edge many people feel the pressures of their own body image intentionally or unintentionally from friends family and media these issues are present especially at the beach workout gyms where people believe that a certain ideal view of themselves is needed in the atmosphere people with eating disorders and body image issues tend to see themselves differently from what others see the guests are rachel pocket and mrs campbell the topic today is body image issues and eating disorders i will first be speaking with rachel pocket who has dealt with body image issues how have people harmed your view about yourself honestly it's kind of the thing that started it all back in elementary school actually not even like in high school or middle school but elementary i was always like taller and then with bigger than everyone like people used to call me well when fat  like if they were gross like i can't imagine how i must look you know like it's just a lot of comparisons like it's not even how like not even most times people do intentionally but like unintentionally that also effect yeah i think a lot of people like tend to not realize what they say i like is the effect on someone else and they try to make themselves feel better exactly i like being negative so what do you think like are phrases a lot that go around the school that people say that unintentionally hurt someone like special body image maybe use like i mean so ignorant or like be so insensitive to it like what advice can we give them since like they can't really relate to it yeah like i feel like a lot of people don't always understand but i feel like a big part of that is knowing that it's not  very few people that are just all cast that have it's literally everyone's dealt with body image issues at some point in their life some worse and others but it's not just people who are a little bit over way or people w super skinny and like it's not just those people affects everyone whether you think that they're the most beautiful person in the world or not so pretty like everyone everyone is affected by it and that's something that some people may not understand that like it is hurtful and it's hard to deal with and it's not just something that you choose to think about choose to deal with it's not something that you like one it's unintentional and once it's there it plagues you and it's very difficult to get away difficult it's very difficult to deal with absolutely i've dealt with it myself and i know a lot of people that have so it's taken me years and years and years to get things under control again you know it's not just something you could snap your fingers and you ok or someone complements you and look confident but i know it's something that takes a long time and a lot of self help almost to get back to normal so has like any of your parents like influenced to like feel that way like their negativity towards themselves has influenced you and i cal has it definitely by my mom i love her to pieces i love her so much but she's always i always thought that my mom is so beautiful she's so she's like i love her so much and when i heard her i was like ok saying like like i can't believe how fat i'm getting like i can believe i've let myself go and i'm sitting there thinking but she is she's beautiful like she's limo my love her and thinking i don't know her thinking that judging herself so critically it just kind of put the thought process in my head like maybe i don't know it kind of put that idea into my head of thinking myself thinking like two critically of myself because like even my own mom does it in a kind of followed by example because i looked up to her so much and she's a great amazing person so it kind of all star it starts from that so you know i feel like parents should definitely like be aware of like their children like not being negative towards themselves because that reflects like the kids that are young and they shouldn't be thinking about that so like how do people body shame others less in comparison to think honestly i think like during like social media there's been a big rise of like body acceptance and like body like having on like loving your body and accepting everyone's different types of bodies i feel like that is great but are still a lot of the same stuff going around a lot of like taking people out and like even in high school was still dealt with like a lot of like a lot of bullying over it and i don't know i feel like back in the day used to be just like picking on people but now it's kind of it's it's harsher now more and media to which is exactly and it's it's everywhere and it's it's really really sad what's happened but i feel like it is getting better with the different movements of like you know self love and that is it's great i would love that and i think it is getting better ok so how do you like what advice would you give to people that like are developing a body image issue like what would you say to them i would tell them that it does not matter what people think of you because those people who are judging you they are not worth your time and attention they're not tears they're not worth it and if they can't keep themselves then that's their problem you know like you no one else can determine your beauty nobody can determine that but yourself and whether  says something mean or whether it's your parents or siblings or friends or whoever it is it's not they can't determine how beautiful you are it's yourself it's all mindset and i think that's the most important thing is  sorry how do you turn friend self negativity into positivity whenever they bashed themselves like how do you react to that that's a tough one because i feel like a lot of it depends on the person you know i don't feel  like i mean i've had people i've had friends who've had some severe eating disorders and like saying like oh muhlach you're so beautiful you're so pretty that's never like sure it's been