According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of suicide among teen girls ages 15 to 19 doubled between 2007 and 2015, marking the highest rate in 40 years!
Young people are constantly bombarded with unattainable images of beauty and fitness, through the media and social media. And there is some evidence that there may be a strong connection between body image issues, mental health and suicide.
It is so important that you have a healthy body image in order to help protect your mental health. And one of the ways to do this is to perhaps reduce the amount of social media you ingest.
According to a recent study of 276 American and Australian women (ages 18-25), looking at Instagram for just 30 minutes a day could have a very negative impact on your body image.
All of the women in the study had instagram accounts.
“Greater overall Instagram use was associated with greater self-objectification, and that relationship was mediated both by internalization and by appearance comparisons to celebrities. More frequently viewing fitspiration images on Instagram was associated with greater body image concerns, and that relationship was mediated by internalization, appearance comparison tendency in general, and appearance comparisons to women in fitspiration images,” according to authors of the study.
This constant state of comparing your body to another person could lead to chronic depression or even worse, suicide. And all it may take is 30 minutes a day.
Additional research needs to be done on this, however, it may not hurt to take a break from constantly scrolling through your social media feeds for those perfect body images. Our time may be better spent by being proactive about achieving or maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
For example, there are various foods you can eat that contain critical nutrients which may reduce the likelihood of depression or improve depressive symptoms.
Zinc. Many clinical studies have been done to determine the relationship between zinc and depression. Zinc levels are generally low in those with major depression. Zinc rich foods include lamb, pumpkin seeds, grass fed beef, mushrooms, chickpeas, spinach and chicken to get more zinc in your daily diet.
So if you start to feel a little down after looking at those perfect body images on social media for an extended period of time, consider taking a break and refocus your energies on how you can enjoy a healthy life.