Coping with Body Image Pressures During Back-to-School Season

As a new school year begins, it can bring a sense of renewal. New classes, different routines, and maybe even a change in environment. But for a lot of students, especially those in eating disorder recovery, it can also bring a familiar wave of comparison, body talk, and silent pressure to “measure up.”

Whether you’re a high school student walking through crowded hallways or a college student returning to campus life, it’s easy to get caught up in appearance-based evaluations. After a summer apart, people notice changes, and those changes often get commented on. Even casual remarks like “You look amazing!” or “You’ve lost weight!” can stir up complicated feelings, especially if you’re working hard to build a more peaceful relationship with your body. For many, the back-to-school season becomes a hotspot for body image struggles.

Why This Time of Year Can Be Especially Tough

School environments are full of body image triggers. From locker room exposure in PE or sports, to “glow-up” posts on social media, to casual conversations about diets or workouts, it can feel like everyone is silently (or not-so-silently) comparing. And while some comments might seem harmless or even complimentary, they can quickly activate old thought patterns for anyone recovering from disordered eating.

Common eating disorder triggers in school include:

• Post-summer body comparisons (e.g., “She lost weight,” or “He looks so fit now.”)

• Gym class or athletic team tryouts that involve being evaluated on appearance

• Highlight reels on social media

• Comments from teachers, coaches, classmates, or peers (even when well-meaning)
  

If you’re working on recovery from an eating disorder, or even just trying to protect your mental health, these moments can stir up anxiety, shame, or the urge to control your body in response.

Humans are wired to compare. It’s part of how we understand ourselves socially. But during adolescence and young adulthood, that urge to compare is turned way up. The brain is still developing skills like emotional regulation, impulse control, and decision-making while putting a lot of weight on peer belonging. When comparison triggers show up, it might sound like: “I don’t look as good as them,” or “I should start working out more.” In eating disorder recovery, those thoughts can snowball fast, into restriction, overexercise, obsessive planning, or emotional numbing. And the hard part? It often starts with just one comment or scroll.

Building Body Image Resilience (Even When You’re Surrounded by Triggers)

You don’t have to love your body every day to have a healthy relationship with it. Coping with body image pressures is about building a more flexible, compassionate response to the thoughts that will inevitably show up, especially in settings where appearance seems to matter.

Here are some practices that can help:

• Name the comparison without buying into it. Try saying to yourself, “I’m noticing I’m comparing again.” That simple naming creates a little breathing room between you and the urge to act on it.
  

• Shift your focus. Ask, “What do I admire about this person that has nothing to do with their body?” Or, “How do I want to feel in my body today, not how do I want it to look?”
  

• Curate your social media. Your feed should support you. Unfollow or mute accounts that make you feel worse, and seek out creators who talk about recovery, body diversity, or being human, not perfect.

• Use media literacy. Remind yourself: social media is a filtered highlight reel. Behind every photo is context: angles, edits, insecurity, or even disordered behavior. You’re only seeing the surface.

• Practice body neutrality. You don’t have to feel beautiful to treat your body with respect. Your body isn’t a project to fix, it’s the thing that carries you through your life.
  

Part of supporting your recovery is noticing what’s going on under the surface. Check in with your self-talk. How are you speaking to yourself—about your body, your food, your worth? If you notice yourself getting stuck in appearance-checking or rumination, try grounding back into your values: Who do I want to be today? What do I care about beyond how I look?

And it’s absolutely okay to reach out for support. Whether it’s your therapist, a trusted friend, a support group, or campus counseling services, you don’t have to go through this alone. If old behaviors are creeping back in, like skipping meals, obsessively checking your reflection, or feeling overwhelmed by food, that’s not failure. It’s a signal that something in you needs care, not criticism.

Final Thoughts

Back-to-school anxiety around body image is real, and you’re not alone in feeling it. If you’re in recovery, or working on shifting your relationship with food and your body, this season can feel especially challenging. Comparison thrives during times of change, but so does growth. You don’t have to be perfectly confident or “over it” to be okay. This year, let your self-worth be built on something deeper than appearance: your values, your goals, and your choice to keep showing up for yourself, even when it’s hard.