When body dissatisfaction leads to body obsession, you create an invisible prison for yourself that is stronger than steel and stone. This is true regardless of whether you suffer from an eating disorder.
But what if you didn't know you were in prison? How could you plan an effective escape?
Nina Savelle-Rocklin, LMFT, a psychotherapist who writes on her "Make Peace with Food" blog, wrote an eloquent and passionate rant called, "Please, Please."
She directs her rant at the June 19, 2011 issue of People Magazine, which, by her calculations, devotes almost 50% of the articles to bodies, weight, shirtless men and bikini-clad women.
She says,
"These images and concepts [relating to sexuality, identity and value] are saturating us, reducing people to mere bodies, equating thinness with sexiness."
She adds,
"It's appalling to see people reduced to body parts, when we as humans have so much to offer in terms of creativity, humanity, intelligence, love, generosity, and spirit."
Nina is writing about far more than media catering to body dissatisfaction and fueling body obsession. She is striking out at invisible prisons that may have already captured you.
But you need to know you are in prison before you can work your way out. You need to know a life exists beyond your confined emotional and mental existence.
How Your Body Obsession Prison Works
By obsessing about your body, you block your ability to live a free, creative and fulfilling life.
Your body obsession deflects your attention from:
- the instrument you might play
- the book you might write
- the organization you might build
- the loving people you might recognize
- the genuine needs of your children
- the opportunities to bring more beauty into your life and the world.
The obsession deflects your attention from your own pain and the pain of others. You limit your ability to be empathic with the people around you so you limit the possibility of deeper and more meaningful relationships.
You lock yourself behind prison walls of your own making.
And you don't know it.
That's why Nina's articulate and sincere passion is valuable and essential.
Make Your Effective Body Obsession Prison Break
It's a passion like Nina's that may be able to penetrate the mind-numbing prison of body obsessions. This obsession has a population of women and more men, feeding itself the dangerous media nonsense that a life of value is based on shallow relationships, minuscule and short-term goals and a body that is currently in fashion.
Are you in such a prison? What are your loves, passions, dreams? What life do you wish you could lead? What do you want for yourself and the people you love? What do you want for animals, plants, the land, the sea, the air we breathe?
What kind of a future do you want for your coming years and for your children? Do you know? And if you do, do you have a plan for making your dreams come true? Acting on that plan is your way out of a body-obsessive prison and into your fulfilling life.
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Written by Joanna Poppink, MFT. Joanna is a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in eating disorder recovery, stress, PTSD, and adult development.
She is licensed in CA, AZ, OR and FL. Author of the Book: Healing Your Hungry Heart: Recovering from Your Eating Disorder
Appointments are virtual.
For a free telephone consultation, e-mail her at
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