Body Image: Current Issues And Counseling Implications

In today’s society, people are dealing with a very significant problem. The problem society is dealing with is social media and the huge impact it has had on what society believes people should look like and how people should be reaching the standards of attractiveness. These social media accounts may be fine to have, but some people who have these accounts might be more susceptible in developing body dissatisfaction. Self body dissatisfaction can lead people to develop low-self esteem, develop eating disorders, or even result in death. Examples of eating disorders would be, anorexia, bulimia, extreme dieting, or extreme exercising. The eating disorder anorexia, is characterized by a compulsive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. Bulimia
It has been documented for decades that issues with body image was generally identified with women. But, men are dealing with body image issues just like women are about their weight, appearance, or body figure, which lead them to develop physical and psychological problems. In the article “Men and Body Image: Current Issues and Counseling Implications” by Larry D. Burlew and Matthew W. Shurts estimate how many men deal with body image dissatisfaction (BID) they state that, “Gdeve, Truba, and Bowersox (2009) estimated that there are millions of men who experience some level of body dissatisfaction. Approximately 10%-15% of eating disorder diagnoses are assigned to men (Carlat, Camargo, & Herzog, 1997), and 2.2% of males meet the criteria for body dysmorphic disorder (Koran, Abujaoude, Large, & Serpe, 2008).” Men feel pressured now, more than ever, to adapt to a particular body figure due to the stress that social media puts on people. Men that have body image issues do go through some of the disorders like anorexia, bulimia, extreme exercising, etc., but they also deal with other disorders as well. For example, some men are diagnosed with muscle dysmorphia, and problematic symptoms. Muscle dysmorphia disorder is, another dysmorphic disorder, which in itself is an alternative form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is also called bigorexia, muscle dysmorphia is the
Although this may seem like a harmless modification to the body, using those types of applications( apps) on pictures it can lead people to more extreme measures to body image dissatisfaction. In these applications the users are able to modify their figure by using this application (apps). They can make themselves smaller, leaner, or more muscular. People modify their pictures in these applications(apps) until they achieve the desired look in their image of their figure and then they post it on social media. In the article “Do You “Like” My Photo? Facebook Use Maintains Eating Disorder Risk” by Annalise G. Mabe, Jean K. Forney, and Pamela K. Keel, states that “Today, college students use Facebook an average of 100 min/day, interacting with peers primarily by posting and viewing photos.14 The ability to post carefully selected photos that may be digitally altered using online tools, such as “Plump & Skinny Booth,”15 allows Facebook users to present and view images that adhere to unrealistic beauty ideals. Further, social media may reinforce the thin ideal by the posts, “likes,” and comments of idealized images.” People use these applications (apps) to adjust the picture of themselves to more of an appealing figure so that their peers, and others that look at their