like most here but in the long run it doesn't always help them and at the same time i have here i hear like a ton of people saying to their friends like like oh you're too skinny like your father and like you have to eat something and like you're fine so that isn't always the way to go but at the same time  feel like oh you look great you're so pretty and like they my that might be like positive reinforcement for it so i feel like it's honestly it's such it's very touchy in my opinion and i think it all just depends on the person and just being for they're there for a person supporting them and helping through the rough times i think that's the main thing ok so it's kind of tying into like so many people like how do you think people affected by  body image issues how do you think that the media has affected it with the photo shop like how does it affect teens so i feel like with media in general there's always the picture of like the  small ways big heads like i feel like social media has branded a certain type of body or certain type of look as pretty and the rest is kind of just you know and so i feel like it's it's tough because i see i go on instagram and i'm just bombarded with all these beautiful woman like and it's hard it's hard like thinking i don't look like them and i'm probably never going to look like them and  difficult but then again like you said there's like i can see like girls like photoshop in their pictures and like sucking things and hear him point things out there and it's sad that people feel like they can be themselves you know they can't post a picture of their natural beauty not without it being contorted or putting a bunch of different filters on their stuff like that you know you know there's like a lot of photoshop and like social media which is like i think really detrimental to young kids yeah definitely to teenagers yeah and then other people see those edited photos and they get these unrealistic expectations in their head of like how they should look you know and same with men too like they're somebody like nobody builders and like like i feel like it's like false a lot of the time oh yeah and like i feel like guys almost it's almost like guys are not allowed to like have body image issues as much as girls are kind of just expected to not care about it and i be confident but i know there are a lot of guys affected by it and i don't think people really realize that and i don't think it's as socially acceptable for guys to have body image issues as well so yeah i feel really bad like i feel like i know someone who like they don't even want to take their shirt off like that th the there's like a lot of guys that deal with that as well and i feel like it's not as addressed i thought league so how do you think like if i were to talk to someone who i think is developing a body image issue like what should i say to them like to try to prevent them from like having a false image of themselves honestly i would just go up to them and ask them what's going on like are you ok and i don't know and i would just be there for them you know like text and ask them how their day is going just knowing someone's there for them i feel like whenever i was getting really bad at my i was in one of my loneliest states and and if i would have had like really close friend there that was actually there for me and like help me through what i was going through i don't think i think i could've avoided so much problems so many things and i feel like just being there for someone and just i think that means that makes all the difference so did you like tell a lot of people about your body image issue or did you like try to hide it from people i tried to hide it from people at the time it was getting really difficult to be able try to stop me from what i thought was my mission at the times to become the better me i didn't want anyone stopping me from becoming like the ideal having the ideal body so that's like horrible that like i feel like lots of people should know to communicate with others and i feel like lots of people do hide it absolutely is like yeah i know and like sure a lot of people do hide it and then after a little bit people really started to noticed and started to stop and that's whenever i kind of started getting a little bit of the help i mean you would so love well it's important i think for all teens and people to get the help they need and after the commercial break i'll be talking with mrs campbell here's something you bet you didn't know nearly half of all cancers can be prevented that's right nearly fifty percent mostly by making small everyday changes in your diet and controlling your weight walking more eating less and eating foods that help you and your family to seriously reduce the risk of cancer and of course by not smoking visit the cancer prevention together we can website and get a free thirty day planner filled with tips recipes stats and more about protecting your family go to prevent  mrs campbell who is billiam equipped anorexic tendencies so what was a typical day like for you whenever you don't with your eating disorder i would get up you know with the kids in school because i have two kids i would get up at five o'clock in the morning and the first thing i would do to go the gym and run five to seven miles after i got the kids off to school i had three different gyms that i belong to in three different personal trainers and i would hit it least two of them and i would work out for another three to four hours then i would go home get dinner ready get my house clean and then i would go back to the gym and night for a couple more hours to finish my workout well that's what my typical day was ok so how did you not like reveal it to your kids and like influence them well my kids kids are young enough that in their impressionable enough at the age that they were when i was fully involved in it that they didn't realize they thought