The popular 90s teen magazines seemingly checked all of the boxes. They featured hot women on the cover, gave important lifestyle tips to motivate people to live healthier lives, and also spilled the tea on all of the juicy gossip that kept fans engaged in the entertainment business—but there was one thing that 90s magazines did wrong, and that’s provide the harmful illusion of what the ideal body looks like, especially for younger women. These publications were highly influential to young, impressionable girls who believed that achieving the perfect body was possible, and caused them to spiral into unhealthy methods of weight control and physical appearance.
Now, of course I’m not indicating that teen magazines were the root cause of body disorders, but they definitely played a role in the dysmorphic and skewed perceptions of one’s own body, making them believe that certain parts of their body were far too big, and that other parts were not big enough. These toxic beliefs destroyed the confidence of people who based their self-esteem on their physical appearance.
Eating disorders feed off of low self-esteem. In many cases, people who develop insecurities with the way that they look tend to resort to extreme methods of body transformation. Rather than looking for healthy ways to cope with their low confidence, they typically strive to achieve perfection—or at least what they believe is perfection. Eating disorders are a major epidemic among teenagers and young adults and often go unnoticed until things get too late. On average, about 10,200 people die each year due to dealing with the crippling psychological disease.
The most common eating disorder following Binge-Eating Disorder (BED), is Anorexia Nervosa. Victims of this harsh disease strive to achieve extremely low weight, often by skipping meals, consuming laxatives, and doing frequent body-checks to ensure that their results stay consistent with their perception of what the ideal body looks like. Individuals who develop Bulimia, another common eating disorder, often voluntarily purge to avoid gaining weight. Victims of both anorexia and bulimia generally display similar behaviors as they constantly view their bodies to ensure that they have reached an unhealthy level of skinniness and are usually deeply satisfied by people who react to their illnesses in awe. Despite the concerns of close family members and friends, individuals who develop eating disorders are not phased by the discomfort and uneasiness of the people who watch them suffer. In fact, their adverse reactions make the disease stronger and encourage victims to strive for even higher extremes.
The illness is mainly psychological, an aspect that makes it highly dangerous and tough to kick. The only motivation for a person suffering from an eating disorder is through their own self-realization that their behavior is unhealthy. None of their peers or close family members can actively force them to seek treatment as they have to come to the decision through their own free will—and considering how psychologically-bearing many eating disorders are, getting a person to realize that they are sick, in many cases, seems almost impossible. Many people who suffer from the illness choose to keep it to themselves as they do not want to worry the people around them and hear the harsh criticisms and truth around the disorder.
As the disorder becomes more intense, not only does the body take a toll, but social relationships are deeply affected in the process. Many victims begin to feel alone and lose interest in seeking others for advice. People who suffer from the disease begin to distance themselves, finding themselves in a hole that is far deeper than the disease’s beginning stages.
The best way to avoid the disease is to encourage body positivity in the early stages of a person’s life and to stay clear of any harmful influences that may promote insecurity. Reminding people that they are perfect the way that they are while pushing healthy lifestyles that can promote positive development and growth can stop someone in your life from falling into such a tragic statistic.
National Alliance for Eating Disorders (NAED) Hotline: 1-866-662-1235
