CAN BODY-SHAMING EFFECT MINDS OF TEENAGERS?

 

We usually tend to find people, to express our rage, and make ourselves comfortable. But have we ever thought about how that person is affected mentally by that comment?

Body shaming is spotted as one of the major reasons that lead to psychological disorders and mental distress. Body shaming is disgracing a person on his/her body image and physical appearance. This could be how fat or skinny that person is or regarding that person’s height.

Irrespective of knowing the inside theory or the reasons for the issue, we mindlessly deject that person using inappropriate words. Many healthy or skinny people suffer through the thyroid and have no control over their weight gain or loss. While there are many problems like gigantism and dwarfism urging around us. But still, body shaming has risen to an extremely critical level and has created an atmosphere of disgrace in society.

Most commonly, this happens among teenagers or the growing youth of our nation. Since children of their age are unaware of the consequences that can occur even on a fun comment, this mistake goes unspotted and hence not stopped. Subsequently, this leads to major illnesses like depression, anxiety, ADHD and even suicidal thoughts. Many children get victimized by child sexual abuse after being body shamed.

This prominently happens in schools, colleges, peer groups, relatives, even our parents. Sometimes the child’s parents make the child realize his/her imperfections for the good, the result is often quite opposite to what is affected. The child starts feeling useless in the eyes of their parents and loses confidence to present himself in front of the entire world. The child’s brain gets adversely affected by these warps at such a tender age that takes a lot of time to heal that internal wound.

Often the body shamers are those who themselves have been a victim of this issue or have seen this take place around them. These victims later turn into a culprit unknowingly and hence this chain is never-ending. People find ways to exempt their frustration and this usually happens in the same manner they got into that mood.

A child due to peer pressure often finds it cool enough to make a sarcastic comment on someone’s body as they might have seen someone do the same and liked the response that the person gained after committing so.

A teenager that undergoes body shaming in some way or the other shows various symptoms like, irritation, mood swings, not eating food, staying in his/her room for the entire day, not talking a regulated sleep, not talking to anyone which further lead to many health problems like anemia, insomnia.

In this generation, body shaming has reached new heights because of social media. People through online means can anonymously commit this very easily. It just takes a collection of some disappointing, disrespectful, slang words, and the person is mentally injured. Online media is a famous platform among teenagers and becomes an initial phase of interacting with varied people and outside people. And slowly, this boon has turned into a bane for the youth of the country. Many teenagers are trolled via Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat, or other social networking sites.

A precaution that the elders of the community can take is, teachers can right away stop or punish the student's body-shaming other students in front of them rather than ignoring them. Parents can act as friends and help their children talk to them. Schools should enact strict rules regarding this as it can risk the lives of the students. There could be counselors for the students to guide them through this situation and friends can support the victim in need and complain if anything like this happens around them. In the end, you need to take a stand for yourself, and not get suppressed as all it will do is promote this action in a forward direction. Always remember the phrase, "Spot the devil, to stop the devil".

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