[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
take a seat
there you go Scott there it is the heat
of TEDx Sydney 2017 viewed over 12,000
times so far online how many times have
you seen it only the ones with my
grandma reluctantly reluctantly is that
big question you know how to use the
Internet
no no she doesn’t know how to use the
Internet I just don’t like seeing myself
on camera I got it
just before we came out and that asked
us if we were going to do some flips and
tricks we are not we are staying seated
and just having a bit of a candid chat
about the process sort of the content of
your talk and what sort of come from
your talk since you gave it back in June
for those of you who weren’t with us at
the mainstage event that was a clip just
then but you want to start perhaps got
by giving us some context and telling us
what exactly is muscle dysmorphia yeah
sure so everyone in this room will be
familiar with anorexia
the image of typically a young woman but
increasing numbers of men and they look
in the mirror and they’re convinced that
the person staring back at them is
overweight or really big but they’re
actually very very skinny well muscle
dysmorphia is like the opposite of that
we’re seeing mostly boys and men now who
were very muscular no doubt about it but
when they look in the mirror
the person who stares back at them is
really scrawny so we’ve called it
reverse anorexia so we do consider it an
eating disorder
yes firaon it’s just like an eating
disorder and the point of the talk I
gave back in June was that eating
disorders are not just about thinness
anymore the manifestation of them how
they look and who they affect it changes
as society changes okay cool so can you
give us perhaps paint a picture of what
a standard case study of muscle
dysmorphia looks like when a patient
presents to you yeah sure so we we had a
young man who was very concerned about
his appearance thought that he was too
scrawny wanted to bulk up and he was
hitting the gym two times a day seven
days a week week in week out and dieting
really concerned about protein and was
even started to think about maybe using
steroids but it wasn’t building him up
this wasn’t something that was working
for him and building his self-esteem it
was tearing him down it was ruining his
life and that’s what makes it an eating
disorder got it so the
behaviors you were explaining there
going to the gym working out protein
shakes sounds pretty normal for lack of
a better word but pretty normal behavior
what where does that when do we
Caracalla CLE then crossover to consider
it a disorder yeah it’s a great question
and I get what you’re saying because
like there’s a skepticism when
psychologists or academics and we say
you know watch out for dieting or don’t
be concerned about your appearance and I
don’t think this resonates with young
people most young people at least care a
bit about their appearance and they may
diet or they want to be in the gym and
look there’s nothing intrinsically wrong
with that there really isn’t the point
is that for an increasing number of
people and especially boys and men for
muscle dysmorphia it’s transforming into
something that’s not healthy it doesn’t
work for them and that’s the point it
works against them that’s what makes it
a disorder so how hard has it been for
someone to spot in their family and
friends look it’s really hard ok one of
the biggest issues with eating disorders
or disorders of physical appearance is
that it’s hard to know where that line
is most of us have had the experience of
knowing someone or caring about someone
who is concerned about their appearance
or maybe diets very hard trains very
hard and we’re not sure is it worth
saying something it do they have
something that rises to the level of a
disorder sometimes it’s for us as well
and the sort of unsatisfying answer is
that that line that distinguishes
healthy from unhealthy is different for
everyone and that’s what mental health
professionals are there to help you find
absolutely so what then does your
research tell us about the demographics
which muscle dysmorphia is is affecting
in Australia well it might be along the
lines of what you’re sort of thinking
right now is it tends to be young men so
any disorders reflect the type of bodies
we tell young people they ought to
obtain that’s why we have more women who
develop anorexia and it’s mostly men who
are developing muscle dysmorphia you
often get a story of being bullied at
school for being too scrawny or weak or
overweight maybe there were fraught
relationships with friends or family or
with partners the story is very varied
but above all else it’s
you know some sort of emotional distress
of just never feeling very good about
your appearance that leads to it great
and so what is your research telling us
then about the root of this problem like
what what should we be looking out for
in and sort of what out there can we be
challenging and sort of starting the
conversation around is that people
seeing men’s health magazines or is it
social media like what’s to blame really
what are what are we experiencing as the
root of these problems look that the
causes are going to be varied but some
of the research we do is looking at
different types of media so everyone’s
familiar with Barbie dolls we know how
Barbie dolls have got thinner over time
and that when you’re growing up and you
don’t have a frame of reference for you
know am i attractive is this how I’m
meant to look you look to this sort of
stuff and it accumulates over time so
now when you’re in your early 20s you’ve
got a frame of reference and you can
