Body Dysmorphia Gay Men — Andrew Tsmer Counselg, PLLC

Contents:

• SPEAKG OUT: MCLE DYSMORPHIA THE GAY COMMUNY
• BODY DYSMORPHIA AND EATG DISORRS GAY MEN
• GAY MEN AND BODY IMAGE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• BODY DYSMORPHIA THE GAY COMMUNY
• BODY DYSMORPHIA CONTU TO BE A SER ISSUE AMONG GAY MEN
• GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN'S HEALTH ISSU
• GAY MEN AND BODY DISSATISFACTN
• BODY DYSMORPHIA GAY MEN
• BODY IMAGE DISTURBANCE AND ASSOCIATED EATG DISORR AND BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORR PATHOLOGY GAY AND HETEROSEXUAL MEN: A SYSTEMATIC ANALYS OF GNIVE, AFFECTIVE, BEHAVRAL UND PERCEPTUAL ASPECTS

SPEAKG OUT: MCLE DYSMORPHIA THE GAY COMMUNY

D: A lot of gay people are pecially nervo about agg, I thk as I get olr, jt turng 30, I’m tryg to thk a different way, as my goals are changg, I have ls time to work out, more rponsibili, have to e to grips I n go to the gym, I want to stay healthy, but need to balance out my life more.

He stggl wh the photo-heavy, body-foced vib of the onle datg scene for gay Sciallo has never had an official diagnosis of body dysmorphia or an eatg disorr, "I would be lyg if I said that I didn't still obss over the number on the sle, " he thks the gay muny is due for a reckong about appearanc. “One of the more surprisg elements that me out of the rearch is how often experienc of the body–more specifilly, whether or not an dividual felt his body was acceptable or unacceptable the marketplace of gay culture—was related to a feelg of cln or excln wh that culture, ” Carl said. Some rearch suggts that sexual mory men may be more likely to ternalise an appearance ial that is centred around lookg athletic (124) and that there may be a greater emphasis on physil appearance the gay muny, which n negatively affect body image (125) through prsure to match this ial.

2 percent of heterosexual men, but the number is far higher gay and bisexual fact, a study published 2020 the journal Body Image nducted surveys om 268 gay and bisexual teens and adult men and found BDD more than 49 percent of the study study attribut the high prevalence of BDD to the strs of livg as a sexual mory, which enpass a wi-range of anxieti, cludg the fear of rejectn, sexual orientatn ncealment, homophobia, bullyg, and threats of vlence. The study looked at the effect of 11 social media platforms over 2, 700 gay men and found that those who spent the most time on image-centric social media (thk Instagram) more likely to feel bad about their own mcl and to have an eatg Culture Is Harmg the CommunyIn many ways, gay culture self has led to the rise BDD sce is often characterized by a sire for youthfulns and a mcular physique, says Whel. And all the participants said their symptoms of secury about their body creased when they beme immersed gay male participants scribed a prsure to f to a perfect ial, and they felt strs that the muny that accepted them for beg a sexual mory would now shun them for their appearance.

BODY DYSMORPHIA AND EATG DISORRS GAY MEN

“You are the expert you, ” she says, and suggts people try different typ of therapy to fd what feels Communy and Support Gay SpacEngage wh a muny that mak you feel are many gay spac that aren’t rooted the bar or club scene, where you feel you’re unr a microspe, not Gamboni. Although there is not a great al of rearch on the prevalence of BDD/MD LGBTQI+ teens, one reason mental health profsnals are ncerned about BDD/MD gay, transgenr, and/or nonbary teens is the stigma and scty they experience om judgmental, non-acceptg peers and fay members. In the se of gay men, societal prsur to nform to a specific body type, particularly the ntext of the gay muny, n play a signifint role the velopment of body the gay muny, there is often an emphasis on physil appearance, and many gay men feel the need to f to a certa body type to be accepted.

GAY MEN AND BODY IMAGE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Instead, I was undated wh the tegorizatns of gay men labeled based on their body type and age, and experienced an overwhelmg prsure to live up to the figureheads of the gay muny reprented pornography and popular culture, mostly ma up of mcular whe wh body image perva the gay muny, part due to the social mands for gay men to uphold high standards of bety. I long felt disnnected om the heteronormative bubble I was raised , and I later enuntered the unrcurrents of racism the gay muny upon observg numero profil on datg and hookup apps statg "No Asians, " which displaced me om both standards of bety and acceptance wh two of my own muni.

