How much should we hold body-shaming accountable for adolescent mental health?

"You're fat"

The three-worded sentences may seem very simple but they may affect the consciousness of one in a catastrophic way, which may seem unimaginable. Adolescence is a sensitive time of the human life cycle. All mental, physical, social, sexual, and psychological development takes place during this phase. Some realize the importance of varieties of factors while others just prefer spending it fooling around with friends and floating in the world of their interest. This period of a few years is like a series of chemical reactions where the composition of each chemical gets more complicated over time.

At such a focal time, the psychological development should consist of

something that makes these adolescents more confident and secure

about themselves. However, occurrences such as body shaming do no

help. Humiliating someone about their physical appearance, in

general, is excruciating for the person, and if the person is a

teenager passing through their stage of evolution then the effect of

the words may be the reason why someone lives their whole life in

insecurity. At such vulnerable times, they endeavour to be accepted by their peers and all other third parties.

Now that we mention this term, the question comes in; What is body shaming? Body shaming is the act of mocking or humiliating someone on the basis of their physical appearance. The scale of things that include body-shaming tactics are uncountable, but the common ones include- skin, weight, body shape, body hair, hair, skin marks, and many others. Studies say body shaming has often led to social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and isolation in the long run. These teenagers who have been distinguished poorly just because of their shape of skin color, often isolate themselves from the trauma of the insult. This also raises self-acceptance problems amongst this group as the thought “I am not good enough” gets imprinted on their minds. Additionally, like a domino effect, the arrival of eating disorders, weight fluctuation, and depression occur.

Here comes the place of what we can do to protect ourselves and others out of this. Primarily, we have to first learn to love ourselves and our bodies. What others say can be hurtful and make us question ourselves, but we must understand the importance of appreciating and accepting our flaws. Secondarily, maintenance of healthy relationships of people with a body-positive mind and those who accept people despite flaws have shown a decrease in depressive symptoms. After all, positive peer pressure is the best for vulnerable teenagers. Lastly, when we pass through our stage of learning about self-appreciation, it is time to spread the knowledge among people and educate them on how to help themselves and help others. This way we can all find a way out of this loophole. We all misunderstand, that one’s physical appearance is a topic of sensitivity and we must not trigger them in any way which would affect their mental health and well-being in the long run. Thus, it is time for us to play our roles as the responsible party of society and put an end to such stigma not only for the good of the society but also ourselves. As Maya Angelou said...

"YOU MAY NOT CONTROL ALL THE EVENTS THAT HAPPEN TO YOU,BUT YOU CAN DECIDE NOT TO BE REDUCED BY THEM"