all moms were like the way i was because i didn't either so they would see me not even work out a lot but they thought everybody's mom did that because i never let on that there was something wrong with me that's just how i was so they never noticed it was just to how i was so it wasn't until sarah my daughter got a little bit older and you know she was turning thirteen when she turned thirteen is when i went into recovery because i didn't want her to be like me because it's a very long road and so that's when i went into recovery when questions were able to be asked and she started learning about eating disorders and started putting two and two together and getting for that maybe there was something wrong with me so so how did you like finally concept that you had an eating disorder and you needed help like how did you feel during that i finally i knew for a very long time that i needed help i knew for years and years and years that i had an eating disorder accepting help was probably one of the most difficult things i had ever done it's was not easy admitting it's never easy admitting that your brain is wired incorrectly because it's it is a mental illness and it's a very difficult thing to accept i was in denial when i was first diagnosed i was in denial when i went to the hospital i was in denial for the first six weeks at the hospital and it i got kicked out of the hospital because i was not cooperating and when i went back for a second round of treatment is when i accepted the fact and that's actually that was the turning point when i started to get better so how did your husband help you through the whole process he just listened there was nothing with an eating disorder there's nothing that other people can really do for you except listen and make sure that you are staying on your feet schedule and i had to keep myself honest because he worked during the day my kids were at school so i was the one who filled out because you have to keep a food diary when you're in recovery i was the one who had to fill out exactly what i ate and i was the one who had to be honest with myself that he was a good listener and that's really important when you're going through a recovery process i you have somebody to bounce ideas off of to make sure that you are doing what you think you should be doing because it makes you question everything you know whenever people talk to me like that having disorders or body image issues i try to listen my best and like it's hard for me because i don't know exactly what to say that i want to hurt their feelings you know and most of the time we understand that you're not trying to hurt our feelings so if you think that you need to say something you can always preface it with please don't take this the wrong way this is how i'm seeing things and as long as you do that they understand like i would understand where you're coming from like all the look weston's that you have for me are wonderful questions and none of them are offensive they're all good and there's nothing wrong with asking your friends who may have eating disorders the same questions because it does help them it makes them think and maybe not skip that lunch that day or not go to the gym that night so they're very good questions and those are good questions to ask them to so whenever you're like around your family like and they like offer you food like how do you feel when how do they feel whenever you decline it like in the past i never declined food having an eating disorder you're very secretive and you can manipulate situations to make everything seem normal you're a really good liar when you have an eating disorder you can hide everything nobody has to know and i would eat regular meals with people so nobody would ever know what i would do however is soon as the meal was over i go work out for three hours to get rid of the calories that i ate so did your like personal trainer ever like real lot like one of your personal trainers ever realize it might try to help you with your eating disorder or are you really good at hiding it and i was really good at hiding it because i wouldn't i would pick one of them for the day is so i didn't get kicked out of a gym because if once they realize you have an eating disorder they kick you out because you become a liability because you could you could die or you could have a heart attack you know and that's a liability for jim so they ask you they don't kick you out they ask you politely to leave because you're not safe to yours for yourself or for the other members at that point so i would rotate the days and they and their body ever knew that i had more than one the trainer is didn't know that i had more than one my family didn't know that i had more than one they thought i was all in one place all the time and that's not what was so you like never told anyone like about it until like one did you actually tell people that you had an eating disorder i didn't tell my husband had an idea i never said anything to him my best friend knew i had told her that i had an eating disorder but i never did anything about it people didn't start finding out i had a new disorder till i actually went to recovery until i decided that it was time for me to get better so did your best friend like help it all through the process though it's a very touchy subject you know especially because i with the bully me i'm my choice was to go to the gym instead of practicing the other bully me behaviors that are out there and that just made everybody think i was really healthy you know because you can go to the gym and you can work out but nobody sees you not eat so do you go so it just  it's very secretive very secretive but they didn't try to help because there is nothing you can do until that person decides they're ready to go get help so what are some like warning signs i can look for if i think someone's like developing any disorder quick weight loss weight loss