Teenage girls feeling deeply self conscious can develop a quiet obsession of constant self-doubt and anxiety that impacts their ideal weight. The more complex their issues around self worth and esteem; the more a healthy weight becomes a difficult issue. Young girls start off comparing their body type to other females they see on television, in films, in magazines and in their communities and these comparisons often become unhealthy because they generally don’t support or celebration the beauty and uniqueness of who the teen girl is or who they are becoming. Furthermore, young girls with low self-esteem blame themselves for not being like other women and eating disorders and self consciousness are habits that evolve as they get older rather than go away.
Warning signs may include obsessive behavior regarding dieting, food, or exercise and expressing a distorted view of how they feel they look or how others view them. Being very focused on changing physical aspects rather than developing areas of their personality or intellect is another potential warning sign. These warning signs of low self-esteem can make maintaining a healthy weight difficult for any teenage girl.
Eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and obesity can start off as mild as continuous comments about ideal body types all the way to excessive dieting to try to control size and weight. A person who observes they are always the biggest person in the room or or constantly feels different from the rest before of their weight will often try several times to change how they look. Eventually after many year with this silent struggle they usually decide they are fooling themselves by believing they can be smaller. A tremendous amount of guilt is often associated with that line of thinking and may lead to secretly starving themselves in order to fit in. Feeling ashamed to have resorted to such action can then trigger cravings for high fat or comforting foods. At times they may eat in excess privately and become numb to their feelings altogether.
IF you think you know someone with an eating disorder:
Do not ignore what you suspect are signs. Be understanding. Realize they are not trying to improve self-esteem by having an eating disorder. Often they will deny anything is wrong. They may truly believe they have nothing to worry about or that nothing is wrong. Be patient. Low self esteem and eating take a toll of the body. One day they will decide they want to change. It is not up to you to choose that day. It comes after time and years of experiencing what is not working.
Once they are fed-up and decide to change they can expect disappointments, moments of relapse and days of feeling unworthy, discouraged or paralyzed by frustration. These are all normal. They are the pit stops along the road to recovery. Be supportive and gentle with them as they go through this change. They will remember and thank you for it later.
Anyone seeking support from close friends or online networks can benefit from knowing well- being is on its way. Instant relief or dramatic results is not necessary in measuring success. Deciding to confide in someone (anyone) is worthy of all their troubles.
Once they turned to someone for help it won't matter if mistakes are made because they have another person there to be gentle and support them. Low self-esteem can be a life long struggle. Eating disorders can rob years off their life if they continue to avoid the buried pain. Sharing their feelings with someone is necessary in order for change.
If they decide they can't confide in someone they know they will need to find a different person they feel they can trust. That person doesn't even need to have gone through a similar situation. It just needs to be a person feel they can talk to.
The Fit Teach
(Amber Jones)
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