Uni of Worcester PhD student wants leaflet he worked on to help educate young people on body image disorder
George Mycock has helped develop a resource which has been made available to schools to educate them more on muscle dysmorphia and eating disorders
A University of Worcester PhD student hopes a leaflet he's helped create on tackling muscle dysmorphia can educate younger people more on it.
29-year-old George Mycock has developed the work in partnership with leading expert Jenny Tomei who founded an organisation which supports people with eating disorders called JenUp.
The resource aims to help young people and teachers spot and understand body image disorder and learn how to intervene and signpost people to support.
Mr Mycock believes it’s vital to raise awareness in schools on the subject after he himself lived with eating disorders and body image issues, including muscle dysmorphia, for over a decade.
"I think as far as I'm aware there isn't anything like this that already existed that was kind of this tailor made for schools for kind of education in general for younger people," he said.
"It was a real kind of gap that me and Jenny noticed and decided to put this together to hopefully try and kind of move things along.
"The main aim for it to some degree is to really start those conversations, being a kind of catalyst for people to start to question and start to understand their own experiences and people in their lives as these concerns especially around muscularity can go unnoticed."
Jenny Tomei added: “George’s input was incredibly valuable in developing our new resource on raising awareness about muscle dysmorphia among boys and girls.
“Like George I believe it’s vital to raise awareness in schools. I’ve noticed a significant rise in this issue within schools, particularly linked to gym culture and body image pressures among young people, so it was important to include George’s expert perspective.”
It's been made available to schools across the UK.
Further information can also be found on the NHS website.