“Alexa, is my body normal?”
Notes from my real life practice. Tough conversations with teens/young adults. If you are a normally healthy young person and you’re in meeting a hospital doc like me on call on a bank holiday weekend, something happened. Some stuff is just gonna happen — like appendicitis and broken toes. Other times “what happened to bring you here today” raises relevant issues that really need to be talked about, and can lead to difficult conversations – especially in younger teens that still have to have Mam (or Dad) there: smoking, drug/steroid experimentation, alcohol misuse, sexual health, bullying, mental health social media use, body image/disorders and OMG, why no helmet?! (not judging. not judging. Just wear the helmet. Please).
Some of these talks are important. They are the first step in starting a conversation that will continue at home with a supportive family, and continued on with the GP, specialist, therapist, or allied health professional. Sometimes, they just end in me getting angry eye rolls. But health isn’t just “not sick”. Health is well-being in body, mind, and relationships.
I want to highlight just 3 things about body image disorders (also called body dysmorphia). It’s when a (usually young) person becomes focused and upset about flaws in their appearance that are very minor or actually not even there.
1. It is both men AND women.
2. It is more and more common, and studies have directly linked this to social media (TikTok, IG, etc.) and other internet use, such as pornography.
3. There are great resources out there.
Signs that teen/young adult has a negative body image? I’m going to take this directly from the amazing resources available at the Bodywhys website:
“⚠️ They make negative comments about their bodies
⚠️ They seem unhappy in general
⚠️ They start to spend more time on their own
⚠️ They make frequent comments about how other people look
⚠️ They compare themselves e.g. wishing they looked like other people
⚠️ They refuse favourite foods or mention calories or fat content of foods
⚠️ They spend more time at the mirror and seem unhappy with what they see
⚠️ They get upset when trying on clothes or buying new clothes
⚠️ They talk about dieting
⚠️ They start exercising obsessively or change to ‘appearance focused’ exercise to change their body such as weight lifting
⚠️ They start eating less at meals
⚠️ They link guilt to food and may talk about good or bad foods
⚠️ They may choose to follow a special diet to gain more control over what they eat – e.g. become vegan, go sugar-free or gluten-free.
It is important to look at the bigger picture and to consider how your child is in general, do they seem happy? Are they still interested in spending time with friends or happy to engage with their usual activities? Consider the changes in your own child which are giving rise to concern. Some of the above signs such as spending time alone, becoming more body conscious, more interested in exercise or becoming vegan can be normal to healthy development as young people develop their own interests.”
0 Comments