Harm Caused By A Negative Perception
The way you view yourself has a lot to do with your personality. If you think you’re too fat or thin, your face doesn’t look right, you’re too short or tall, or you aren’t strong enough, you have a negative body image. When someone is subconscious of themselves it leads to low self-esteem. This causes a person to lose confidence, become shy, or irritable towards others and make socializing a real challenge. It is also unhealthy to view oneself negatively. A negative view can lead to depression and cause undue stress on the body. The pressure of regular stress can weaken the body in numerous ways. One area affected is the heart. Too much stress on the heart can lead to heart failure.
Drugs and Alcohol
Depression from having a negative body image can become so great that some turn to drugs and alcohol for relief. However, drug abuse can make the situation worse and become a self-fulfilling cycle. Drugs are no fix for any problem, by the time the short term high wears off you’re just left feeling worse than before.
Unhealthy Diets
Some who think they’re over weight will try diets that starve the body almost completely of any kind of nourishment for fear of calories. This is done most commonly in two ways; eating practically nothing at all and secondly by binging or overloading on food and then purging or vomiting it all up. Both these diets are very unhealthy and life threatening. Try to keep to a strict routine of 3 meals and day without snacking in between.
Effects of Unhealthy Dieting
Obscure or fad diets cause the body to slowly shut down and struggle to survive. This struggle can become extremely uncomfortable, intense/constant stomach pain, light-headedness, and swollen joints are only a few of the physical discomforts. Anyone who continues unhealthy eating habits like these will shorten their life span considerably.
What Influences a Negative Body Image
The media is the biggest influencer for a negative body image. Television and magazines boast are models and celebrities with the picture perfect body. Because of this, teenagers who are particularly susceptible believe that they have to be just like their favourite celebrity to be accepted. Furthermore, often some of these celebrities are not in a healthy state themselves.
Appreciate Yourself As Is
Some people believe that if they could only change this or that they would be happy. The truth is, if they don’t accept themselves as they are, they may never accept themselves no matter how many changes are made. This makes the number 1 step to improving your body image and self-esteem appreciating who you already are and what you already have; learn to see the positives. Just being a good person and knowing that friends and family love you is something to be pleased about. Remember, looks aren’t everything, attitude and personality are. When anyone is selfish and treats others disrespectful, people find everything about them irritating, no matter how beautiful they are on the surface.
Set Healthy Goals and Make Healthy Changes
There is nothing wrong with making healthy changes to reach healthy goals. If you feel that you would like to be a healthier weight and/or get more fit, changes can be made in your diet and you should try to exercise regularly. Diet and exercise are key to muscle growth too, if looking to build strength. Only a very few people can be healthy at just 44kg(95lbs) or even 48kg(105lbs), this is basically because a person’s height determines their weight. The taller someone is, the more they need to weigh and vice versa.
To be sure you have a healthy weight goal in mind consult your doctor. Your doctor can also give information on diet choices and how strenuous of an exercise to start with. Lastly, get support from people that care about you and work hard at achieving your goal. Be prepared for ups and downs. Don’t expect to reach your goal fast. Be prepared for the long run and it won’t crush your spirit if it takes some time. And be proud of every little achievement you make. Each one puts you one step closer to reaching your goal.
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