Media & Psychological Disorders in Americans

The media is all around Americans, in magazines, on the internet, and the television, sharing information with people from coast to coast. However, the media displays beautiful women, with unattainable bodies, perfect completions, and flawless hair. Thousands of young teenagers and adults suffer from body image disorders and have very low self-confidence. The main reason most of these disorders occur connects to the media. Young girls idolize beautiful women from magazines and television programs and dream that one day they can have the same
body or appearance. The media can cause females to have eating disorders, spend thousands of dollars on plastic surgery, or even become depressed.

Many Thoughts run through a teenager’s mind as they watch the television and see beautiful women, for example, how can I look like that The media shows very thin, gorgeous girls with plastic flawless faces, and young females wonder why they don’t have the same beauty as the models in magazines. This attitude that most females have is linked to eating disorders.

Women want to possess bodies that look just like the models, so instead of eating right and exercising many women use weightless techniques that are harmful to their health. “The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight control—including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting” (Media Awareness). Extreme measures are used to ensure weight loss, but instead of feeling healthy and beautiful in their skin, women feel pressured by the media’s image of beauty to use destructive eating disorders to lose weight.

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The media also causes womenan to spend thousands of dollars on plastic surgery. The media talks about plastic surgery all the time, don’t like it, fix it, is the idea many women around America think when seeing bodies transformed from plastic surgery. Teenagers are now getting breast implants due to the thought that their bodies are not perfect without larger breasts, thinner legs, or bigger lips, Psychotherapist Dorothy Ratusny states through the ages of thirteen to
nineteen teenagers who consider having plastic surgery to change their appearance often suffer from low self-esteem (Wansbrough). The media’s standards of beauty cause teens to feel unattractive and ultimately lower their self-esteem, causing an increase in plastic surgery among teens and young adults,

Also, the media can distort teens’ body image o the point where depression can occur, Low self-esteem can lead to the perception of little or no self-worth among teens as well as young adults. “Adolescents with negative body image concerns are more likely to be depressed, anxious, and suicidal than those without intense dissatisfaction over their appearance” (Lifespan), The negative attitude aimed toward teen’s bodies comes from being different than others around them either in school, work, and images they see in the media.

Every day women see pictures of these models and actresses on the television, on the computer, or in the books and magazines they read. Normally, women pick out little details about themselves that are different than those they see in the media, Unfortunately, women take these differences negatively leading to depression, plastic surgery, and eating disorders, instead of thinking of them as unique. If we all looked that same we would be replicas of one another, everyone is different that’s what makes us special.