"My patient Alice began experiencing self-blame in childhood. Her well-intentioned mom put her on diets when she was in her early teens. Even before that, she had started to develop what she eventually called the "self-hatred voice." She vividly remembers when she was ten years old, sitting in the front yard with her legs bent, seeing the inside curvature of her leg and wanting it to be smaller."
"This is the line where your muscle is, and on the inside is a curve. That's the fat and the extra skin. I thought, 'Oh, if I could just cut that off, then my leg would be perfect.' I had a pen, and I drew the line where I thought my legs should be and where the fat should be cut off."
Early parental diet interventions and body-focused comments can trigger persistent self-blame and an internal 'self-hatred' voice beginning in childhood. Memories of scrutinizing body parts, marking where fat should be removed, and extreme food restriction illustrate severe shame and fear around eating. Restrictive eating as a child can create anxiety about performing physical activities and can accompany secretive or symbolic behaviors. Childhood experiences of dieting and weight-focused parenting can cement negative body image and reinforce harmful coping strategies that persist into adolescence and adulthood. Addressing obesity requires understanding these psychological roots alongside biological factors.
Read at Cbsnews
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