By NUR FARAHAIN ABDUL MUTALIB
Everyone has a fear, of anything. Whether it’s a fear of height or whether it’s a fear of dark but there are certain fears that can affect your entire life and sometimes it takes a lifetime to work on that fear. One of them is the fear of image.
Society has never failed to set a standard on beauty or intelligence. Some people say being light skin is beautiful hence all these advertisements promoting whitening products pop out. Then they start saying only straight A’s students are intelligent, then parents start pushing their children for that ‘top scorer of the year’ title. Why? So that these people will have the benefit of thinking that they fit well in the society.
So what happens to those who were never welcomed in the society? Those who are not able to achieve the standards of beauty or intelligence? They start to develop fear within themselves; fear of image. Fear of image does not only involve physical appearance but also intellectual capabilities. Study shows that students who are not performing well tend to develop lower self-confidence.
Majoring in Public Relations, Elise Chen, 23 told her story as she was growing up dealing with fear of image.
“Out of the three siblings, I was the extreme underachiever who'd come home with D’s and E’s, no one at home believed in me.
“And in the same context, there were a few times (however not often) during my mother's sessions of rage, she might blurt out how stupid I was.” Chen said
Chen admits that her fear of image was also caused by her parents’ divorce. She said that her mother started to become abusive towards her and her sisters due to their marriage issues. She also experienced fear of image from her friends at school but she was having a hard time identifying the symptoms of fear of image.
“I think it was very apparent when I was a teenager.
“I was very timid when I was a child, and I would break down in tears when confronted by teachers or scary situations, so it took me a while to distinguish between that childhood characteristic of mine to the fear of image.”
According to a counsellor from Taylor’s University Counselling and Psychological Services Centre, Evan Foong, fear of image is relatively common among young adults and most of them don’t even realise that they are experiencing it.
“Fear of image is when one has negative looks or impressions towards his/herself and because of that; they are always surrounded by negative energy.
“Some people may have it because of their appearance, body weight, or maybe their performance in studies,” Foong explained.
He then added that they are various factors causing fear of image and there’s no scientific explanation that can explain it because it’s very subjective and human behaviours are unpredictable.
“The factors can be anything; problems at home, peer pressure or maybe he/she experienced a traumatic incident.” Foong said
According to Foong, there are various ways to tackle fear of image as it is not impossible to improve on one’s self-confidence, however it takes time.
Foong said, “People who are dealing with fear of image need to be surrounded by positive energy and focus on their strengths."
Foong later admits that Malaysia is slowly accepting psychological treatment as a positive alternative rather than seeing it as a treatment for people suffering from serious mental illness.
“Malaysia is warming up to psychotherapy and this is a positive sign that we are developing in terms of our mind sets and this could be a great sign of a better future,” Foong added.
Society has never failed to set a standard on beauty or intelligence. Some people say being light skin is beautiful hence all these advertisements promoting whitening products pop out. Then they start saying only straight A’s students are intelligent, then parents start pushing their children for that ‘top scorer of the year’ title. Why? So that these people will have the benefit of thinking that they fit well in the society.
So what happens to those who were never welcomed in the society? Those who are not able to achieve the standards of beauty or intelligence? They start to develop fear within themselves; fear of image. Fear of image does not only involve physical appearance but also intellectual capabilities. Study shows that students who are not performing well tend to develop lower self-confidence.
Majoring in Public Relations, Elise Chen, 23 told her story as she was growing up dealing with fear of image.
“Out of the three siblings, I was the extreme underachiever who'd come home with D’s and E’s, no one at home believed in me.
“And in the same context, there were a few times (however not often) during my mother's sessions of rage, she might blurt out how stupid I was.” Chen said
Chen admits that her fear of image was also caused by her parents’ divorce. She said that her mother started to become abusive towards her and her sisters due to their marriage issues. She also experienced fear of image from her friends at school but she was having a hard time identifying the symptoms of fear of image.
“I think it was very apparent when I was a teenager.
“I was very timid when I was a child, and I would break down in tears when confronted by teachers or scary situations, so it took me a while to distinguish between that childhood characteristic of mine to the fear of image.”
According to a counsellor from Taylor’s University Counselling and Psychological Services Centre, Evan Foong, fear of image is relatively common among young adults and most of them don’t even realise that they are experiencing it.
“Fear of image is when one has negative looks or impressions towards his/herself and because of that; they are always surrounded by negative energy.
“Some people may have it because of their appearance, body weight, or maybe their performance in studies,” Foong explained.
He then added that they are various factors causing fear of image and there’s no scientific explanation that can explain it because it’s very subjective and human behaviours are unpredictable.
“The factors can be anything; problems at home, peer pressure or maybe he/she experienced a traumatic incident.” Foong said
According to Foong, there are various ways to tackle fear of image as it is not impossible to improve on one’s self-confidence, however it takes time.
Foong said, “People who are dealing with fear of image need to be surrounded by positive energy and focus on their strengths."
Foong later admits that Malaysia is slowly accepting psychological treatment as a positive alternative rather than seeing it as a treatment for people suffering from serious mental illness.
“Malaysia is warming up to psychotherapy and this is a positive sign that we are developing in terms of our mind sets and this could be a great sign of a better future,” Foong added.