Reclaiming a healthy sense of self

It is a statistical fact the nearly 11 million people in the United States suffers from some form of an eating disorder. 10 million are women, and 1 million are men and those numbers continue to grow. The "ideal" body image has become so distorted yet falsely emulated by so many young impressionable girls. Images of top female actresses and models adorn countless magazine aisles portraying these women as the "perfect" image of success and health. When, in reality, almost every image is electronically edited and airbrushed to remove even an illusion of a mole, or freckle or blemish.

Eating disorder identity has become a way for many to handle anxieties, personal crisis and a striving for control.

Today, the average woman of 5'4" is not the 100 lbs waif, but a more balanced 145 lbs. The average dress size is not a size 2, yet a more realistic 10-14. We all come in many different shapes and sizes. The classic Barbie doll image did a great injustice to many generations of impressionable young girls.

So it appears that two words appear so often when the discussion turns to body image, those two words are control and perfection. There is either too much control, obsessing over every morsel of food or a perceived lack of control and obsession over every morsel of food. All this controlling behavior masks an underlying attempt to regain some sort of identity. In reclaiming our identity we must first realize we have lost our sense of self. No diet or exercise program on the market today can offer a quick fix to a healthy self image. Our self image is discovered through our looking inward and discovering all our strengths, accepting our weaknesses and celebrating our perfection in simply being who we are.