Over the years our looks have been emphasized and pushed to the limits, it is not enough that we have to deal with teen and child obesity, but we also have to worry if all that pressure coming from the media will make our children the total opposite. We have the right to be worried, after all that is exactly what is happening. From one side we have experts telling us that our children are obese and they are explaining consequences of obesity from both health and social perspective. On the other side we have tabloids, news magazines, health magazines, TV shows and about everything else showing us pictures of extremely well built men. So when you think about it, it is not unnatural for our teenage boys to want to look like a poster guy with mighty abs and great muscles, which is the part where we talk about the Adonis Complex.

Adonis Complex is basically an eating disorder for boys, which is the same as anorexia is for girls. Although they are too different types and Adonis Complex covers much more problems than anorexia, they both appear because of the same reasons; teenagers wanting to look good, teenager not satisfied with how they look at the moment and want to look better. As for girls the standard is to lose weight and look like models, for boys it’s a bit different, the current golden standard is have muscles like a gladiator, and you can see more and more teenager built like they came out of a Terminator movie. When you look at teen starts like Taylor Lautner it is no wonder that other teen boys want to look like him. But the fact is that not all of us can achieve that with exercise, so most teens that are obsessing with their looks end up using steroids.

Adonis Complex is not only associated with steroids, in fact it describes the whole unhealthy process of teen boys wanting to be like some of their unrealistic role models. That simply can’t be achieved with workout, so they go on unhealthy diets; they use excessive exercise methods and end up feeling depressed because they realize it will not happen for them. That is when they start taking steroids and start destroying their health completely. In recent studies was shown that teen boys actively practicing any sport are less likely to use steroids than an average teen boy who isn’t much in contact with sport. That is simply because athlete teenagers have been told countless of times the consequences of using steroids, so it’s all about early education.

Which leads to helping your child if you notice that he has some of the symptoms mentioned above, like overly exercising, unhealthy eating, preoccupation with his appearance and of course using dietary supplements and steroids? There are two steps, first is to educate your child about the negative effects of such behavior and steroids, which is something you need to start early. The second is to try and get your boys confidence up, his self worth is all that ties him to the normal life. Once teenagers start having low self worth they will go to these desperate measures for people to like them and recognize them as men.
 

Every parent is worried about his child, that is how parenting goes, and we are never sure if we are worrying enough as there is always something new we learn about. One of the most common worries of a parent is his child’s eating, is he eating enough, is he eating too much, does he have a disorder, maybe anorexia, obesity, or something else.

Parents today are mostly well informed about eating disorders and most of the parents know what eating disorders are, what symptoms are for each one and how to help their child in such a situation. Most of you probably know about Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating or some of you may know even about Anorexia Athletica and Night Eating, but the truth is that media covered all of that and for some reason forgot about other, equally spread, types of eating disorder you can see anywhere.

You all heard about people who simply can’t help themselves and try to chew on anything, starting from chalk, paint, starch, glue and even cigarette ashes, that is also one type of eating disorders and it is called Pica. In most cases this is a mentally inherited disorder, but in some cases people can develop it, mostly poor families where children are neglected and basically have nothing to eat, with no supervision from the parents kids will put just about anything in their mouth.

One of the most feared types of eating disorders that has many bad effects on a person is Prader-Willi Syndrome. Prader-Willi Syndrome is developed at birth; the problem is with the brain, actually it is caused by a defect in the hypothalamus, which is the part that regulates hunger and in this case it makes a person never feel full, so they will eat and eat and eat every chance they get, they will eat anything they can get, starting from dog food to spoiled food.

Also, did you know that there is the total opposite of Anorexia called Bigorexia? In most cases people will Bigorexia can be found in bodybuilding circles, but that is because they are drawn to it. This is an eating disorder where a person needs; it has a need to gain more weight and always feels little, no matter how big the person is. Besides obesity which is common with this disorder most of the people suffer kidney failure and hormonal imbalances, which is all due to the steroids and additives they are taking in order to gain more muscle and more weight.

These are all severe eating disorders but you will most likely not hear about them because anorexia is somehow popular to talk about, so people forget about disorders that are as threatening as Anorexia or even more. Maybe it is the fact that those skinny models on TV constantly remind us of Anorexia so we talk about it so much. You need to understand that there are dozens of eating disorders, and before you jump to any conclusion by yourself and try to treat your kid at home you should take your child to a doctor that will establish a diagnose, after all, doctors do know best when it comes to medicine. Don’t try to be the smart guy by saying I know what it is and how to cure it, some things should be left to professionals, understand that you are responsible for your child. By not taking him to a doctor you are playing with his health and his life, which is not a gamble you can afford.
 

