TOWIE Star James Lock Opens Up About His Battle with His Body Image

now there's no doubt the massive muscles glowing white teeth and dark Tans we see on social media these days will make many question their own body image and it seems that even those we often idolize are not themselves immune to those doubts and influences yes this is TV personality James Loch in the first season of The Only Way is Essex back in 2013 he's changed over the years he says online bullying and unrealistic body standards drove him to cosmetic procedures and even steroid abuse well he joins us now alongside the conservative MP Dr L Luke Evans who is pushing for much tighter regulations on how body image distorting content is managed online very good morning to you both morning James it's good to see you this morning what do you feel you didn't like about your body I mean because from the outside handsome man no need to change anything Beauty's partly on the inside as well as the outside anyway all of these I'm sure are things people have said to you but there's something gets into your head isn't there when you feel you've got body dysmorphia which which distorts the image well look the thing is I can acknowledge you know that there's a problem but then it's still I still act a certain way if that makes sense so I know that is sometimes I'm being irrational and I know like I can sit in now I know I'm you know like I'm a good-look guy I'm in good shape but I will still find fault like whether I'm on set or you know uh even if I'm just going away on a holiday or if I'm doing a shoot for a brand I will find fault it's got to a point where I cannot now look at the pictures see that the pictures now I've got my agent will go through the pictures for me or I'll pick the you know I'll just send all the images over and let her pick one because if I go through myself I will find fault in something in some aspect you know and it's it's it's it's constant you know battle with yourself you know even though you're looking in the mirror you're not seeing what other people are seeing you know and I've I've spoken to you know friends and family that think I'm you know they fit on you're a bit crazy but even when we're you know on site we speak to on set rather and you you have like a duty of care like you speak to a a psychologist after for whatever reason just to you know as part of the protocol but even they like sometimes they've addressed it and said we think you've got like body dysmorphia you know and you sort of half shrug it off like what are you talking about you just dismiss it especially as a man you speak like you just brush it off you know I'm Not Afraid lots of our viewers will have heard before I hadn't heard it before so just explain what you understand that phrase to me body DM Moria for me it's it's being feeling uncomfortable feeling insecure you know uh uncomfortable with what you see um of yourself of yourself of course look for for the outside well people will see me as a as a confident man and in certain aspects yes to a certain degree I am but you know behind closed doors you know it's not you know picture tells a thousand words you know and behind closed doors like I'm insecure I'm constantly finding fault I'm constantly blacking with myself I'm competing and comparing myself to other people and as I'm getting older how you look because of how I look and then in the industry I'm in not even just the industry I think even before I was in this industry you know we was talking earlier it's saying like for men or women you're going away on a holiday you're then you're then thinking about you're you're panicking about having that bikini body so the girls are starving themselves and the guys are in you know working out working out and then because they're working out or they're panicking and then start dabbling in other things which could be steroids or whatever else and then it's it becomes a vicious circle so tell us what you changed about yourself uh in terms of procedures yeah well from again this is from going into the industry what I would say it is just heightened it because the more times where you know where the pictures you getting you know ped or you're on camera and you're finding fault in yourself you know even though people don't want to listen to themselves on radio when you watch yourself back on camera or I've been I'm out on a night out and I've been caught off caught off guard uh with a bit of a a moody picture and next you're scrutinizing yourself not even to do with what what you're up to like look at the state of me especially with the boys and girls yeah they're picking things um but yeah it's got worse when I've been in the industry but I've started off I started off um with like a hair transplant um I've had like my ears done before I've had my teeth done the teeth I think is pretty much a standard thing everyone's getting there getting their teeth done at the minute um recently I went back at I done another TV show and I injured myself a little bit and injuries were bad but they probably wasn't as bad as what I you know what I created the problems I created in my head it wasn't as bad so then I've gone I've had my eyes like my eyes done my nose done and it's like it's getting you're getting carried away you're getting you know what I'm saying well because you're chasing a perfect version of yourself yeah which doesn't exist well well it doesn't exist it's the it's the natural version of yourself I mean I think you still look perfect me appr um but I think the trouble is that those when you talk about those kind of unguarded Paparazzi shots yes no one's ever going to look good in those are they because partly partly they want you to look not perfect by the word you look better than most of us in those shots yeah exactly that's debatable and what so you you say it's partly the um the industry itself that makes it hard but of course Next to You Luke Evans you think it's partly that an image is projected of people particularly young men and young women that no one could ever live up to so it's so it's negatively Jame coming out and talking about it because that's part of the problem people go he's a good-looking guy what's he got to worry about actually that's almost the problem in itself because everyone is chasing this aspiration to look to a certain way and we can't achieve it add in the digital world with social media now you can change your images so easily we're bombarded with IM Imes time after time of people getting that perfect snapshot putting it and