|
|
Body Image
Eating Disorders: Putting health first
Is your idea of the perfect body influenced by magazines or TV?
Kemba, Katti, and Bopha have felt - and handled - the pressure to be thin.
KEMBA: I've known girls who put themselves through extreme measures to look skinny. It's really sad and dangerous, too.
KATTI: Society has tall, skinny supermodels on a pedestal. It's not real. You can do a lot with a camera, air-brushing. I know it's not real.
KEMBA: The image society has put on young girls looking great has always been equated with being skinny.
KATTI: You're watching TV and you're like, I don't look like that. Why don't I look like that? We don't need models covered in makeup and tucked here and there. We need to see a person that's real and being themselves.
KEMBA: Which I think is upsetting and sad, because girls go through extreme measures to look like society wants them to look.
BOPHA: Another way I tried to lose weight was I would eat, but then I would throw up. I found out it was not healthy for me, and I felt really sick. As a result, I didn't lose any weight. If anything, I gained.
KEMBA: I think it's really sad, because eating disorders create a lot of new problems.
BOPHA: When I started throwing up, I was threatening my health. I felt ashamed, and I wanted to stop. So I talked to my advisors at Girls Incorporated. They were really supportive. Now, I'm healthier. I do healthy stuff. Now when I look in the mirror, I like what I see. I like my body the way it is. If I like it, that's all that matters.
|
|
|
|
|
Is your idea of the perfect body influenced by magazines or TV?
|
|
|
|
|
It's A Fact.
About one percent of female adolescents have anorexia. That means that about one out of every one hundred young women between ten and twenty are starving themselves, sometimes to death. 1
Without treatment, up to twenty percent of people with serious eating disorders die. With treatment, that number falls to two to three percent.2
Boys can suffer from anorexia, too.
Eating Disorder warning signs:
Anorexia nervosa
Deliberate self-starvation with weight loss
Intense, persistent fear of gaining weight
Refusal to eat, except tiny portions
Continuous dieting
Excessive facial or body hair due to inadequate protein in the diet
Compulsive exercise
Abnormal weight loss
Sensitivity to cold
Absent or irregular menstruation
Hair loss
Bulimia nervosa
Preoccupation with food
Binge eating, usually in secret
Vomiting after bingeing
Abuse of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills
Denial of hunger
Taking drugs to induce vomiting
Compulsive exercise
Swollen salivary glands
Broken blood vessels in the eyes
Dealing With It.
Most people with an eating disorder think not eating or throwing up will make them happier. That is not true.
Eating disorders are serious health problems. They can kill you. If you suspect someone you care about has an eating disorder, tell an adult you trust. The person you care about can get help.
Eating Disorder Health Link National Hotline:
1-847-831-3438 (Support groups and referrals near you.)
Hear more from Kemba, Katti, and Bopha in The Power of Girls: Inside and Out DVD/VHS
|
|
1. AABA 2. ANRED
|
|
|
