The Dangers of Body Checking

What is Body Checking?

Body checking encompasses many different habits like repeatedly checking the parts of your body that you feel uncomfortable with. Some examples are pinching your abdomen, trying on certain cloths to see the fit, weighing yourself frequently, looking at specific parts of your body in the mirror, comparing your body to someone else, or trying to feel for your bones. Body checking may feel like a compulsion and can be something you feel like you have to do after eating to make sure you haven’t gained weight. However, instead of helping you feel more comfortable, it provides increased dissatisfaction, increased anxiety and depression, and greater feelings of loss of control over shape and size.

Beware of Body Avoidance

Even though body checking can be harmful to your mental health, avoiding facing your body can be harmful as well. The goal of reducing body checking is not to avoid facing your body. A balance between body checking and body avoidance is needed. For example, it is normal to check your appearance while getting dressed as you want to make sure the cloths quickly. Or weighing yourself once a week can help provide meaningful ground between overweighing and avoiding weighing all together.

Help for Body Checking

First, you have to become aware of the body checking habits you have. Spend one day of the week and for a full 24 hours, pay really close attention to how often you engage in body checking. Carry a note book, make an excel sheet, or write it in the notes on your phone, but keep track of it. The point of the exercise is to bring awareness to how often you are body checking every day and to help you evaluate how it effecting your life.

After you have a better idea of how much you are body checking, begin to challenge yourself each time you start to body check. Actively ask yourself questions like “what am I looking for?” “Is this helpful?” and “why do I feel like I need to do this?” The questions may feel difficult to answer because there may not be a logical reason behind your actions. Over time, if you continue to challenge your body checking behavior every time, the amount you body check will start to decrease.