UTPA students, faculty discuss body image issues
Note: This article originally appeared in the Feb. 27, 2014 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.
Kevin Galaviz, a senior writing tutor at the UTPA Writing Center, tries not to worry about his appearance, but finds it hard to do so.
“I’m always paranoid about what people think of me. I’m always thinking that someone I’m walking by is judging me, so I just avoid eye contact most of the time when I’m in public,” the 24-year-old Georgia native said. “But, whenever I’m walking in public, and I hear someone I passed laugh, then I worry they’re laughing at me.”
According to Galaviz, this behavior started in 1996, when he was 16. That was the time his stepfather verbally abused him by calling him “obese.”
“My stepfather would always abuse me psychologically, and I never put much thought into my body until he called me that,” the English major said. “It’s something that scarred me back then, and now I have all these negative, self-conscious thoughts about myself.”
The following year, Galaviz was diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a mental disorder in which someone exhibits obsessive behavior about his or her appearance, according to the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Related Disorders Program.
According to Kristin Croyle, a UTPA psychology professor, people suffering from this disorder can develop a severe preoccupation with their body image. Croyle said these people often feel so depressed and hopeless about their bodies that they may go to drastic measures to fix them, such as developing eating disorders.
The eating disorder website Something Fishy reports that an estimated 8 million Americans suffer from an eating disorder. One in 10 people diagnosed is male.
“People who are strongly affected by body image issues don’t talk about it because they’re embarrassed,” said Croyle, the vice provost for undergraduate education. “If you feel ugly or ashamed about something, it’s hard to talk about it. They’re not allowing themselves to see their self-worth because they’re only focusing on one negative thing about themselves. The only people that can know if something is wrong are close friends and family members.”
According to non-profit organization Do Something, 58 percent of college-age women feel pressured to be a certain weight. UTPA junior Regina Perez thinks about her weight, and is bothered by the fact that she may lose her fit, 5-foot-3 physique.
“I’m worried about getting old and gaining weight, and losing the shape and energy I already have,” the 20-year-old studio art and philosophy double major said. “I have to constantly remind myself that I shouldn’t have to worry about my body because that’s not important.”
Low self-esteem, negative influences from other people, or traumatizing childhood events can lead to dissatisfaction with appearance, according to the Cleveland Clinic website.
Croyle, a graduate of the University of Montana who has been at UTPA since 2002, explained that people with body image issues can be hard on themselves due to “unrealistic expectations” they set.
“People can be incredibly unrealistic about themselves, they can care more about how they look like than other people do,” she said. “Everyone feels this way, but sometimes, people can acknowledge they have flaws and live with it because they also acknowledge that they have several strengths. If they can’t see that, and this negativity starts to dominate them, that’s when people should be concerned.”
SEEKING HELP
Croyle recommends that people look for warning signs that individuals suffering from BDD face. These include a drastic change of mood, becoming more self-conscious about one’s looks, and displaying socially avoidant behaviors, such as not wanting to go out in public, according to the Cleveland Clinic website.
Galaviz also said that coming out as gay four years ago added to his stress. According to a 2012 article by the UK-based LGBT news outlet Pink News, 48 percent of gay men would sacrifice a year or more of their lives in exchange for a perfect body.
“People in the LGBT community...can be so judgemental,” he said. “There’s always those preconceived notions about how gay men have perfect bodies, or how gay men need to be placed in a certain category, like ‘bears’ (a large, hairy gay men), ‘twinks’ (a young, thin gay man) etc. I feel as if I had to box myself into one of those categories when I first came out, and I didn’t like that.”
In a study by Brown University, more than 74 percent of women stated that they thought about their weight or appearance “all the time” or “frequently.” 46 percent of the men surveyed responded the same way.
UTPA counselor Kim Nguyen-Finn isn’t surprised that many people suffering from body-image disorders are college students. According to the clinical therapist, college is a transformative time for them.
“For many young adults, college is a time of self-discovery,” the San Antonio native said. “College marks a certain point in their life where they realize that they need to know who they are and who they want to be for the rest of their lives.”
According to Nguyen-Finn, men also face pressure regarding their image. However, as a 2012 article from The Examiner explained, a stigma surrounding men with body image disorders exists because these issues are usually categorized as a female problem. This causes men to be less likely to report or admit the issue, creating fewer precedents for treatment of males.
Nguyen-Finn acknowledges that treatment can be difficult, but recommends people do what they can to stick with it.
“Body image issues aren't something where all of the sudden you wake up one day and you’re cured,” she said. “It’s not like a light switch that suddenly makes you see clearly. It’s more like a dimmer switch, one that’s turned slowly, that takes a while to get there. There will be some drawbacks and moments where you feel as if you’ve failed, but the best course of action is to stay on track and keep at it. It does get better.”
Galaviz sought out counseling last semester due to stress brought on by BDD as well as family issues and an increase in his workload at school. He said he is now focusing on improving himself.
“I just felt overwhelmed by everything and realized that I was just making myself depressed,” he said. “I realized that no one was fighting for me, so I had to do it myself. I don’t want to live up to anyone’s standards anymore. I want to create my own.”
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