My Story

The following is a transcript of the video above:

 

Hi, I'm Olivia. I want to share my story with those that are struggling with their body image right now. Maybe struggling with an eating disorder or body dysmorphic disorder or muscle dysmorphia. Or, maybe you just don't like your physical appearance. Maybe you don't know how to love your physical appearance.

 

I understand this because I went through this also, and I started to hate my body and face at a very young age. My first thought was around the age of four, when I felt that my knees looked hideous and started to hide them. I continued to hate my physical appearance throughout my childhood and my adulthood, and I struggled with intimate relationships.

 

I used coping strategies such as wearing makeup all of the time, pulling my hair into a tight ponytail to make my face look more acceptable and covering my eyelids with my fringe so that no one would see my eyelids. I would keep on reapplying eyeliner before I went to work. I didn't feel that it looked right and sometimes I would make my eyelids look very red and sore and ended up cancelling everything and staying at home.

 

It became much darker than this unfortunately, I had intrusive thoughts about who was looking at me when I was out socialising. I thought that everybody was secretly disgusted in how I looked. And I was convinced that I was the ugliest person, and that I wasn't worthy of being with a partner.

 

At one point in my early 20s I was hooked on laxatives and all I ate was dry All-Bran. I thought that would help me to lose weight. It wasn't until later that I was diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder. My laxative purging disorder had fizzled out luckily, but the thoughts were still there. After my diagnosis, I immersed myself into long meditation retreats that brought such insight and I studied the mind and I've been working in the field of mental health for over a decade now.

 

It took years to finally come away from BDD (body dysmorphic disorder), and I realised that in order to heal, we must first understand the basics of how the mind works. With this knowledge we can assess where we are, and with the support work our way through the four steps to healing.

 

Today. I am free of body dysmorphic disorder and I can honestly say that I love myself and when I look in the mirror I smile because it was never about how I look. It was always about how I feel about how I look.

 

When you feel okay about your physical appearance. It's a game changer and it doesn't have to take years to heal either. I now work with Body Image Coach and we've created a body image programme specifically for adolescents and parents, ages 11+ and in animation for more enjoyable experiences.

 

We've also created an awareness video of ages 11 to 14 for the school curriculum. This has been used throughout schools as we speak.

 

Don't suffer like I did. And if you are a parent, wondering how you can help your child get in touch with us. Get in touch and let's talk about how we can support you and what you need. Or use our free animation workshop and session plan.