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The impacts of social media on teenagers‘health and
The impacts of social media on teenagers‘health and
The impacts of social media on teenagers‘health and
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I have always had issues with my body and my weight. This unfortunately started at a very young age for me. In grade school I was the girl who towered over everyone, and was a little more build than the typical girl my age. All the other kids in my grade looked basically the same from my point of view. There was one other girl who was the same height as me and the kids nicknamed us the “twin towers”. I remember wanting to look like anyone but me at that time. Today I am considered average height and can only wish for a pair of long legs. My paper is about my struggles with eating and exercise, and the importance of exercise and nutrition in my life. Ever since I was young I have been the athletic girl in my grade. I played every sport that was available to me. I was involved in basketball, volleyball, softball, track, gymnastics, and figure skating. Although, I was kept busy exercising daily with all my activities, I still felt fat around other kids my age. My mom and dad constantly reminded me how beautiful I was but I could not find beauty within myself no matter how hard I tried. My middle school years came around and my self-esteem only got worse. I went through an awkward stage as many kids did but, I felt like mine was worse than anyone else. Kids were more concerned with how they looked and acted than anything else. I felt a constant pressure to keep up with everyone. My two best friends were tiny and gorgeous, and every time we were together it was a constant reminder to me that I was not. My weight was constantly on my mind and drove me crazy during school hours. The end of my middle school years is when my friends started constantly talking about the diets and what they could and could not eat. I was excited for high s... ... middle of paper ... ...After my exhausting effort to recover, my bad eating habits came back to haunt me. I could not believe I was once again going through hell to satisfy something that was impossible to satisfy. I came to a point where I cut eating out of my diet completely and exercised for 3 hours a day. Sometimes standing up for long periods of time was impossible for me. I was constantly light headed and miserable with what I was doing to myself. At the end of my senior year I lost a total of 15 pounds. I was weak and not acting like myself. I did not want this anymore, and knew that it was time for me to take control of my eating disorder. I had to start eating every meal in order to become healthy again. I finally gained weight and kept body fat. I have been eating right since then. I still watch what I eat and exercise daily, but have not taking either activity to the extreme.
The book Stick Figure A Diary Of My Former Self is a personal journal written by Lori Gottlieb when she was 11 years old suffering from anorexia nervosa. “Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that causes people to obsess about their weight and the food they eat.” (mayclinic.com) Most eating disorders are physiological due to friends and family, stress, and the social media. Anorexia nervosa, like all other eating disorders, is extremely dangerous and unhealthy for the human body to endure. Although eating disorders are destructive to one's life, is there explainable reasoning behind why a person may have one?
I sat down and interviewed a person who has overcome bulimia nervosa and she described many of the things I have listed here today. She went through many pains and troubles through her time of ?sickness?. She asked to remain nameless, so I shall respect her wish. She was a gymnast who had to maintain a certain body weight to compete in competitions. She would self induce vomiting before her weigh in sessions so she would be under the weight limit. She let me know that this was the worst time of her life, and she is so thankful she is one of the survivors.
As a young adult in high school I was given a lot of responsibility along with peer pressure to exceed my family’s principles. The first day of high school as a freshman, was overwhelming, stressful, and full of anxiety. I felt as if I had no one to count on including my family and friends. Felt alone most of the time and didn’t unspoke about problems that began to bother me emotionally, physically, and mentally. My problems arose freshman through sophomore year. I reached a point where I could no longer keep this a secret.
Binge-eating disorder is defined as an eating disorder in which a person frequently consumes large amounts of food while feeling out of control and unable to stop. Almost everyone overeats every once in a while but for some people overeating crosses the line to binge-eating disorder and it becomes a regular occurrence. Many people who have this disorder may feel embarrassed about eating large amounts of food in front of others however the urge and compulsiveness of this disorder continues to affect their eating habits. Binge-eating disorder is estimated to affect approximately 1-5% of the general population and also tends to affect women slightly more often than men. Binge-eating disorder is often associated with symptoms of depression and people diagnosed with this may often express distress, shame, and guilt over their eating behaviors.
Numerous studies have identified a desire for thinness in young girls, in ages as young as 6. Young adolescent females are surrounded in an environment (particularly in western culture) where dieting, desire for thinness and so called “fat talk” is often brought up in everyday conversation. Not only are these popular topics of discussion between a young girl and her peers, but family and the media also have a somewhat greater influence. For example, a mother’s behavior regarding weight loss diets and fat talk could influence her daughter, and provoke her to follow in her footsteps. A mother’s input in her daughter’s body image is shown to be more effective than her fathers input. The dieting behavior by the mother and/or peers is what is also known as “modeling”. Modeling is something that occurs when the adolescent copies actions of those around her, for instance dieting and binge/purge behavior. Female adolescents may also experience what is known as physique anxiety. Physique anxiety is related to compa...
