How to cope with a changing body?
For context, I’m 23. These changes align closely with how the women in my family developed, they were all extremely thin until their “second puberty”
I’m conventionally attractive and receive a lot of unwanted attention. Lately, my body has been changing more noticeably. My breasts are getting bigger, as are my hips and butt. I went from about 90 pounds, which was naturally very thin for me, to around 105. I’m 5’3. In many ways, this is exactly how my body is supposed to develop.
But I feel extremely uncomfortable.
I already feel slightly agoraphobic because of how creepy men can be, and as my secondary sex characteristics become more visible, that discomfort intensifies. I feel hyperaware of my body. I feel large. Not in an anorexic or dysmorphic sense, but in a sense of there being more of me for others to look at, evaluate, or consume.
Even physically I notice it. When I lie on my side and feel my thighs touching, it drives me crazy. It makes me feel claustrophobic!!
Because of this, I’ve always felt infantilized, and I’ve always hated it. But now it feels frightening. I’ve had the same body since middle school, and this change feels abrupt and overwhelming.
It’s not something I can control. My appetite has increased, and if I don’t eat what my body now demands, I become lightheaded, nauseous, irritable, and exhausted. Until this year, my food drive was almost nonexistent.
Posted Dec 13, 2025, 10:30 AM UTC