Without further ado here is this week's entry. We're going to start off with anxiety. Why you ask? Because I have anxiety and know family members and many friends who have it. Working at a call center does not help it either. I also know many with depression as well. To some extent my anxiety is probably not as bad as people could imagine. There are days where I seem perfectly fine and no one would know the difference at all. In fact we just had training on "soft skills" at work and there was minimal discussion about how we handle stresses and triggers on the phone. Customer service has got to be one of the most difficult jobs out there and one of the most anxiety provoking. You have customers yelling at you, demanding to fix their issue or demanding the unreasonable and in some cases it's not the customers but the tools you are handed that don't work. On some days I dread coming into work and even the thought of having to speak to one last customer on the phone and listening to them rant and rave about how the company I work for sucks is enough to make me want to say to hell with it all I'm going back to bed and staying there. Some nights I wake up and feel like I've run a mile and scared for no apparent reason. I have had anxiety attacks on the phone before too and no one would even really know. It isn't always visible. This link here about Supporting a Loved One through PTSD or Panic Attacks is a very good read. Mine may not get that bad at work but I have had them. It is not fun. GAD or Generalized Anxiety Disorder is more of what I have, where yes I do worry excessively about things that other people don't and it did cause issues in social life, I've learned to try to control it more and it's not as bad as perhaps as some people have it. It however can still be intrusive. Massage has certainly helped a lot with this and helps a lot with stress relief. Here is just a side link on some things that help with back and body aches.
Moving on this week to yes.. you've heard me talk about this many times before, Fat Shaming. We've all done it even to ourselves. I do it even. I hate the way I look, I hate the way I feel fat and can't move the way I used to. I have friends who are obese who are not healthy. In fact they are probably starving themselves more so than eating. We have this perception that fat people are lazy and that they are sitting around eating all the time and shows on tv encourage this point of view. They show how these people got rid of the weight and then put it all back on and tell them it's because they didn't stick to their diet and exercise. They force people to exercise til it hurts them and makes them cry. It's sickening. And here we are thinking that this is acceptable behaviour. It's not. It's got to stop.
We also have this thing about skinny people, the assumption again being the reverse, that they don't eat or that they work out too much. This isn't true either. I have other friends who are the opposite and no matter how much they eat they can't keep weight on and in some cases actually have a medical disorder with their stomach causing them not to be able to hold in food or be able to hold proper nutrients. It has nothing to do with anorexia and bulimia etc. Here is one article I found that actually shows that we don't just go at the obese end of the spectrum but also the skinny side as well. I felt for this girl. Why would you suspend someone from college or university based on weight saying they are unhealthy? Isn't that up to their doctor if they are or not? And how is it a school's right to do so at all in any way? It isn't and should not be. It's like suspending someone over a mental health issue, oh yeah you have anxiety and depression, so you're gonna be kicked out of the dorm and kicked out of school til you get yourself corrected..? This was the case with a young woman here in Canada (as spoken about a couple entries ago from a report on Province Wide on tv). This is in no way right.
Here are is a link to links to help with some encouraging ideas: 6 things to encourage body image. One of the links I highly encourage reading is Weirdly Shaped. I really like her view. I also would like to speak about how we look at ourselves as dolls. Yes that's right, dolls. Here is an artistic approach by one artist showing us the real vs the unreal. Now that being said, here it comes, my blast and opinion about social media, body image and the human barbie!
I'm going to start with selfies and mental health. That's right social media is at it again with the concept that you must take a picture of yourself, share it with the world and causing a distorted self image. Not to mention that it causes competition, bullying etc. Here is the report I found on it. It is becoming an epidemic! I don't post pictures of myself. I hate looking at myself so why would I post? But my sister is the opposite. She posts for what seems like artistic reasons and she's very good at photography and does have other models however sometimes I wonder in this age if she too has gotten hooked on this. It is concerning to me that this is important to most of my friends and or family members. Further social media has made a video go viral about Fit Moms. Why do moms have this now expectation that they must lose the belly fat immediately? Why is there an assumption that mom's are lazy if they don't? As you'll see in the video there are two sides to this story and certainly it's good to be fit but everyone's definition of healthy is going to be different because of our lifestyles etc. and therefore is it right to say that both sides have it right? Please weigh in on this dear readers, I'd like to hear your opinion.
To go forward to the last topic of this entry, the human Barbie. I really feel this is a very construed view of body image. Why would you ever want to destroy yourself like this? They say that barbies and dolls in general are influential to girls. I'll be honest, I had barbies and I had tonka trucks too. I played with both and did up my dolls in hand made dresses even and thought it ok to play with them as fashion models and yes I wanted to dress like Barbie and have a cool house etc. However, I did not feel influenced by her being disproportionate. I didn't know she was until I was a teenager and all grown up. I didn't care that she was going to have such a tiny waste and that she was 6 feet tall etc. I just thought she was pretty and looked cool and that she was like any other one of my dolls, a student, a girl, a teacher, a mom, a super hero, someone I made up. She wasn't real. I knew that she wasn't. She could be anything I wanted her to be just like my teddy bears. Goodness I used my imagination, I built forts and box cars, I dug holes to China! I didn't think to myself, hey yeah it's ok I'll just change my measurements to look exactly like Barbie cause she's the best thing in the world and the most beautiful Godly (though man made) creation! This young woman is personally, delusional and needs serious help. She is mentally unstable if you ask me as well, living off light and air?? You can't! It's humanly impossible and yeah, wait she thinks she's communicating with aliens! Here is yet another report.
It's not like me to go on and judge people, and I'm not saying that everyone doesn't have their quirks and it's ok to not like something of yourself. But it's not natural to change your entire body image, to use and do such unnatural materials and things to yourself. It's not right to starve yourself like this. If it were something to do with natural evolution, a natural defect then I could accept it and say ok that's the way of things, earth and mother nature made you this way but to make yourself this way? It's just questionable. Thing is, that young girls and guys are being influenced by a multitude of media outlets and by the things we expose them to as children. It's how we present that to them that matters. As I said, I was presented a Barbie when I was young but I had the opportunity to expand and be told that what I was playing with was a toy, not real and not to set those expectations. My parents both influenced me to be what I wanted to be and to be myself. Body image has always been something I struggled with, be it that I was thin then or a bit heavier now I have been influenced by my peers and the outside world's expectation of me that I should be thin and fit and be like a doll, painted up to be "sexy". I like a quote I read recently by Stevie Nicks "I think they all went too far. Their jeans got two low, their tops got too see-through. Personally, I think that sexy is keeping yourself mysterious. I'm really an old-fashioned girl and I think I'm totally sexy." Love this! And I'll add that she is a full bodied lady and she is one of my inspirations.
Well, that's all for this week/month. I hope to hear from my readers, please weigh in on these topics. I really do want discussion. Have a good week and I'll hope to write again very soon!
