Videos

It’s hard for any young person to experience a mental health problem, the shame and embarrassment generated from experiencing these difficulties can be unbearable beyond measure.

I found myself in the same tumultuous situation that many young people with a mental health problem find themselves, but for me, the shame and embarrassment went even deeper. I was a male with a mental health disorder which generated a fixation on my body image. I was always told by society that having a body image disorder was a female issue and a male free zone. I was a male, I had to be strong, uncaring of the image I showed the world and free of any concern around my body image.​..

My friend Jessica says that her earliest memory hearkens back to when she was a baby. She recalls watching the sun coming through the slats in her crib, striping her mattress with light. She recalls, too, the lift and fall of the curtain in front of her bedroom window, and the small rustling sound it made. My childhood recollections do not go back so far, and if they did, I’m afraid they would not be nearly so lyrical. I’d probably picture an infant with a furrowed brow, worrying that her diaper was giving her a muffin top.

For my entire life, I have hated my midsection. It was always too big for the rest of me. Sure, my arms and legs were long and thin enough. But, then, right smack in the middle of my body was my excessively large blubber belly...