online conference transcript

Bob M is the moderator.

BEGINNING

Bob M: Good evening everyone. Our topic tonight is BODY IMAGE. We are going to be discussing the psychology of body image and why some people have positive one's and others have a negative image. And then, our guest will tell us how we can work towards developing a more positive image of our bodies and ourselves. I'm Bob McMillan, the moderator for tonight's conference. Our guest is Carolyn Costin. Carolyn is the Director of the Monte Nido Treatment Center in California. She has also written several books on the subject of eating disorders. Good evening Carolyn and welcome to the Concerned Counseling website. We appreciate you being our guest tonight. Can you please tell us a bit more about your expertise?

Carolyn Costin: Good evening. Thank you for having me. I have been an eating disorder therapist for approximately 20 years and I am also a recovered anorexic. I have developed and implemented 5 treatment programs, most currently my six bed residential program in Malibu.

Bob M: Just so we are all on the same track tonight, can you please define "body image" for us?

Carolyn Costin: Body image refers to the body as a psychological experience and focuses on the individual's feelings and attitudes towards their body.

Bob M: I hear all the time that poor body image can lead to an eating disorder. What I want to address tonight is: what creates a poor body image?

Carolyn Costin: There are a variety of causes. We first look at how a person's caregivers treated their body when growing up. For example, was the person attended physically, were they touched, what comments were made about their body, all the way to were they neglected. Then we have cultural issues such as our current "thin is in" society where women are portrayed as unrealistically thin in the media. It is a complicated issue.

Bob M: It is. What I want to do is try and break it down into components, if we can? At what age does a person begin to take notice of their bodies? And at what point does it begin to have an impact on their self-image?

Carolyn Costin: Let's start with the components. We can break down body image into 3 separate aspects. There is perception, attitude, and behavior. Perception is what the person sees when they look at their body. Attitude is their feelings about what they see, and behavior is what they do about their attitude. From birth, babies take notice of their bodies. In fact, this is the way they begin to formulate a separate sense of self.

Bob M: Are you born with a positive body image and then it changes because of external or environmental factors?

Carolyn Costin: That sounds like a good way to describe it, but perhaps it is better to say we are born with a neutral body image and our experiences begin to shape how positive or negative our body image will be.

Bob M: Our topic tonight is BODY IMAGE. For those just joining us, our guest is Carolyn Costin, director of the Monte Nido Eating Disorders Treatment Center in California. I know that many of you in the audience have eating disorders, but we are limiting tonight's conference to Body Image and related questions. Here are a few audience questions Carolyn:

Mick31: How can we change our body image from negative to positive?

Carolyn Costin: First of all, it depends on the roots of the negative body image. For example, if someone grew up in a family with poor boundaries, they may have developed a need to over-control their body. For example, what goes in and what goes out (food/exercise). However, one can begin to focus on what the body does that is positive. For example, I often have clients make a list of the positive things about having a body, or interview their bodies. This begins to reconnect them to owning and appreciating that they have a body. Usually people need to work with someone as this can be very difficult. Traditional body image assignments given to patients such as draw your body, often don't work because they re-enforce our focus on the body's appearance.

Bob M: How is it that a person develops a "warped" sense of their own body? For instance, someone with anorexia, who is very thin, sees and thinks of themselves as being fat.

Carolyn Costin: In anorexia nervosa, body image disturbance increases as the illness progresses. It usually begins when the person feels that their body is too big compared to some standard ideal. We also think that there may be a genetic predisposition in some individuals which causes them to have perceptual distortion. Lastly, it seems that nutritional deficiencies may contribute to body image disturbance. It often appears that the thinner these girls get, the fatter they feel.

Ayah: What is a positive body image? Accepting myself as I am? It's kind of an abstract concept to a lot of us I think.

Carolyn Costin: Yes, I agree it is a very abstract concept. What I try to do in my work is to help people to commit to not doing anything destructive in order to have a "better body." I think it is hard in this society to accept our bodies as we are always told by the media through advertisements and fashion models that we are not good enough. It's one thing to try to improve our bodies in a healthy way, but it is very important not to ever put our health and well-being in jeopardy just to look a certain way.

Celina: How do we view ourselves in a better light, when in reality I'm disgustingly fat!!

Carolyn Costin: The interesting part here is the word: "disgusting". Who told you, or who decides, that one size is disgusting and another size is attractive or ideal? If you want to change your body, and you can do it in a healthy way, for example, increased activity, than that would be fine.