Since the 80’s, teen obesity has been on the rise in the United States, and now in the 21st century we are facing serious issues when it comes to teen obesity. Even though it is a known problem talked about every day, most of the parents, in fact over 80% of parents think their children have a healthy and normal weight. The reality is different, over 35% of the teen population is obese, so that makes 20% of the parents wrong and not focused on their children.

Director of the Trust for America’s Health, Jeffrey Levi, stated that obesity is currently the biggest public health issue the United States has to face. The cat is that we are facing a serious issue, but the people of the United States somehow fail to see that truth. Whatever the reason for parents to ignore this, they will have to, because, this is an alarming issue that lead to much more complicated things.

People have to realize that obese is not chubby, and definitely not cute. The fact that a child is obese means that it has over 25% of body fat, and that is more than unhealthy. The fact is that obesity often leads to heart diseases and serious heart conditions that none of us would like to face. If that is not enough for people to worry, well obesity causes diabetes and strokes, in addition to many other life threatening problems. We need to be alarmed, every year over 300,000 people dies because of the issues and diseases caused by obesity, some wars took fewer lives than obesity in the United States alone for each year. If this didn’t frighten you then maybe the fact that children ages 10 to 13 who are obese have over 80% chances to become obese adults that will have all the problems that come with obesity!

So what can we do about it, how do we explain to our ten year old child that he needs to lose weight because his life might be at risk. We don’t, it is impossible to say that to a child and expect him to understand without giving him the fright of his life, so what you should do is play the fun card. By telling your child to go play ball and jump ropes for fun or because that way he will be able to do something he loves is the best way to motivate your kids for some physical activities that will result in losing weight.

Most of this is our fault, we allowed the computer era to crawl under our children’s skins making them uninterested into going outside like we used to. We allowed them to stay all day in the house playing games, chatting online, and doing all sorts of things that have no physical movement, as a result they got fat, unhealthy fat. This is the time to start changing all of that or we are going to face plenty of children ending up with heart conditions and other fatal diseases causes by obesity.
 

There is a certain type of eating disorder that is so unlike bulimia and anorexia nervosa. This eating disorder, called Compulsive Overeating, is characterized by an individual’s addiction over food. It stems from stress, low self-esteem, and a need to turn to foods for comfort over emotions that cannot be addressed or dealt with. The individuals who have this particular disorder tend to feel inadequate and as such, they use foods to fill up the empty void within themselves.

Those who are suffering from this disorder are mostly overweight individuals. These people generally are ashamed of their size, but couldn’t do anything to reverse the situation as foods are their means of providing themselves an escape. A person suffering as a Compulsive Overeater is at health risk for a heart attack, high blood-pressure and cholesterol, kidney disease and/or failure, arthritis and bone deterioration, and stroke.

It is important to note that Compulsive Overeating is a serious eating disorder. It should not be neglected nor ignored.

Teen’s body perception could result into an eating disorder. It is the idea of being thin that pressures most of these kids. Somehow they believe that skinny is pretty, or somehow they just want to avoid being teased at school. That’s why some of them resort to diet pills. The scary part is that, these drugs are accessible over the counter. Such drugs contain caffeine, Phenylpropranolamine and Ephedrine that are considered very dangerous if abused.

Little did parents know that alcohol is a kind of drug. In fact, it is responsible for most drug-related deaths. Why? Because it is related to a number of health risks. Besides, it is very hard to prevent teenagers from being curious with alcohol. The top risk factors of alcohol include drink driving, binge drinking and unsafe sex. Other risks include drowning and brawling or fighting.

Sometimes teenagers have a hard time determining what they are feeling. As parents, you probably know when kids are bit disappointed, irritated, or tired. Of course, these feelings are natural, but expressing them need to be channeled. This is the part when parents step in and help the teen kids deal with the problem. It is about teaching them how to identify the cause, determining the emotional extent, and then finding ways for proper responses.

Losing or failure is one of the things that teenagers have a hard time coping, or at least for some of them. There are kids who could manage to sulk for about 30 minutes about a certain situation. Others, on the other hand, could not really take it and eventually they don’t know how to deal with it. This frustration could last for days or weeks. If this happens, parents should be ready to help their kids deal with the situation as well as their emotions. The point is, teenagers should learn to accept failure.