happens very very quickly especially with your friends because you're also young and your metabolisms are faster than somebody who's older like i was when i went into treatment that extreme weight loss not eating lunch they or they sit with you and they don't eat or they decide they're going to go eat somewhere else which means are not eating at all they're just walking away they're hiding so you don't see them not eat if they start giving their food away at at the lunch table those are where they never exercise before all of a sudden they need to be at a gym they join a gym and need to be to a gym for two hours a day and those are all signs that something is happening and hopefully if you see that you know you can say hey i'm noticing this stuff  you all right are you doing ok are you are you healthy are you being healthy about it and if they get very defensive and i'm fine everything's fine you can be pretty safely assured that some things they probably have an eating disorder are heading into one very quickly so why do you think that it's like so popular in teens now for like having developing an eating disorder where i think you guys are under an extreme amount of pressure to be in honors classes and to be in a hundred different activities and you have to be the best in the activity and nobody is perfect you can't be perfect all the time and i think there is such a level of a need for perfection  i see the social media and the photoshopping and people don't look like that in real life and so when you when you get down to it there is nothing left for you to control because you have to get certain grades so you can go to college and you have to look a certain way because that's what everybody else looks like and the only thing that you have control over is what you put in your mouth or how you exercise and i think that with the way social media is and the pressure that you you all are under to perform at high high levels at such a young age sometimes there's nothing else for you to do but to try to control something and sometimes it's food and how you're going to present yourself to the world so do you think it was there like an event in your life that like caused you to develop the eating disorder or was it just like was it from social media like you're talking about or was it oh i'm too old fashioned when i was when i was seventeen we didn't even have a phone i mean we had regular old fashioned phones so no mine was actually i had gym class with the football coach and he had we did aerobics and i lost a lot of weight in that gym class and everybody told me how wonderful i looked and it made me feel like i was worth something and so i equated feeling worthy to being very thin and it happens very gradually and by the time i realized what had happened i was it was too far gone and i didn't know how to stop it because it sort of takes over but i was very hard for you because like you gradually happened and you couldn't really control yourself at that point so like how hard was it to like stop that every day like activity like i guess those gradual also like the process like how did you feel during that the process for me and trying to remember that everybody who goes to recovery from an eating disorder does it differently the process for me was not gradual process for me was hold my nose and jump into the ice cold water because for me gradual would have meant that i could stay in my practices longer and my behaviors longer was very very sick from all of the behaviors that i practiced and when i went in at forty three i wasn't going to live to see fifty if i didn't stop i didn't have a choice if i wanted to be here today i had to stop immediately because it does kill you eventually it wears your body out so how did your like husband feel whenever you going to their cover you like whenever he saw liu like putting back on in like starting to like maintain a healthier lifestyle because he thought it was fantastic he he absolutely loved it i was happier i laughed i didn't laugh for years and years and years and i was laughing and i was and actually enjoying life and it didn't revolve around a number on a scale or mileage on a treadmill or how many calories i burn that day it was actually quite freen to be able to just be like everybody else and just go enjoy my day that's really good that like you're a cut you recovered and you can't talk about this today like i really really appreciate that you are here to i know it's like uncomfortable sometimes like talk about some things but like it's really good to like let teens know and like adults know that like you're not the only person you should like reach out and talk to people you know instead of hiding it yet it's very easy to hide and very hard to talk about and since i'm so far past the recovery point it's not as hard to talk about anymore and i just i don't mind sharing my story if it can help someone who may be in the position that i was in and that's i think that's more important than anything that i ever went through in maybe somebody will listen and learn something you know the main goal yeah was for i'm glad that we can i talk about this subject because they really will help i think i think it's important that's a very important subject because the numbers of girls your age keeps going up and boys and a lot of people don't realize that the men are starting to have as much of a problem with it as as women are and so it's  very important to talk about you know it's like dangerous honestly it is it can hide it to that hide it very well it's easy to do so well i'm glad thank you for coming to that i really think you say that in me it was wonderful and i hope that today you learned how to eight people to face eating disorders and body image issues on the daily also you should know how to be aware of what to say to anyone on topics regarding food and weight thank you mrs campbell rachael for coming today on the edge