Understanding the links between alcoholism and bad hygiene

Having a strong handle on one’s personal hygiene is something that we should all strive to ensure is an active and consistent priority of ours. There are different circumstances and instances in all our lives that have a different effect on our hygiene. It might sound strange, but it is true. One such circumstance is alcoholism. This is a lifestyle habit that not only wreaks havoc on one’s body internally, but also externally, including their hygiene.

Of course, there are so many other contributing factors to the state of one’s personal hygiene, including showering or bathing habits, using deodorant, healthy diet, and even geographical climate (to name a few key examples). When it comes to alcoholism, there is a steady fall from hygienic grace, and it tends to happen throughout the course of the addiction worsening. So, we must understand alcoholism and its effect on personal hygiene to get a crystal clear visual of the big picture.

Does alcohol genuinely impact one’s personal hygiene?

First of all, is alcohol detox necessary? And is there really any concrete links between alcoholism and bad hygiene? Well, the answer can be found in one foul swoop. That answer is that yes, an alcohol detox is necessary for addicted individuals, not only for their returned health and wellness, but for the replenishment of their personal hygiene. Many individuals who are impacted by alcohol addiction themselves face its perils with little to no understanding of just how deeply it impacts their entire lives. This is how the problem looms.

How and why does this happen?

The fact is that when an individual becomes addicted to alcohol, they gradually begin to prioritise their addiction over all other aspects of their life. This includes, of course, their personal hygiene. Showering and maintaining all other external hygiene standards becomes less important, because the addiction starts to take on a life of its own – a life that is fundamentally hinged on knowing where the next drink is going to come from, and caring about little (or nothing) else.

What can be done to encourage a healthier lifestyle?

Individuals who are addicted to alcohol generally let their addiction overpower every other instance in their life, to the point where all else becomes irrelevant and unimportant – even the things that once mattered more than anything to them. The personal hygiene issue is one of the most prominent in all the world when it comes to individuals directly impacted by alcoholism, and it becomes all-encompassing in all the worst ways. So, encouraging a healthier lifestyle in those battling through these issues is at first daunting, but ultimately necessary if there is to be any hope going forward.

Ways of doing this are inviting the individual out and getting ready together (often seeing other people take care of themselves flips the switch in they themselves) or encouraging them to seek out a treatment centre (where personal hygiene will be dealt with accordingly and sensitively), or any other manner of approaches to dealing with the issue head on. Support and understanding can be the ultimate bridge to recovery from these types of issues. It truly can – and often does – make a world of difference, and on an ongoing basis, at that.

Four Great Reasons to Drink Tea Instead of Coffee

The health industry is growing in 2019 – and we’re starting to see new diets and trends developing, from the keto diet to intermittent fasting. Another health trend we’re only starting to understand is the benefits of tea.

Caffeine is the best addiction. No, really – although the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal can certainly be nasty, putting its victims through nasty headaches and mood swings, there’s really no reason to ever stop. Caffeine has been shown to be a proven mood booster, making you feel good and energized at the same time. It can help to improve focus and memory and boost awareness while helping to get rid of grogginess, making it a favorite of early morning workers and late night studyholics alike. Drinks and foods with caffeine also tend to contain other beneficial compounds like antioxidants that are good for more than just your grades or end of quarter performance reviews. But not all caffeinated drinks are created equal. Although coffee is universally beloved because of its high caffeine content, it turns out that tea is actually better for you in more ways than one.

It’s Good for Your Brain

In addition to its other benefits, tea – and green tea specifically – has been found to contain a compound called EGCG, which has been shown in controlled studies to counteract the negative health effects associated with bad diets. This includes weight gain and diabetes, but several kinds of mental decline have also been linked to an unhealthy eating regimen, including Alzheimers, which some have nicknamed “Type 3 diabetes” due to its dietary causes.

It’s Good for Your Body

Tea and coffee certainly both contain caffeine, but the methods of preparation differ significantly. Tea absorbs caffeine from leaves via seeping, wherein the high temperatures allow chemicals from the plant leaves to enter the water. Coffee, on the other hand, absorbs chemicals from ground beans, usually through a porous paper or metal filter. The difference may seem miniscule but the fine fain of coffee grounds makes for a much thicker final product and that means more work for your kidneys, which can develop stones if they process too much sedimentary liquid and not enough water, a much higher risk for coffee than tea.