tell that these things are unrealistic
but when you’re growing up five six
seven eight you actually do absorb it so
what we’re seeing with the Barbie dolls
we now see with action figures for boys
and as part of the talk we showed action
figurines that will marketed in the 50s
and the 60s to voice compared to the
ones that are marketed now and it’s very
clear they’re getting more and more
muscular less and less realistic and as
a result boys are growing up with less
confidence in their appearance yeah I
just want you to talk about perhaps a
little bit to how mental health is
affecting young people in this country
and how that’s influencing your research
and and what what your research shows
about the I guess the parallels between
mental health being experienced leading
to such things as muscle dysmorphia yeah
so I mean I think mental health has
gotten short shrift in this country for
a long time and in countries around the
world and it really bothers me when it
comes to youth everyone in the audience
today because with with with no
disrespect to conditions like
cardiovascular disease and cancer which
are terrible terrible afflictions these
are not the main concerns for young
people the number one source of
you know disability and distress and
quality of life impairment for the
people here is mental health but it
doesn’t get funded eating disorders in
particular of what have been funded at
levels that are an order of magnitude
less than the disability they cause like
this are great yeah so you want to see
more of the pie in mental health funding
coming to this age bracket really yeah
absolutely and that’s that’s where our
advocacy is is leading to make sure that
the mental health the health sector is
taking the mental health of young people
much more seriously yeah great so since
June back on June 16 when you gave the
TED talk at the ICC
what’s changed have you has anyone
reached out to you or what conversation
is kind of starting like 12,000 views on
YouTube there must be something there
that people relating to and finding
attachment into to make it so popular
yeah we were we were pretty shocked at
the response but I think it speaks to
the fact that this stuff is going on
that it’s just not easy to talk about
that’s the hardest part I think is is
not knowing if it’s something that rises
to the level of a problem that’s worth
talking to other people about but we’ve
had a lot of referrals we were able to
refer just over 30 young men to mental
health services
we ran the first clinical workshop that
has brought muscle dysmorphia to the
national international stage and i’m
hoping that you know with further
advocacy we’ll be able to bring even
more attention awesome
can we please thank Scott rivers for
joining us today on stage thank you so
much
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
take a seat
there you go Scott there it is the heat
of TEDx Sydney 2017 viewed over 12,000
times so far online how many times have
you seen it only the ones with my
grandma reluctantly reluctantly is that
big question you know how to use the
Internet
no no she doesn’t know how to use the
Internet I just don’t like seeing myself
on camera I got it
just before we came out and that asked
us if we were going to do some flips and
tricks we are not we are staying seated
and just having a bit of a candid chat
about the process sort of the content of
your talk and what sort of come from
your talk since you gave it back in June
for those of you who weren’t with us at
the mainstage event that was a clip just
then but you want to start perhaps got
by giving us some context and telling us
what exactly is muscle dysmorphia yeah
sure so everyone in this room will be
familiar with anorexia
the image of typically a young woman but
increasing numbers of men and they look
in the mirror and they’re convinced that
the person staring back at them is
overweight or really big but they’re
actually very very skinny well muscle
dysmorphia is like the opposite of that
we’re seeing mostly boys and men now who
were very muscular no doubt about it but
when they look in the mirror
the person who stares back at them is
really scrawny so we’ve called it
reverse anorexia so we do consider it an
eating disorder
yes firaon it’s just like an eating
disorder and the point of the talk I
gave back in June was that eating
disorders are not just about thinness
anymore the manifestation of them how
they look and who they affect it changes
as society changes okay cool so can you
give us perhaps paint a picture of what
a standard case study of muscle
dysmorphia looks like when a patient
presents to you yeah sure so we we had a
young man who was very concerned about
his appearance thought that he was too
scrawny wanted to bulk up and he was
hitting the gym two times a day seven
days a week week in week out and dieting
really concerned about protein and was
even started to think about maybe using
steroids but it wasn’t building him up
this wasn’t something that was working
for him and building his self-esteem it
was tearing him down it was ruining his
life and that’s what makes it an eating
disorder got it so the
behaviors you were explaining there
going to the gym working out protein
shakes sounds pretty normal for lack of
a better word but pretty normal behavior
what where does that when do we
Caracalla CLE then crossover to consider
it a disorder yeah it’s a great question
and I get what you’re saying because
like there’s a skepticism when
psychologists or academics and we say
you know watch out for dieting or don’t
be concerned about your appearance and I
don’t think this resonates with young
