, the answer is a mix of people, social communities, and events in life that led to this. It is often not as simple as we might think.

Sometimes it is fear, anxiety, or trauma that can change how a person views their body. These answers will be unique and personal. Over time, the narrative built can take over the person’s life to the point where it looks and feels as though this narrative is the person’s identity. The person equates their worth with a particular weight or body shape. In this pursuit of a particular body weight or shape, the rest of the person’s life is often pushed to the side.

Healing

Ultimately, the person who has experienced healing of body image struggles can see themselves as a whole. They can see that their weight and shape are simply aspects of their embodied spirit and that it does not define their worth. We are all acutely aware that from the time of our birth to our death, our body weight and shape change, at times rapidly and at other times, slowly.

Basing one’s worth on body weight and shape can be excruciating and exhausting, because attempting to exert complete control is simply impossible. Do we try to hide from or fight this truth, or do we accept it, receive it, grieve it, and grow with it? For the person who struggles with body image, healing has to take place before they are free to consider another way of viewing themselves.

Acknowledging the relationship between their body image and how they judge their worth is important. This would include identifying how much energy is spent on things pertaining to body image. Exploring how this relationship came to be is another important step.

Healing is not a quick process. It takes time and patience and is often strengthened by the support of others. If you or someone you care for is struggling in this way, it can be helpful to seek counseling. A counselor can guide you along the path of freedom to choose how you wish to live in your embodied spirit.