On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate yourself in terms of body confidence? Are you comfortable in your own skin or are you, like a lot of other Irish women, severely lacking in the self-esteem department?
The Irish Sun reports that an epidemic of insecurity is plaguing Irish women. In a survey, conducted by the paper, 59 per cent of women revealed that they have negative thoughts about their looks at least four times a day.
Even more shockingly, half admitted to feeling guilty after they eat. Disturbing, right? We’re inclined to think so.
“The problem is we seem to have this idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods and eating becomes a bit of a vicious circle,” said Amanda Ursell, a nutritionist.
“We diet and are doing well and then we eat something ‘bad’ and feel guilty. Once we’ve fallen off the wagon, we often eat more ‘bad’ food and feel even more guilty,” she added.
Does this sound familiar? Yeah, we thought so. Any one of us who has ever been on a diet knows how much pressure we can place on ourselves to stick to the ‘rules’ so to speak and deny ourselves.
But why are we doing this to ourselves? Why are we so unhappy with our bodies?
Apparently we blame other women for making us worry about how we look and how much we weigh. 45 per cent of the ladies who took part in the survey stated that it was members of their own gender who made them feel like they have to be a certain weight.
There are certain problems associated with lacking confidence, especially when it comes to how we feel about our bodies.
Almost a third of the women surveyed admitted that their low self-esteem and poor body image has a negative impact on their sex lives, with 27 per cent of women saying that they are not comfortable with their partner seeing them naked when the lights are on.
Does anyone else find this statistics particularly upsetting? Ladies of Ireland, is it not time for us to be a little bit kinder to ourselves? Is it not time that we stopped hating ourselves?
What do you think?
