Clinical Social Worker Discusses the Effects of Social Media on Teens
Body image healing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. While personal growth is often portrayed as a solo endeavor, the reality is that healing our relationship with our bodies is deeply relational. That’s why support groups and safe spaces play such a powerful and necessary role for anyone working through body image challenges, eating disorder recovery, or even just trying to unlearn the harmful messaging of diet culture.
If you’ve ever felt isolated in your journey, like no one around you understands what it means to reject body shame or work toward body neutrality, you’re not alone. You don’t have to face this alone or do the hard work of recovering alone.
There’s a unique kind of pain that comes from seeing a loved one pursue weight loss, especially if you’ve worked hard to heal your relationship with food, your body, and your self-worth. For those in eating disorder recovery or moving away from diet culture, the growing popularity of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy presents an emotional minefield. In NYC we see the ads plastered all over the subway. The experience of seeing ads that rely on self-date and desire to change makes me incredibly sad and frustrated. It feels like we jumped back YEARS in the body positivity movement.
Negative thoughts about our bodies can be overwhelming. Sometimes these negative thoughts can take up so much mental space that they interfere with daily life. If you’ve found yourself constantly battling your reflection, avoiding your body, or feeling consumed by self-criticism, you are not alone. You are worthy of peace and it starts by rethinking what it means to truly care for yourself. Redefining what freedom from body image thoughts looks like and practicing that peace.
