Assignment 2 Part 1: Body Image

“Did you see her nose job?!” Teenagers today are able to have surgery on just about anything that they may not like on their body. From boob jobs to lip injections you can get anything fixed for the right price. Teens are so concerned about their looks that they are willing to pay just about anything. Body image is sweeping the nation fast; it is becoming one of the most widely discussed topics in the media. Body image concerns a majority of high school students. The reason for this study is to identify why it affects students at such a young age and ways to possibly prevent it from occurring.
Body image is a very serious thing for some people; it can become a very dangerous addiction. Body image can start anywhere from being insecure on how a person might look or even just in the home where their parents are telling them that they do not look good. Surgery is one of the highest ranked problem solvers, if someone wanted to change something about their self. Surgery also comes with many risks, some examples are swelling of the body, complications with medication they have been given and infections that might occur after the surgery is over. There is also certain activities that one cannot participate in while the healing process is in effect, this way the stitches can heal and your body has time to adjust to the change. Although plastic surgery risks are small and complications with it are less than one half percent surgeries are still very risky.
Anorexia and Bulimia are also some harmful illnesses that people come across when they are worried about how they look. Anorexia is an eating disorder where people starve themselves. These people have a serious fear of gaining weight; anorexia causes people to not want to eat in public and not eat large amounts of food in one helping. Bulimia is also a dangerous eating disorder where people binge followed by purging. This disorder is usually a response to depression, stress or self esteem issues, usually the individual will experience loss of control over their own body. These two eating disorders are very unsafe, unhealthy and can lead to death. These eating disorders are usually very addicting once they have been formed and they are not easy to stop the habit on binging, purging, or not eating regular meals.
Having issues with boy image can also be prevented. Someone that is insecure about how their body looks may diet regularly and avoid eating. They may not know that skipping meals is no help to them at all, it just ends up slowing down your metabolism and your body absorbs more calories. Some other ways they can keep from gaining weight and keep their body healthy is eating three meals a day, especially breakfast because that is the meal that gives you energy for the day. Drinking at least sixty-four ounces of water a day is also very helpful this will keep a person hydrated while avoiding caffeine and alcohol. Taking a multi vitamin daily will make sure you are getting all your vitamins that you need for the day. Teenagers should also make sure they are exercising daily, to speed up their metabolism which will also keep them in shape.
There are many ways to prevent people from viewing their bodies in negative ways. Staying healthy is just one of them, and plastic surgery is just a way of covering up their possible flaws that they do not want people to notice. Hopefully in the future body image around the high school level will not be such a big deal. Teenagers already have a lot of things to worry about at that age and self appearance shouldn’t be one of them.