Body changes

You will experience frequent changes in your body as you mature into an adult.

Before you know it, some things in your body grow bigger, and hair grows on places you would never expect hair to grow on, and so on:

• With so many changes in your body, you will become more aware of your looks and sometimes feel insecure about how you look
• Changes in the body become a concern for many teenagers. This can be a problem when it turns into an obsession

What is a body image problem?

When you are very unhappy about the way you look and desperately want to look different, then you have a body image problem.

If you have this problem, you may find yourself very unhappy with:

• Your overall look (e.g. “I’m so fat, my bum has it’s own postcode!)
• A particular part of your body (e.g. “I wish I had a chin like Anuar Zain!”)

When you are not happy with your body, it is only natural for you to want to change it and go all out to bring about a change.

Looking for change can become an obsession to the point that you find it hard to cope with your daily activities.

If you have a body image problem, you would generally focus on your weight for fear of becoming fat. This problem is more common amongst girls.

Boy may focus on wanting to be a well-chiseled macho man so that they appear attractive to girls!

Consequences of body image problems

If you have body image problems, you will find yourself obsessed over how you may change your body.

You may be:

• Practicing inappropriate dieting
• Over-exercising
• Experimenting various ways to enhance or hide certain parts of your body
• Having low self-esteem
• Feeling extremely sensitive to other people’s views about yourself
• Pre-occupied with how you look and wanting to look different

Some people who have serious body image problem can have eating disorder eg. Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa.

How to cope with these irrational thoughts?

• Focus on the concept of “Health is Wealth”- it is better to BE healthy than to look the way you want
• People who are healthy automatically look good and have more friends
• Eat in moderation and have a balanced diet
• Exercise regularly and safely to keep fit (exercise)
• Learn to be happy with yourself and accept how you look
• Learn to love yourself and improve your self-esteem
• Be more positive minded and learn to change negative thinking to positive ones; no matter how bad a situation may seem
• Make friends who accept you for who you are and not for how you look

Where to go get help?

You can find help from your:

• School counselor
• Family doctor
• Psychologist