By Dr. Monica Vivona
Introduction
Summer has arrived, women and ladies of all ages cannot escape the fateful question, the thought that torments us since spring, that sword of Damocles that we have felt on our heads for months ... Ready for the costume fitting?
On TV more and more showgirls, coupons, various succinct and winking little valets ... the ideals proposed by the media, often unattainable, make us impose prohibitive goals whose failure leads to the risk of developing feelings of dissatisfaction and inadequacy.
Ladies, we are in good company, by now the Italian male, buying the newspaper at the newsstand, cannot help but come across magazines for men, like the women's ones, where titles stand out: Sculpted abdominals, finally flat stomach, perfect biceps without effort ... The models imposed by the mass media have very oiled and very tight drums.
How to survive all this?
With an eye to our psychophysical well-being, which translates into feeling good about ourselves, accepting qualities and defects, with an indulgent and benevolent look at the image that the mirror sends back to us!
Feeding and Costume Trial
Eating properly is certainly beneficial, it means staying healthy and ensuring that our body receives what it needs with nothing more or less. The advantage of a good and healthy diet will therefore be visible even at the time of the dreaded costume fitting.
Therefore, it is good to regulate our diet, the World Health Organization and the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), have drawn up the "Guidelines" for a healthy diet. The recommendations can be summarized in a few rules:
- Consume at least five daily portions of fruit and vegetables;
- Increase your intake of high-fiber foods;
- Decrease the consumption of saturated fats (for example butter, lard, lard) and refined products (for example biscuits, white sugar);
- Increase the consumption of unsaturated fats (fish).
In short: few saturated fats, few sugars and little salt; fruit, vegetables and fish at will, without forgetting the importance, as far as possible, of moderate physical activity: just walk for an hour almost every day.
It is correct to do moderate and constant physical activity, as it produces a stabilization of the immune system and increases self-awareness, decreases anxiety and leads to greater psychic well-being, due to the release of endorphins. Moderate sporting activity increases effort capacity and strengthens resistance to stress.
Pathological implications
When Bikini Syndrome becomes a disease
In general, a sort of "worry" in view of the costume fitting can be considered almost normal, especially if in the winter months we have not been particularly attentive to nutrition and sports activities. For this reason, it is necessary to adopt a healthy lifestyle - characterized by a "balanced diet and constant physical activity - throughout the year and not just in view of the swimsuit test, in order to feel comfortable in our body. and in our forms and in order to avoid the appearance of the so-called "bikini syndrome".
In reality, unfortunately, "belonging to Western culture means the" often unconscious and uncritical adoption of the models proposed by mass communication, which for some time has mastered the themes of body image and beauty, helping to create and spread stereotypes about the body and image.
We are continually bombarded with deceptive messages that exaggerate the importance of every slightest physical imperfection and propagate symbols of "ideal" beauty, associated with inviting reminders such as wealth, power, happiness.
So for some, chasing an ideal shape and the fear of gaining weight becomes one of the main concerns around which all existence revolves.
Behind the race for perfect form, behind the battle for a kilo too many, dysmorphophobia can sometimes lurk.
Dysmorphophobia (from the Greek dis - morphé, distorted form and φόβος, phobos = fear) is the phobia that arises from a distorted view of one's external appearance, caused by an "excessive preoccupation with one's external appearance.
The body is no longer perceived as a whole, but we focus excessively on the external appearance or only on a portion of the body. Very often these portions concern breasts, hair, thighs and hips for women; penis, testicles, hair for women. men.
Suffering from this disorder (considered a real mental illness) means not appreciating yourself and being afraid of being ugly. It means being so obsessed with your appearance that you see it full of flaws. Which, in reality, do not exist. Or at least not at these levels.
But beware, all women know their strengths and weaknesses, and they adopt little tricks to mask their imperfections. Dysmorphophobia is "another thing. It is a phobia, in fact. It causes strong emotional stress, the inability to weave social relationships with consequent social isolation. It develops in subjects with low self-esteem levels, both males and females."
Thus begins the battle: beauty treatments, sacrifices and loneliness. Those who suffer from dysmorphophobia are completely focused on their body: they close themselves off to the world, they go on a diet. He gets into eating disorders. If he can afford it, he uses a scalpel. Seeing improvement only gives temporary relief. Then, the battle continues: the result is never enough, and other imperfections are highlighted.
Evolution: we end up hating ourselves, feeling so inadequate that we can no longer have relationships with others.
There is also a male face of dysmorphophobia. It is muscle dysmorphic disorder. Those who suffer from it always see themselves as too thin and every effort is aimed at making the muscles grow. Even with bad diets, anabolic intake and manic exercise.
How can we fight dysmorphophobia?
This battle for a better, perfect body can be stopped by starting to wonder where your inability to accept yourself comes from. What is essential in these cases is to acquire a sense of self-confidence, such as to allow us the possibility of relating harmoniously with others, without being afflicted by inferiority complexes linked to the physical aspect.
Through the acceptance of one's own body self-knowledge and self-acceptance develop, which are decisive for a full and positive maturity, which allows us to be open to relationships and contact with others.
In any case - since it is a real pathology - the treatment of dysmorphophobia requires the intervention of the doctor and the implementation of a psychological therapy of a cognitive-behavioral type, which can be accompanied by a possible pharmacological treatment if the doctor deems it necessary.
For more information, read: Dysmorphophobia
