Causes of Depression and Our Body Image

Causes of Depression and Our Body Image

We can suffer from depression and feel anxiety even in the most comfortable settings if something is bothering us inside. Perhaps the most important single internal factor to our self esteem and therefore contributing to our depression is our body image.

Normally we are happy with our appearance, but events in our past can cause us to question the characteristics God gave us, and see them incorrectly as faults.

Other issues can cause us to alter our bodies not for good reasons such as enjoyment at fitness, but as an unhealthy response to hide our shame.

Causes of Depression Body Image and Age

Our age has much to do with the importance we give to body image and our resultant self esteem. In older adults, we get our sense of value from other things, such as our sense of character.

With older men, we get our sense of value more from what we can do and what status we have earned from other men, than from how we look. Older women likewise get their sense of value less from attractiveness, and more from their social status, and from things like what they know, and wisdom achieved from accomplishments.

Causes of Depression Body Image and Self Esteem

While self esteem from body image is not such a big factor in older adults and men in general, it is a big factor in younger women and in teenagers specifically, male and female. Younger women, like teenagers place higher than usual weight on body image in their self esteem, and thus tendency for emotional distress if they feel they look less than perfect.

Teen girls get almost ninety percent of their sense of value from how they believe they look to others. This is not vanity and a strictly learned concept, although advertisers encourage this misconception, it is biological and natural, caused by hormones.

Causes of Depression and Female Attractiveness

To some degree all of us value how we look to others, and our public image is important. Having an unacceptable body image is a terrible weight to bear emotionally. If we are a woman, we must consider carefully if there are any negative self esteem issues based on how attractive we feel we are. We must be honest and look very carefully!

We must not be ashamed to admit to ourselves that we see our self as unacceptable to others, and list our reasons as to why.

Is there not a single one of us that cannot point out some things about our appearance that we would like to change?

Emphasis at this point of self analysis goes double the younger a female we are. If we are in our twenties, double the weight of the opinion of our body, and if we are a teenager, double it again.

That is how important our sense of attractiveness is to our self esteem, and thusly as one of the possible causes of depression when alone, or source of anxiety in a public setting.

Causes of Depression and Male Body Image

Every one of us to some degree needs to know that we are attractive to the opposite sex. Our Sexuality is in essence who we are. The male psyche is not immune to this need. Just as females need assurance that they can attract a mate, males also need to know they are acceptable as mates to attract.

We need to feel strong and capable as guardians, leaders and attractive to women romantically. We exercise our manly status financially, socially, physically and in the arenas of our talents. When we feel physically powerful enough to defend our mate, that fulfills a primal role of being male, and that is to defend our home turf from aggressors.

Causes of Depression and Our Personal History

In the analysis of our own situation, we need to look at how we see ourselves in attractiveness to others. We all have an 'Adonis' or a 'Cleopatra' standard, and we see ourselves somewhere on the spectrum between zero and one hundred in the meeting of that standard.

We formed that standard from two sources, as a species we formed it somewhere back in the early sands of time. As an individual we formed it from our role models we identified with consistent with our talents, interests and our childhood experiences.

Causes of Depression Our Own Looking Glass

This perfect standard, customized from our generic species template, adjusted to our role models we seek to imitate, is how we measure and see ourselves as human beings. If we fail that measurement, we need to ask ourselves as to why, and the reasoning behind our standard, to see if it is logical and realistic, or unhealthy and unrealistic.

We need to measure what our self esteem cost is by the failing of that standard, alternatively, what will happen to our self esteem if we meet it now, but in later years will not!

To address such matters as personal as this, outside perspective from a therapist is highly recommended. Because it is so close to home, our personal analysis can be very difficult and less than objective because such deep feelings are involved.

Do we dare ask someone else, 'How do I look?'

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