Young Adults' Body Image Linked to Suicide

[BlueIris]

Iris was quite horrified by this story over on cnn.com. Not like it's news to her, exactly, but the percentage of teenagers now reporting that they have considered suicide is very alarming to me. Thought the parents of teens around here might want to know about this, in case you have not seen it already.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/06/06/weight.suicide.risks.ap/index.html

[Modem Butterfly]

1. You know, Terri Schiavo's condition was brought on by bulimia

Poor body image is no joke.

[BlueIris]

2. I've read that about Ms. Shiavo; I agree, it's no joke.

I posted this here because I couldn't decide if it should go in LBN and it didn't look right for GD, and mainly because lots and lots of parents have been talking about their teenaged children in here lately. There are about a thousand things to pay attention to when it comes to child-rearing these days, and I've been under the impression that awareness about what a teenager's body image may indicate about his or her mental state is low down on some parents' radars in terms of "Major Issues to Care About WRT My Kid(s)." That kind of scares the shit out of me, especially when body image "alone" is apparently connected with a young person's liklihood of taking his or her own life. And don't even get me started on how many people I come in contact with everyday who think it's "not a big deal" to make unsolicited, unnecessarily critical comments about another person's appearance, even if that person is (sometimes very) young. I hate that.

[xmas74]

3. I would absolutely believe it.

I thought about suicide as a teen. I was bulemic (and still struggle w/ the aftermath to this day). I had one teacher who "noticed" me at an early age. And then there was my coach who said that my boobs were too big to be a runner. I was 13 at the time. That brought on the starvation diets, the binging, the guilt, the purging and then more guilt.
I wanted to die. I hated being so different.

[BlueIris]

4. I'm sorry that you had to go through all that.

:(

[xmas74]

5. That's life.

Women everywhere can agree w/ that. Maybe they haven't had the same experiences but so many have had the same thoughts as a teenager. Just look at their role models. Mine were at the beginning of the heroin chic phase-very hard for a slender yet curvy teen to compete with.