6th grade came and my friends and I were split up, and some of my friends were in the same hall as me. I was put into what the students called “the dumb hallway”, some people weren’t as smart as the other kids in a different hallway but, let’s get back on track. Begin called a “dumb kid” started a little of my depression. I didn’t do my homework unless, it was important and I didn’t do my classwork at the best of my ability. I used my phone to read a lot instead of paying attention
I had found so much of my comfort in food at times when I was stressed, despite my generally smiley appearance. I have never found another word to properly express how I actually felt during any of this other than stressed. Ultimately, the fear of constant approval from peers and relatives caused me to not diet, but take away the only source of comfort I had. In 8th grade, I heard a peer whom I am now very close with mentioned they hadn’t eaten a lot the entire summer for one reason or another. Which led me to the idea to stop eating and lose weight. It was horrible at first, so I lessened the pain by eating only at dinner. As this went on though, I got less hungry. The stomach pains weakened as school days turned to school weeks, as they formed into two years of living off bare minimum. I reduced my portions in half and snacking became less of an enjoyment and turned into a horrid guilt. It got to the point where friends grew concerned and ask me about bringing me
There may be murmurs about that girl who only fixes herself a salad with only vinegar at dining services or suspicious glances at someone who spends 45 minutes on the treadmill and then switches to the stair stepper at the rec. On-campus eating disorders are talked about everywhere and yet are not really talked about at all. There is observation, concern, and gossip, but hushed conversation and larger scale efforts to help and change never seem to earn public attention.
Growing up, I struggled with being overweight, even though I was active. As a young boy growing up on a farm somewhere in Northwest Missouri, I worked very hard doing chores the normal urbanized American would not do. My father would have me do chores every day, yet I was still overweight. Reflecting back to what what could have made me that way; many ideas began to appear in my head, so my research on nutrition began. There were many things that were argued to cause childhood obesity, however the most logical and sensible outcome that came from my research was that environmental, political, cultural, and other such factors were not to blame for my obese childhood, but nutrition was. This statement correlated with my very active childhood. My Father assigned me to do many difficult and strenuous tasks so you could say I worked up an appetite. However, this factor combined with my Mother’s inability to cook a small meal, you can imagine the amount of food I consumed on a daily basis. Not to mention the sheer fact of how much I consumed because the food tasted amazing. Mom would always say: “You have bigger eyes then your stomach”, meaning I would get more then what I needed or what I was able to eat without being uncomfortable. I would get helpings upon helpings of food, and since we did not have the money for the food to be wasted, I was forced to finish my plate. I would get in trouble if I wasted food, which is a big thing for our family.
Many people think that they know all about eating disorders. They think that they already know all they need to know about them and that as long as your child or your friend or someone you care about doesn’t have it; you don’t have to worry about them. Well, how are you supposed to know when someone you love and care about has them if you don’t even know the basics about the eating disorders? Most of the times the person with the eating disorder was only trying to lose a couple pounds. However, the goal that was set turns into something more than just a couple of pounds and that person may go through extremes to try and get to that perfect body they have in mind. But the perfect body they have in mind is not perfect, not even close. It is a pure illusion in which teenagers are made to believe to be the definition of beauty.
"TeensHealth." When Being Overweight Is a Health Problem. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
Bulimia nervosa, more commonly known simply as bulimia or binge and purge disorder, is an eating disorder that affects 1 in 4 college-aged women in America, or 1 in 10,000 Americans. The most common misconception concerning bulimia is that it is simply a physical or mental problem. Many people do not understand that bulimia is a disease that affects both the mind and the body, and in its course can destroy both aspects of the diseased individual.
For this paper I decided to take a second and evaluate my life and think about what were some of my current lifestyle habits and behaviors and which out of these habits would I like to change. After sitting down and evaluating all of my main habits I categorized them into groups of which ones were helping to lead me to a long healthy lifestyle and which ones were likely to lead me to an unhealthy life and lifestyle. After narrowing these unhealthy habits down to my top three I decided to focus this paper and my attention on my current nutrition and most of all on my negative eating habits. After evaluating my lifestyle and all of my unhealthy habits I felt that my current nutrition level and eating patterns were in need of the most improvement and change.
Doctor Gallivan once stated that “53 percent of 13 year old American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This number grows to 78 percent by the time girls[they] reach 17” (Gallivan 4), this statistic shows that at a very young age women/girls already feel unhappy about their bodies because of the way society portray beauty and what is considered acceptable to the public eye. The role of body shaming has a great impact into why teenagers feel insecure about themselves; most common reason why young Americans get bullied in school is because of their weight and shape they are in. In a research article Weight-Based Victimization Toward Overweight Adolescents: Observations and Reactions of Peers it was stated that “nearly 85 percent of adolescents reported seeing overweight classmates teased in gym class”(Puhl, Luedicke, Heuer 699). Body shaming does not always come from random strangers, even direct criticisms from family members could cause a big impact to young girls or our youth. A simple “hey you’re gaining a little weight” from an individual's family member can cause low self-esteem, can make that individual feel insecure about themselves and can push them to practice unhealthy eating habits; if they are not safe in school nor at home with criticisms about their body shape, then where can they be safe from all the judgment and mockery? All
First, of all one of the things I changed was my eating habits. Eating healthy made my body feel better. I have met my nutritional needs by knowing my limits on junk food and eating more vegetables, proteins, fruits, and better portions. I have not completely cut everything from my diet because that would be difficult. I make sure I do not over