UK Traveler!

Body beautiful.

Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemans. My name is Magdalena Kensy, I’m coming from Germany and stay for one year in Newent. Today I want to speak about how teenage girls become addicted to anorexia nervosa and how girls start to think that one day, they will be able to reach this new perfect body.

Social pressure gets more and more today. Teenagers have more stress, and not only in school. I want to speak about beauty pressure. A daunting disease is anorexia nervosa or called Ana by the people they pursue to get serious sickness. Anorexia nervosa is todays mental illness with the most casualties. Nearly 95% of all women and girls who contract this disease, get it without their knowledge. The most people concerned are between 12 and 20 years old and the rate ascends yearly. Boys can be affected too, but is this ten times less frequent. 

Why this happens isn’t always due to a bad family background. The society reward discipline, diligence and self control with success and can guide at the extrem case of anorexia nervosa.
This is the reason why a lot of determined, ambitious and successful girls can be affected just as easily. 

If one twin gets affected the chance, that the other gets it increases by 50%. The children from past addicted parents the risk is ten times higher, as at the children which had parents who were involved.

The hungry feeling after a time is an adrenalin kick. You can compare this feeling with great success experiences in sport or at work. Everything is focused on eating habits and the lying (lügen) about why they don’t eat. They are addicted to anorexia nervosa. 

At the beginning it is a normal wish to have a sporty body, but then it goes over the line. The affected person doesn’t have feelings anymore for their body, the only feeling is that they are always to big. Regardless of how undernourished they are. This wrong image gets worst, but they see people around as normal. 

One reason for the wrong image is social media and photoshop. Social media gives us everywhere unrealistic pictures from woman. The society effluences everybody with body shapes. The perfect “dream“ body should be skinny and has no fat on stomach, hips or legs. Photoshop is used nearly everywhere and all the time. Often, it is to make them “prettier“ and “thinner“. When we see magazine photos, they are not realistic. They see the image and see that, if one person can look like this “naturally“, why can’t the rest of them? 

People compare themselves with models and get a wrong idea of perfection. Daily, potentially thousands women lose self confidence and self esteem due to this false advertisement. 

We must keep away from the illusion, that we all need the perfect photoshop body. Anorexia nervosa is not a healthy way to lose weight. Looking for a healthy lifestyle with a sporty body isn’t a crime, but it needs time to lose weight and this way you look healthy and not sick. But still as many as 70% of teenage girls and a smaller but growing number of boys go on a diet. To do so,     many people use crash diet or starve themselves or purge (pershe) or use laxatives after meals so as not to gain weight. 

The other risks, which arise, are heart failure and kidney failure. It is difficult for doctors to treat people with anorexia against their wishes. After a time our body is not able to work, because of the missing nutrients. Cardiac irregularity (problems), fainting spells, hair falling out and tooth problems are typical syndromes.
The anorexic feels always cold and gets dry skin, it gets easier to break bones and they can suffer sensory loss. Another effect for women is that they don’t get menstruation anymore. 

An ancillary effect is bulimia, where the anorexic beings on food and then they make themselves vomit. Quite often are bulimia, panic attacks, personality disorder or depressiv episodes a side effect from anorexia nervosa. 

Do you want to be the reason, why your family and friends are always worried ?  That they must control you eating habits and never loose sight of you? 

The involve persons have a difficult way to overcome their habit with no eating, counting calories and become influenced by others. This disease can destroy, the family, friendships and relationships. 

Only on third recover and can leave anorexia behind them without relapsing again, another third recover, but than relapse much later. The sad fact, is that the person, who is more addicted to anorexia than the others, will have a big fight and 20% of them will lose the fight.

Their self discipline may kill them. 

We may feel like these issues are a million miles away and have nothing to do with us. However one day we may have daughters or granddaughters and they will not be immune from the pressure that the media will put on them to look a certain way. You can play your part. 

People with eating disorders are often afraid to ask for help. Some are struggling just as much as you are to find a way to start a conversation about their problem, while others have such a low self-esteem  they simply don't feel that they deserve any help. Eating disorders will only get worse without treatment, and the sooner you start to help a loved one, the better their chances of recovery.

• • Tell them you are concerned about their health, but respect their privacy. 

  • Do not comment on how they look like; the person is already too aware of their body.

  • Avoid power struggles about eating, do not demand that they change. 

  • Avoid giving simple solutions and recommend they get professional help. 

I for one have stopping buying those celebrity magazines and have stopped believing all the lies being told me by the fashion and diet industies. Instead, I would encourage young people to focus on learning to love and accept yourself. Seeing a lower number on a scale and fitting into a smaller dress size not make you happy. Happiness can only come from within an beauty is more than just the number on a scale.