Jamie Olivo is a Registered Dietician at the Eating Recovery Center of California in Sacramento. She helps adolescents and adults with eating disorderswhich can be very deadly and easily concealed. Yesterday she spoke to therapists and counselors at a community lunch networking event at ERC’s cafeteria. “Social media is definitely a factor,” she said, “Kids are keeping photos on Instagram that continue to inspire their extreme emotions around food, weight and body size.”

Dr. Jessica Rodriguez, is a mental health and addiction specialist serving the greater Sacramento area. As CEO & Clinical Director at GatewayCorp in Sacramento, offering addiction, trauma, and family system services, she has a lot of experience working with eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia. “Eating disorders are intense,” she said. “They are the result of a toxic and shameful belief system that says, ‘Something is wrong with me.’”

I have spent a great deal of time researching the impact of negative body image messages that our youth face. Whether secular or non-secular, within family systems, the school system, church, social media or literature, many of our youth live within unhealthy, dysfunctional, non-supportive family systems, and thus develop faulty beliefs about themselves and harmful behaviors which can lead to poor self image, unhealthy choices, behaviors to including eating disorders, addiction, process addictions, sex behaviors, and more. As you know from the research, information and trainings of Banana Moments Foundation, the complexity that social media, cyber world activities and the epidemic decline in family values, morality, sexual exploitation further complicate the world through the eyes of our youth. I am passionate about sharing this information to bring about a greater awareness for parents that may be reading this article.

We must stand firm daily in what we enjoy and embrace to be beautiful. We live in a culture constantly presenting its views and perspectives of what beauty is. We are bombarded through social media, magazines, peers, with their definitions/opinions of beauty, perspectives often driven by greed and power. These can distract us from experiencing what we truly find to be beautiful.