Vanshikaa Savla
As humans, we
have a tendency to take notice of our flaws before appreciating what we like
about ourselves. We stare at every imperfection, never learning to accept
ourselves for who we are. People who suffer from Body Dysmorphic Disorder
obsess over their appearance and body image. They place “undue influence of body weight or shape on
self-evaluation” (West, 2012). In this blog post, I will talk about mirror
exposure therapy and its effectiveness for both, women and men, undergoing Body
Dysmorphic Disorder or eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia
nervosa. Further I will explore the role that media plays in the instigation of
the aforementioned disorders.
Exposure therapy is a method of therapy in which
people suffering from BDD, eating disorders or negative body image are exposed
to their ‘fears’ as is common with phobias or even anxiety and
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (OCD). This is part of cognitive behavioural
therapy. Exposure and response prevention are both a part of cognitive
behavioural therapy. Exposure assists patients to confront situations of their
‘irrational fears’. It may normalise biases interpreted by individuals in their
own bodies, sometimes exaggerated in their own minds. Individuals can be
trained to look at themselves in a particular manner, different from the
negative body image they have formed and engraved within their heads.
Interestingly, this style of intervention will explicitly or implicitly ask the
subjects to avoid or reduce looking at their reflections in the mirror without
guidance (Hildebrandt, 2018).
In Mirror Exposure therapy, individuals are exposed
to their own bodies in a mirror in a controlled manner. They are asked to
describe themselves physically, according to what they see themselves as in a
mirror. The ways of description may be classified into three types:
1.
Guided non-judgemental exposure therapy: In this
method, individuals are asked to describe their physical features in completely
neutral terms such as shape, texture or colour. The process is akin to describing
oneself to an artist to draw a portrait.
2.
Pure mirror exposure therapy: This variation of
ME allows the individual to talk in free terms about their body and the
emotions they experience while looking at themselves in the mirror. Pure
exposure is considered more effective than the guided exposure method.
3.
Mirror exposure with a positive focus:
Individuals are discouraged to talk about what they perceive as their flaws and
are instead asked to focus on features they like most about themselves. They
may talk about how they like the texture of their hair or the shape of their
legs.
Other types of
exposure also exist such as graded exposure, systematic desensitisation and
flooding but the aforementioned are the most significant methods of exposure
therapy (Emamzadeh, 2018).
Constant
pressure of perfectionism or ideal body type has affected both, the women and
men. For women, the compulsion extends to look a certain way, to be ‘skinny’,
with long legs, tiny waists and fair complexioned. For men, the preoccupation
to be muscular, ‘bulk up’ and look sporty, holds extreme importance.
Unfortunately, eating disorders in men are not held with significance. Men seem
to be more apprehensive about taking therapy for their body dysmorphia. Often,
men are misdiagnosed or their eating disorders are overlooked due to social
stigma for men to look a certain way or due to the myth that eating disorders
exist only in women (Smith, 2018). Most studies conducted on exposure therapy
and its effectiveness have used a sample population of only women with weight
and body image concerns, disregarding men altogether.
It has been
observed in recent times that social media and popular culture has heightened
negative body image in the youth, for both men and women. It plays an important
role in the onset of eating disorders. It glorifies unrealistic beauty
standards for both, men and women. In the social context, all the glossy pages
of magazines, streaming of fashion shows and even music videos incite extreme
dissatisfaction to the extent of disordered eating in people, specifically
teenagers and adolescents. Naomi Wolf argues that “our culture disempowers
women by holding them prisoner to an unattainable beauty ideal” (Wolf, 1990).
Yet again, it is assumed that men are not pressurised by these ideal standards.
It is evident that there is an imbalance in the degree of conventional beauty
standards for women and men but most studies tend to neglect its effects on
men.
The inclination
for thinness, dissatisfaction with one’s body, dieting and unachievable eating
habits have been consistently blamed on the large-scale reach of the media.
Multiple researches have studied the relationship between mass media and body
dissatisfaction levels and have found a direct relationship between the two.
Nonetheless, efforts are being made to change the obsession and idealisation of
the ‘size zero’ figure with the objective that the promotion of unrealistic
body shapes will diminish.
References:
1.
Emamzadeh, Arash. What is Mirror Exposure
Therapy? How Does It Work? Psychology Today. Canada. December 14, 2018.
2.
Hildebrandt, Tom; Naumann, Eva; Griffen, Trevor
C. Mirror exposure therapy for body
image disturbances and eating disorders: A review. Clinical Psychology Review
65 (2018) 163-174. New York, USA.
3.
Smith,
Kathleen. Eating Disorders in Men. Psycom. February 13, 2018.
4.
West, Julia
Anne. A Comparison of Brief Mirror Exposure Techniques for Extreme Shape and
Weight Concerns. New Brunswick, New Jersey. January, 2012.
5.
Wolf,
Naomi. Wolf N. The Beauty Myth. Toronto:
Random House. 1990.
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