The “C” in Social Stands for Coping

Perfect. Body. Image.

For countless individuals, particularly women, the words “perfect body image” represent a concept that initiates extreme levels of stress and anxiety. These three words have had a tendency to inflict very high levels of social physique anxiety on a person that I feel only the lyrics of the infamous band Queen can accurately summarize exactly how people with extreme levels of social physique anxiety must feel:

What is this world about? More specifically what is this fitness and societal world about? This fitness and societal world focuses on the demand that all individuals, especially women, obtain and maintain a perfect body image. This demand not only causes people to develop high levels of social physique anxiety but most likely brings about “the terror of knowing” that you are not physically good looking enough based on societies ridiculous standards. This “terror of knowing” is so common that a majority of us know someone and/or may in fact even be that someone who is screaming “let me out” in order to be “let out” of the grasp that the societal pressure of having a perfect body physique has pressed upon us.

So how does a person who is screaming “let me out” actually get out?

Well, five Canadian researchers have figured out multiple ways that individuals with high levels of social physique anxiety are “let out” or in other words manage daily life with high levels of social physique anxiety (Sabiston, Sedgwick, Crocker, Kowalski, & Mack, 2007). There are multiple social physique anxiety coping mechanisms that range in both health promoting and risky behavior. One way a person deals with high levels of social physique anxiety is through dieting (Sabiston et al., 2007). This can be done by limiting what kind and how much food you eat, by consuming unusually large amounts of food, throwing up the food that you ate, and simply just consuming foods that are intensely packed with nutrients (Sabiston et al., 2007).

As someone who does experience minor social physique anxiety from time to time, I feel that dieting isn’t the most effective way to deal with my social physique anxiety. For instance, I always say that I’m going to go on a diet where I would eat clean foods and limit my caloric intake. While I make an effort to do this on a daily basis I inevitably always end up giving into my junk food cravings. For example, I know that I shouldn’t have that slice of pizza because it would mess up my diet, however, I end up choosing to give into eating that slice of pizza because I’m super hungry as a result of dieting and because pizza is just too delicious to pass up.

Another way a person handles having elevated levels of social physique anxiety is by engaging in physical activity (Sabiston et al., 2007). For me, this coping strategy is the most effective way to soothe my social physique anxiety because there is more freedom and less restrictions with exercising than with dieting. When working out you have the option to participate in so many fun physical activities like fitness classes, playing on an intramural softball team, or even simply just going on a run (Sabiston et al.,2007). I personally utilize this coping tool all the time because it allows me to maintain the body figure that I am accepting of while at same time allowing me to not feel bad about eating a donut.

While there are numerous other coping methods that can be used to deal with elevated levels of social physique anxiety I feel that an additional beneficial way to live with this anxiety is to release it creatively through reappraisal where a person dealing with high levels of social physique anxiety can let go of their feelings by transforming their negative views of themselves into positive views through activities such as recording one’s thoughts in a diary (Sabiston et al.,2007). Whenever I think negative thoughts about myself I always write them down on a piece of paper and then re-word that negative statement into a positive one. I have been utilizing this strategy for the past year and I have found that it prevents me from sulking in negativity.

So my cardio bunnies and Muscle Milk bros whenever you are feeling overwhelmed by social physique anxiety, or life in general, just remember this quote and I guarantee that it’ll all be okay.