by Elayne S. Daniels, PhD | Sep 6, 2024 | Body Image Issues
It’s one of life’s most momentous rites of passage. Every August young adults shed their status in high school and enthusiastically assume a new role as college freshmen (aka “first-years”). Starry-eyed, ambitious, and naively straddling puberty and...
by Elayne S. Daniels, PhD | Jun 15, 2024 | Body Image Issues
Naked. Raw. Alone. Unencumbered, unpretentious, unadorned. Stand this way in front of a full-length mirror, take and release a deep breath, and observe. Observe your thoughts as you observe your body. This is, after all, an exercise in body-acceptance and embracing...
by Elayne S. Daniels, PhD | Oct 30, 2023 | Body Image Issues
She’s long, lean, and smothered in pink. Her hair is beauty-pageant lush, her plastic breasts are firmly attentive, and her non-bunioned feet are always on tiptoe. And she has it all – careers, houses, cars, fashion, friends. It’s no wonder her smiling eyes sparkle...
by Elayne S. Daniels, PhD | Oct 22, 2023 | Body Image Issues
The awareness of – and struggle over – what can be both gained and lost is at the heart of this growth. It requires stretching, accepting, even grieving. An eating disorder can develop for many reasons. At its core is a yearning to cope with emotions and situations…in...
by Elayne S. Daniels, PhD | Oct 12, 2023 | Body Image Issues
While nearly everyone has heard of eating disorders, not everyone has heard of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and disordered eating, let alone the 10 things they have in common. Are these all variations of the same thing, or do the semantics matter in identifying and...
by Elayne S. Daniels, PhD | Sep 9, 2023 | Body Image Issues
Call them what you want: asymmetries, beauty marks, battle scars, flaws. We all have them. The mirror reveals them, and we interpret them. And, for some, that interpretation reveals signs of body dysmorphia in the form of an off-the-charts disapproving obsession. In...