Teaching teens to avoid the Super body trap

In a glamour-obsessed society which places high premium on physical beauty and form and promotes perfect body images through advertising, cinema and all-pervasive social media, there’s increasing pressure on adolescents to conform to improbable physical ideals. This growing body image obsession is prompting millions of teens worldwide to resort to extreme diets and punishing exercise routines with adverse physical and psychological consequences – Sruthy Susan Ullas Bangalore-based class VIII student Rahul Kumar (13) hates morning school assembly. The smallest boy in his class, he is asked to stand first in line every day, while his friends, a foot or two taller than him, stand behind, “looking strong and manly”. Back home from school, he weighs himself every evening, stares into the mirror and sulks. “He constantly compares himself with other boys in school and the neighbourhood and asks, ‘Why am I so small?’ We explained to him that his height is normal for an Indian child and that since we are not very tall ourselves it’s natural that he is of average build. But, we can’t mollify him,” says Lekha Kumar, Rahul’s mother, a resident of Bangalore. Last year Rahul signed up at the local gym and went on a super-protein diet. Academics, sports and co-curricular activities were abandoned. The gym-diet regimen continued for eight months, after which he insisted on taking vitamin/growth supplements. That was when Lekha realised it was time to seek professional help.    When 11-year-old Helen J, a class VI student of a top-ranked private school in Bangalore, began skipping daily, her parents initially believed their only child had discovered a new passion. But soon the skipping sessions continued into the wee hours of the morning, and her food intake was down to a daily scoop of ice cream. Helen’s paediatrician remembers her walking into the clinic covering her face because of her chubby cheeks. Recently this pre-teen was hospitalised for hypotension (low blood pressure) and extensive counseling.  Rahul and Helen are both suffering body image issues defined “as a person’s perception of physical self and the thoughts and feelings, positive, negative or both, which result from that perception” according to the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (Australia). In a glamour-obsessed society which places high premium on physical beauty and form and promotes perfect body images through advertising and cinema, there’s increasing pressure on adolescent as well as younger children to conform to improbable physical ideals. Constant exposure to idealised images of physical perfections such as flat abs, thin waists, toned arms, flawless complexions, bikini bods, etc are compelling a rising number of teens and children to chase the perfect body image ideal.  Moreover with the Internet-enabled social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc becoming ubiquitous, body shaming and bullying have acquired new meaning and momentum with a huge number of children suffering negative body image neuroses. Persistent negative body perception can result in depression, anxiety, anger, self-loathing, and eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, body dysmorphic disorders and exercise addiction. Once dismissed as a western…