people most young people at least care a
bit about their appearance and they may
diet or they want to be in the gym and
look there’s nothing intrinsically wrong
with that there really isn’t the point
is that for an increasing number of
people and especially boys and men for
muscle dysmorphia it’s transforming into
something that’s not healthy it doesn’t
work for them and that’s the point it
works against them that’s what makes it
a disorder so how hard has it been for
someone to spot in their family and
friends look it’s really hard ok one of
the biggest issues with eating disorders
or disorders of physical appearance is
that it’s hard to know where that line
is most of us have had the experience of
knowing someone or caring about someone
who is concerned about their appearance
or maybe diets very hard trains very
hard and we’re not sure is it worth
saying something it do they have
something that rises to the level of a
disorder sometimes it’s for us as well
and the sort of unsatisfying answer is
that that line that distinguishes
healthy from unhealthy is different for
everyone and that’s what mental health
professionals are there to help you find
absolutely so what then does your
research tell us about the demographics
which muscle dysmorphia is is affecting
in Australia well it might be along the
lines of what you’re sort of thinking
right now is it tends to be young men so
any disorders reflect the type of bodies
we tell young people they ought to
obtain that’s why we have more women who
develop anorexia and it’s mostly men who
are developing muscle dysmorphia you
often get a story of being bullied at
school for being too scrawny or weak or
overweight maybe there were fraught
relationships with friends or family or
with partners the story is very varied
but above all else it’s
you know some sort of emotional distress
of just never feeling very good about
your appearance that leads to it great
and so what is your research telling us
then about the root of this problem like
what what should we be looking out for
in and sort of what out there can we be
challenging and sort of starting the
conversation around is that people
seeing men’s health magazines or is it
social media like what’s to blame really
what are what are we experiencing as the
root of these problems look that the
causes are going to be varied but some
of the research we do is looking at
different types of media so everyone’s
familiar with Barbie dolls we know how
Barbie dolls have got thinner over time
and that when you’re growing up and you
don’t have a frame of reference for you
know am i attractive is this how I’m
meant to look you look to this sort of
stuff and it accumulates over time so
now when you’re in your early 20s you’ve
got a frame of reference and you can
tell that these things are unrealistic
but when you’re growing up five six
seven eight you actually do absorb it so
what we’re seeing with the Barbie dolls
we now see with action figures for boys
and as part of the talk we showed action
figurines that will marketed in the 50s
and the 60s to voice compared to the
ones that are marketed now and it’s very
clear they’re getting more and more
muscular less and less realistic and as
a result boys are growing up with less
confidence in their appearance yeah I
just want you to talk about perhaps a
little bit to how mental health is
affecting young people in this country
and how that’s influencing your research
and and what what your research shows
about the I guess the parallels between
mental health being experienced leading
to such things as muscle dysmorphia yeah
so I mean I think mental health has
gotten short shrift in this country for
a long time and in countries around the
world and it really bothers me when it
comes to youth everyone in the audience
today because with with with no
disrespect to conditions like
cardiovascular disease and cancer which
are terrible terrible afflictions these
are not the main concerns for young
people the number one source of
you know disability and distress and
quality of life impairment for the
people here is mental health but it
doesn’t get funded eating disorders in
particular of what have been funded at
levels that are an order of magnitude
less than the disability they cause like
this are great yeah so you want to see
more of the pie in mental health funding
coming to this age bracket really yeah
absolutely and that’s that’s where our
advocacy is is leading to make sure that
the mental health the health sector is
taking the mental health of young people
much more seriously yeah great so since
June back on June 16 when you gave the
TED talk at the ICC
what’s changed have you has anyone
reached out to you or what conversation
is kind of starting like 12,000 views on
YouTube there must be something there
that people relating to and finding
attachment into to make it so popular
yeah we were we were pretty shocked at
the response but I think it speaks to
the fact that this stuff is going on
that it’s just not easy to talk about
that’s the hardest part I think is is
not knowing if it’s something that rises
to the level of a problem that’s worth
talking to other people about but we’ve
had a lot of referrals we were able to
refer just over 30 young men to mental
health services
we ran the first clinical workshop that
has brought muscle dysmorphia to the
national international stage and i’m
hoping that you know with further
advocacy we’ll be able to bring even
more attention awesome
can we please thank Scott rivers for
joining us today on stage thank you so
much
[Music]
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