“People who have body dysmorphic disorr, are gay, and of lor have two layers of fluence of how they look, so all of that needs to be taken to acunt bee some of that needs to be alt wh for the person to fully heal, ” said Chris Trondsen, a psychotherapist and clician that specializ asssg his clients, Trondsen, who is a gay man wh BDD himself, says ’s important to intify the bety expectatns of his clients’ culture to see if their race and sexualy have fluenced how their BDD is reprented.

BODY DYSMORPHIA THE GAY COMMUNY

The tersectnaly of beg a gay man and a racial mory creas the sire for acceptance rooted years of rejectn om societal standards of masculy and bety, Trondsen explaed, and obtag a “perfect” appearance is one way to avoid rejectn and superficially mask feelgs of sufficiency.

N = 216 men (n = 112 gay men, n = 104 heterosexual men) participated an onle survey measurg the discrepancy between self-rated current and ial body fat/ mculary; drive for leanns, mculary, and thns; body satisfactn; body-related avoidance and checkg; appearance fixg; overall body image disturbance; eatg disorr and body dysmorphic disorr pathology; general everyday discrimatn experienc; and volvement wh the gay muny. Gay men showed a greater discrepancy between self-rated current and ial body fat; higher drive for thns, body-related avoidance, appearance fixg, overall body image disturbance, eatg disorr and body dysmorphic disorr pathology; and lower body appreciatn than heterosexual men (all p ≤.

In sum, rults are rather divergent, wh some studi suggtg that gay men exercise more often than heterosexual men [24, 25], which would be le wh a prevly mentned high drive for mculary, and other studi revealg that gay men unrtake equally [22] or even signifintly ls physil exercise [17, 22, 26].

BODY DYSMORPHIA CONTU TO BE A SER ISSUE AMONG GAY MEN

Dpe the multiple, yet divergent rults on exercise behavr, only one study has examed differenc between gay and heterosexual men regardg body-related avoidance and pulsive self-monorg, cludg checkg behavr [21], and found greater levels of avoidance and checkg behavr gay men. However, other studi did not show an associatn of gay muny volvement wh body dissatisfactn [57], drive for mculary [58], and drive for thns [56], or revealed that greater levels of participatn gay-affirmative muny events predicted lower body dissatisfactn [59].

Therefore, the prent study, we aimed to extent the rearch on body image disturbance gay men by performg a systematic multidimensnal analysis of the gnive-affective, behavral, and perceptual ponent of body image disturbance and associated pathology (ED, BDD) gay and heterosexual men. However, we predicted that gay men would show signifintly greater drive for thns and drive for leanns, and signifintly ls body satisfactn pared to heterosexual men, but equally elevated gnive drive for mculary (gnive-affective ponent of body image disturbance). Furthermore, we predicted that gay men, bee of their sexual orientatn, would report more everyday discrimatn experienc than heterosexual men, and that equency of everyday discrimatn would be associated wh the above-mentned body image disturbance aspects as well as ED and BDD pathology both groups.

To clarify, we fed gay muny as a group of people wh the shared characteristic of beg gay, and gay muny volvement as engagg wh other members of the gay muny and active participatn gay muny spac and activi, such as attendg pri events, visg a gay bar or readg a gay newspaper [55, 61]. Participants of all genrs aged 18 years and olr were reced om 04/2017 to 01/2018 German-speakg untri via universy e-mail distributn lists, posters, flyers, prs releas, wh a particular foc on lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) webs and Facebook groups.

GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN'S HEALTH ISSU

Data om the Body Image Copg Strategi Inventory (BICSI) [65], the Genr-Ntral Body Checkg Qutnnaire (GNBCQ) [66], the Intifitn and Involvement wh the Gay Communy Sle (IGCS) [61] and The Everyday Discrimatn Sle (EDS) [67] have not yet been prented for our men sub-sample any other study.

