How Body Image Affects Health and Well

Negative feelings about the way your body looks don’t necessarily, but can very easily, translate into negative feelings about yourself as a whole. This negativity can take a toll on mental and emotional health.

A negative body image often leads to low self-esteem, which can lead to problematic behaviors, such as obsessing over exercise and extreme dieting, or social isolation. Low self-esteem can also be problematic because it can lead to stress, anxiety, and loneliness, increase your risk of depression, and interfere with your relationships and performance at work or in school.

People with a negative body image often suffer from distorted thinking. “They think they weigh more than they should, or they feel like they have to be thinner in order to be happy,” says Jennifer Engler, PhD, a professor and the psychology chair at York College of Pennsylvania, who researches how adolescents develop a sense of identity.

A preoccupation with one’s body or weight can be the symptom of an underlying emotional issue, too, says Jennifer Kelman, LCSW, a therapist in private practice in Boca Raton, Florida, who specializes in eating disorders. Depression and anxiety are both strongly linked with negative body image.

One study found that in a group of 535 women, nearly 40 percent of those with major depressive disorder, any anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, or OCD experienced at least one instance of disordered eating, whereas 11 percent of those without a history of depression or anxiety reported the same.

“It is important to remember that when someone says, ‘I feel fat’ — that fat isn’t a feeling,” Kelman says. “An overfocus on body and weight can be an indication of avoidance of dealing with deeper feelings.”

On the flip side, having a positive body image and high self-esteem can influence your behaviors and improve your overall quality of life, boosting everything from your communication skills to your mood, which can combat symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Research indeed suggests that people with more body image satisfaction scored higher when it came to measures of physical, psychological, social, and environmental quality of life.

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