In bygone days, people deemed a plump woman as a beauty. However, nowadays, a fleshy woman is usually perceived as a monster. What everyone pursues is to be slim and slender. Nevertheless, is it really a proper attitude towards our bodies? I cast my doubt on it. Recently, I’ve attended a talk on ‘Health and Beauty‘ organized by the Department of Health. At the talk, a social worker, a medical doctor and an ex-patient recovering from an eating disorder spoke about the causes, the effects and the remedial actions should be taken for those who’re losing their health due to several extreme and unreasonable weight-losing attempts. Now I’d like to share what I’ve learnt from them.
To commence with, the social worker stated the causes of teens being so eager to lose weight. He said that the characteristic of teens is highly impressionable. Therefore, when the companies of those slimming products and programmes use advertisements to boost their sales, our poor teens will rush to buy those products and join those programmes due to their susceptible nature and the lack of a thoroughly thought.
Moreover, the modern view towards ‘beauty’ has changed. As most of the actors, actresses and singers are very skinny, it becomes a general consensus on the new definition of beauty — being thin. Exaggeratedly proliferated by the mass media of the importance of this, the pliable teens try all means to imitate the movies stars, and this behavior eventually brings serious health problems instead of good-looking faces and bodies to the teens.
Furthermore, peer pressure has set the backdrop of teens’ dangerous attempts on losing weigh as well. As I’ve mentioned above, teens are easily swayed by their surroundings. They may have the fear of being ridiculed or boycotted by their friends if they’re not slim or pretty enough. To refrain all these from happening, they may well resort to some fast but fatal weight-reducing methods such as to go on a complete diet, take in weight-reducing medicine which are not registered… all these are unhealthy methods to lose weight and may even put the teens’ health in jeopardy.
After knowing three of the main causes driving teens’ health in danger, I’ve learnt that we, as teens, should have our own set of views towards health and beauty-related issues. We shouldn’t blindly believe in what the others say and put our valuable health aside.
Followed by the social worker’s speech, a medical doctor talked on the effects of using inappropriate means to reduce weight. The effects comprise two parts — physical and mental effects. Firstly, the most prevalent and direct method that teens choose to reduce weight is to put themselves on a diet. Notwithstanding, without professional instructions, it is easy for them to suffer from eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, or in contrast, obesity. The former will make the teens become dangerously weak and ill; and the latter will lead to high blood pressure which may even cause heart attack or death.
Accompanied with the above physical effects, myriads of mental effects will arise concurrently due to excessive weight-reduction. For instance, self-esteem may be dampened owing to failure in reducing weight; social life may be affected caused by low self-confidence. They may view themselves as valueless losers. In extreme cases, some, may even commit suicide.
When I heard about the consequences, I really found them spine-shivering. In order to rescue those victims of excessive weight reduction, the advice provided by the ex-patient is very worth-listening.
The advice is of three-fold. First and foremost, a right outlook on life should be re-established. Teens should no longer be so easily influenced by the mass media and have their own manifest views towards beauty. Dispelling teens’ misconceptions on the definition of beauty is crucial. After all, if the radical preconception of them has not yet been rectified, the best panacea would have no help in curing the teens.
Secondly, one of the remedial actions should be taken is to have regular meeting with the psychologists or social workers. As both the mental and physical conditions of the patients are highly unstable during their recovering stages. Hence, letting professionals to have follow-up is very helpful in assisting the patients to get rid of their illness as expeditiously as possible.
Thirdly, support from friends, families and other patients is another measure to save those victims from excessive weight reduction. During their recovering period, they will presumably experience depression, frustration, struggles, and may even want to give up. At that moment, encouragement given by the patients’ families and friends will be a great prop to their self-confidence, to let them have the persistence to overcome these ordeals.
After listening to their sharing, I’ve learnt to help and persuade my friends to stop their unnecessary weight-reduction plans. And most importantly, I’ve understood ‘being skinny’ is not equivalent to ‘being pretty’, and our health should be put on the first place, no matter what circumstances they are.