Intifitn and Involvement wh the Gay Communy Sle (IGCS) IGCS [61; German translatn available om the thor] asss gay and bisexual men’s affiliatn wh and perceived closens to the gay male muny, such as through readg gay newspapers or attendg gay-affirmative events. To vtigate the associatn of equency of discrimatn experienc as well as volvement wh the gay muny wh body image disturbance facets, ED pathology, and BDD pathology, we lculated Spearman’s rrelatn efficient ρ for gay men and heterosexual men separately, or the se of volvement wh the gay muny for gay men only (small effect: ρ = 0. Wh regard to body image disturbance facets, gay men showed signifintly higher sr terms of drive for thns (DTS), appearance fixg (BICSI-appearance fixg) and general body image disturbance (BIDQ) pared to heterosexual men, while heterosexual men sred signifintly higher than gay men regardg body appreciatn (BAS-2).

DiscsnThe objective of the prent study was to extent the lerature on body image gay men by providg a multidimensnal analysis of perceptual, gnive-affective and behavral body image disturbance facets and associated ED and BDD pathology gay and heterosexual men. The fdgs scribed above might also be reflected by greater discrepanci between self-rated current and ial body fat gay men, however parable, though not statistilly equal, discrepanci between self-rated current and ial mculary gay and heterosexual men found our study.

GAY MEN AND BODY DISSATISFACTN

The fdgs rrpond to earlier studi reportg greater discrepanci between self-rated current and ial body fat gay men than heterosexual men [93, 94], but no difference between gay and heterosexual men regardg the discrepanci between self-rated current and ial mculary [31]. Wh regard to the behavral ponent of body image disturbance, gay men reported signifintly more body-related pg strategi such as appearance-fixg or avoidance behavr, which is le wh our ial hypothis and the so far only prev study on those aspects by Cella and lleagu [21]. As gay men nsir appearance more sential to their sense of self than do heterosexual men [52], and appearance-fixg and avoidance are strategi to pe wh potential threats or challeng to body image [65], is likely that they engage more equently the pg strategi to protect their self-worth.

BODY DYSMORPHIA GAY MEN

Also, as there were no prevly validated German language versns of the Body Appreciatn Sle-2 [68], the Body Image Copg Strategi Inventory [65], the Drive for Leanns Sle [75], the Genr-Ntral Body checkg Qutnnaire [66], the Intifitn wh Gay Communy Sle [61] and The Everyday Discrimatn Sle [67], we had to translate those by ourselv via back-translatn [68]. Nearly all of the studi neglected to asss or report the sexual orientatn of participants, which is particularly problematic given evince suggtg that gay (vers heterosexual) men are more likely to endorse dissatisfactn wh their physil appearance and mcle size/tone [13] and to hold distorted gnns about the importance of havg an “ial physique” [14, 15].

However, there remas a lack of published normative data for the MDDI, cludg at-risk populatns, such as cisgenr sexual mory people, limg the terpretabily of sr on the measure certa orr to addrs the pcy of MD lerature on sexual mori and to provi sights to the nature and gree of MD symptoms wh the populatns, the prent study examed MDDI norms muny sampl of cisgenr gay men, cisgenr bisexual pl men, cisgenr lbian women, and cisgenr bisexual pl women. Further, to characterize differenc wh the sampl of cisgenr men and cisgenr women reportg different sexual orientatns, we nducted both unadjted and adjted (for socmographic characteristics) parisons of MDDI mean total and subsle sr cisgenr gay vers cisgenr bisexual men, and cisgenr lbian vers cisgenr bisexual women.

BODY IMAGE DISTURBANCE AND ASSOCIATED EATG DISORR AND BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORR PATHOLOGY GAY AND HETEROSEXUAL MEN: A SYSTEMATIC ANALYS OF GNIVE, AFFECTIVE, BEHAVRAL UND PERCEPTUAL ASPECTS

Of the 4285 participants who pleted the ‘Eatg and Body Image’ survey, the fal sample clud participants (n = 2260) who were classified as cisgenr gay men (N = 1090), cisgenr bisexual pl men (N = 100), cisgenr lbian women (N = 563), and cisgenr bisexual pl women (N = 507).