Majority of the health conscious young women experience Anorexia, which is an eating disorder associated with poor eating habits motivated by the fear of becoming fat. This prevents young women from taking adequate calories of food. Sometimes young women affected by a condition called Bulimia, cannot resist the taste of certain food items and overeat; they later on purge out the food either by using laxatives or vomiting to avert weight gain (Kam, 2016). Binge eating is another feature of eating disorder affecting majority of young women. Women given to binge eating eat more often high quantities of food until they feel uncomfortable because of over eating. They do not practice purging after eating. Apart from the perpetual fear of becoming overweight, individuals with eating disorder also experience distress, unhappiness and low self-esteem.
While advising a young woman to eat healthy and lose weight, one should be careful not to use statements that prove accusatory or critical as this would only make the victim more defensive. Focusing more on the relationship with the individual is more important while talking about their eating disorders. For example, the advisor may talk about certain moments during which she was bothered about the eating habits of the individual, and slowly point out that such behaviors may require professional help. Privacy of the victim should be respected when the advisor expresses her concern about the individual’s health as it brings the advisor and victim closer. More importantly, while talking to an affected woman one should not demand a behavioral change as it tends to make the individual depressed.
One cannot imagine life without emotions, both positive and negative. A positive emotion like the joy of spending a weekend with a loved one is as important as a remorseful feeling like the death of a dear one. In short, emotions give color and meaning to various experiences in life. Adler and Hershfield (2012) studied the relationship between mixed emotions and psychological well being in individuals through repeated psychotherapy sessions. Interestingly, they found out that both positive and negative feelings motivated individuals to solve issues in life and get along cheerfully. For instance, most individuals revealed that they felt sad at times because of the stressful circumstances in life; however, they were also feeling hopeful and happy since they were successfully resolving the problems they encountered in life from time to time.
No doubt, circumstances that lead to positive emotions like love, happiness and joy always make individuals cheerful. But, what about depressing and remorseful situations that generate negative emotions ? Negative emotions help us to survive by overcoming situations warranting the same. For instance, a sad feeling indicates that a health or relationship issue needs immediate attention. In other words, negative emotions and thoughts hide within them a great deal of survival value, and suppressing them is equivalent to killing oneself. Last, but not the least, positive and negative emotions are more relative concepts than absolute ones. No individual who has ever experienced a sad feeling can experience a happy feeling since one cannot feel one without the other. Thus, if the world were full of individuals who are always happy and self-sufficient as they are, economic activities would come to a standstill. Similarly, a world full of sad people would make the world a hell of despair. As an individual who believes in inspirations that help me to feel unhappy so as to become happy by achieving something, I would not take the pill that would not allow me to feel either of the emotions.
Reference
Adler J.M., & Hershfield H.E. (2012). Mixed Emotional Experience Is Associated with and Precedes Improvements in Psychological Well-Being. PLoS ONE 7(4): e35633. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0035633
Kam, K. (2016). Eating disorders in children and teens. WebMD. Retrieved from http://www. webmd.com/mental-health/eating-disorders/features/eating-disorders-children-teens