projecting it as real life and suddenly all you're seeing whether you're in your bedroom or out and about is the perfect life shop you know hasht living my best life went round and round on social media so we're creating this warp sense of reality that just doesn't exist and if you're living like that constantly we're going to create more and more problems of people concern now we know that one in three children have Shame about their bodies and one in five adults have Shame about their bodies and at the extreme sze people to surgery or eating disorders or steroids to try and sort this out that's what I'm most worried about can I just push back um you a little bit on this I'm I I don't disagree that this is a massive problem um when I was um in the cabinet um I did a thing with gawan where we had moms and dads watching their 14-year-old boys and girls um talking about their body image and the thing which was totally shocking for the mums in particular is that their 14-year-old boys talked so distressingly about how they felt about their body image this was in 2008 yeah before Instagram before Snapchat before social media really took off I mean we've had these issues about images and body image for decades and today on social media there's lots of influences I think of Jesse Davis we does stuff around stammering but also body image lots of other examples people go out and say I am who I am and I'm proud of it vo is speaking back I wonder whether social media is actually always made is always making things worse aren't there some ways in which social media is actually making things better giving a voice to people to say you know this is me you're seeing a change in see change in some social media now seeing a positivity and Camp um particularly companies s Dove a very good example of using um body positivity as a way of making change but fundamentally we know for example the number of people using Eating Disorders went up 50% during the pandemic we also know that there's up to a million people using steroids and 1.25 million people with eating disorders in the UK those numbers are skyrocketing so I think there is a real issue there is some positivity within it but more problematic is actually all the data the Girl Guides is a great example they do a yearly survey about body image and uh one in two girls at the age of 11 to uh to 13 positive about the way in which they look by the time they get to 16 only one in 10 feel comfortable about the way they look wor is it 80% of them surveyed said they won I will only put an image up that's been doctored that's the world we're living in at the moment so that for 20% that's fine that's four in five images that young girls are wanting to put up they feel the pressure to alter it and that's a really concerning stat I don't know how we tackle it you know you want to legislate and I think that's a noble aim but I mean really James the issue is we need to just be feel comfortable with being good enough don't we we've got to stop chasing this idea that we can if we just tweet that then we'll feel okay because then as you say there's going to be something else that someone's going to say yeah but have you noticed that's that's the thing like we can sit in there can be rational about I agree with you but then I will still like a couple of days ago I'm doing a shoot and I'm I'm I'm fighting fault so something that would have took taken a couple of pictures would have took a half hour next me it takes a a full day because I'm finding F and everything and then I'm comparing myself to my competition now the competition now as I'm getting a little bit I'm obviously not old but as I'm getting old un competing yeah but I'm not no no no of course but your industry you're talking about there's isn't there yeah there you got remember we whether it's on on the shows that I've been on or other shows we and we might all be friends on the show we're actually all in competition it's a very like vicious thing where you're all in competition and it's that sometimes I want someone from this particular show which one am I going for well they you know looking a certain way or looking that bit better will get you picked over the other person it really is it is like that because you're not going to go and get a fitness campaign if you're not fit and looking a certain way but then I'm then competing with a guy that's you know 10 years younger than me do you know what I'm saying which is it is what it is but I've obviously now made a career out of this if we take you out of your MP role and put you in your GP role what would you say to James well James is is I mean he's so brave talking about what's going on here and I think what James shows the difference between uh mental well-being and mental health lots of people talk about the two interchangeably mental well-being we all feel stressed daily Liv have a interview like what James ising is um mental health problems by the fact that it impacts his daily living so that he can't literally do anything and that's the really distressing part there's help out there that's the key point there are um Charities out there the body dysmorphic Association do support for this there you know there's mental health practitioners out there that will help you with this it's really important that we actually identify that problem so from the GP side there's help there and that's good you said we actually have details of a number of those to lines on our on our website as well itv.com helpl James speaking out about it is incredibly empowering for people and I I think if you can focus on that what you do do that is so positive I hope that alleviates some of the distress that you feel well this is why I'm doing it you know I've got a younger brother 10 years Gap and he's not in industry but I can see it with him he's going the same way as me now and now I'm telling him stop being silly but I'm doing he's I'm tell him to stop and I'm doing what he's asking me so it doesn't make sense give yourself the advice you'd give to someone you love but this is the problem this is in my own head no matter what the advice I'm giving I can acknowledge it I'm still finding fault thank you so much Luke EV MP James thank you so much for sharing your story with us so thank you very appreciate it

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 6,800

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, james lock, towie james lock, james lock towie, body dysmorphia

Id: vfxB7COO4DE

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2024