PUBERTY

Adolescence is an exciting period during which plenty of physical and psychological changes occur. Your body becomes curvier and gradually turns into a woman’s body. This means that you are healthy and that you develop properly. However, sometimes you may feel awkward with your body changing or even displeased.

During this transitional stage of adolescence, your goal is to accept these changes that gradually happen to your body and obtain a harmonious relationship with yourself and your new looks. Besides, when you like yourself and feel well with your body, you don’t care about other’s opinion.

While trying to like yourself or be liked by others you may experiment with your diet and significantly reduce your weight. You may even follow dangerous and excessive diets, without a specialized nutritionist’s supervision. It is therefore important that you get informed about eating disorders and remember that an eating disorder may occur insidiously and grow without you even realizing it, thus altering reality as well as your goals.

If you have “strange” ideas about nutrition and how to handle it, if you cause self-inflicted vomit, if you use medication to lose weight, if you follow a fitness program and you constantly increase exercise time, if feel guilty when you haven’t exercised or if you are obsessed with constantly losing weight while neglecting other aspects of your life, talk to your family and consult your paediatrician.

It is really important to know that nutrition is the fuel that makes your body function. Depriving your body from food may be a form of punishment or even a method of torture towards yourself.

Remember that your body is you. It is the means for you to be able to express yourself and communicate. Your body needs care and affection, which is why you should show your love to it and preserve your good health.

In collaboration with:

Vassiliki Dimitrakopoulou

Psychologist, Scientific Associate of the Greek Society of Adolescent Medicine