a negative experience where your self-image has been annihilated.” For her, the turning point was when she began pursuing a career in modeling at 13 years old when a modeling agent ripped her apart. At the time, she weighed less than 120 pounds and was 5’9.
“She literally stood me in front of a mirror and said, ‘You’ve got back folds. You’ve got fat over your knees. You need to do something with your chin. Your breasts are sagging,” Roman told ESSENCE in 2021. “And I went home that night and from that moment, every time I looked at myself in the mirror I could find something wrong with myself.”
This led Roman down the path of obsessing over her weight. “…People don’t realize, that’s why I got my mouth wired in 1993, to be skinny when I was already skinny,” Roman told ESSENCE.
Roman also has Type 2 diabetes, which makes managing her weight even harder. “…You couple that with the disorder and it’s a hard thing to manage,” she said. “People don’t understand what it is to be a person with this disorder, particularly dealing with the weight issues.”
Managing body dysmorphic disorder
According to the Cleveland Clinic, about 2.5% of women and 2.2% of men suffer from body dysmorphic disorder. These numbers may not seem high, however, they’ve increased dramatically among younger people, due to factors such as social media.
Symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder include:
- Worrying a lot about a specific area of your body (particularly your face)
- Spending a lot of time comparing your looks with other people’s
- Spending excessive time looking at yourself in the mirror — or, conversely, avoiding mirrors altogether
- Making an excessive effort to conceal perceived flaws
- Picking obsessively at your skin to make it “smooth”
If you or someone you know is battling body dysmorphia or any other type of eating disorder, you can call or text the National Eating Disorder hotline to get help.