No Acrylamide

Another risk associated with coffee is acrylamide, a chemical compound associated with an increased risk of cancer that presents itself as a result of the roasting process that coffee beans undergo before they are ground up to become powder. There are other foods that can produce acrylamide as a result of overcooking, but it’s easier to avoid french fries than coffee. Because tea leaves aren’t roasted, there’s no risk of producing acrylamide simply by boiling the dried leaves.

More Varieties

Many varieties of tea contain caffeine, but many also do not, and tea drinkers have a much wider variety to choose from. There are teas that are good for waking up, teas that are good for sleeping, teas that are good for promotive healthy digestive function, and a whole range of other teas in different flavors and with different functions

6 Ways to Get a Good Night’s Sleep

When it comes to sleep, many of us don’t realize how important a good night’s sleep really is. But, in reality, it can be more important than exercising and a healthy diet. Poor sleep does much more than make you cranky. As research shows, it affects your hormones, brain function, physical performance, and aids in weight gain. If you want a better night’s sleep, then here are six things you should do.

Cut the blue light

Though most of us are on our phones before bed, your phone is doing more harm than good. Nighttime light exposure impacts your circadian rhythm, making your brain believe it’s daytime. When this happens, your brain reduces the production of melatonin, which is responsible for relaxing your body. If you’re going to use a device at night, block blue light. If you watch tv before bed, turn it off two hours before sleeping.

Stay away from liquids before bed

Many people have their sleep disrupted because they wake up to use the bathroom. Nocturia is an actual medical term for excessive urination during the night. And it really affects your sleep quality. Avoid drinking large amounts of liquid before bed. Yes, hydration is important So you can drink fluids, but 1-2 hours before going to sleep.

No late-night coffees

During the day, coffee can give you the boost you need; enhancing your energy and focus. But if you’re drinking coffee late in the day, this could negatively affect your sleep. Caffeine stays in your body for up to 8 hours. So, if you’re drinking coffee or any caffeinated drinks after 4 p.m., you need to stop.

Sleep consistently

Our bodies are in sync with nature. Meaning, our circadian rhythm is aligned with sunrise and sunset. It’s crucial you maintain a regular sleep cycle; waking up and going to bed at the same times each time. Though weekends may be your time to let loose, try to maintain your sleep cycle through the weekends as well.

Get the right mattress and pillow

Sometimes we get the best night’s sleep in a hotel. And that’s because the quality of their beds is usually quite good. A poor-quality bed does more than keep you up all night. The wrong bed can also increase lower back pain. So, it’s important to upgrade your bedding every 5-8 years. You don’t need to buy the best mattress brand to get good sleep, but you do need one which focuses on quality.

Exercise daily

If you’re struggling with falling asleep at night, exercise could be a simple solution. To this day, exercise is one of the best ways to improve your sleep. Not only does it reduce symptoms of insomnia, but exercise also gets you a deep sleep. That being said, you shouldn’t exercise before bed. Exercising late at night can have the opposite effect of what you want.

When it comes to health, sleep is a major factor. If you want to improve your sleep, try out the tips above.

The intrinsic links between diet and physical health

When it comes to understanding our health, it is fair to say that we all have a much stronger grasp on everything health-related than we did twenty years ago. Now an ever-growing body of research, all things health and wellness are covered on the daily. When it comes to supporting and promoting our physical health, the most commonly discussed contributing factor is nearly always diet. A healthy diet has a significant impact on one’s physical health. We all know this. However, many people struggle to stick to healthy diets. The modern individual lives a busy life, and so it can be difficult to stick to a routine that demands attention to detail and planning. So, here are three ways to ensure that a healthy diet becomes a healthy lifestyle, and not a chore.

Bring the exotic in to spice up the ordinary

One of the most common complaints people have about healthy approaches to food is that they feel they often lack flavour. Not anymore. People are incorporating all types of healthy foods and liquids into their diets these days. From your standard fruits and vegetables, to the more exotic, unfamiliar herbs like Shatavari, people are using all kinds of foods, herbs, and spices to bring new life to a meal that is generally quite bland. Chicken and vegetables can easily turn into Moroccan chicken with spicy grilled vegetables (to name one example).

Shop the outer ring of the supermarket…

Or better yet, go to a farmers’ market. A healthy diet is easy to uphold when you remove temptation. In the supermarket, for example, the fresh, healthy produce is generally stocked in the outer ring (i.e. the surrounding aisles). All the processed nasties are stocked in the centre aisles. If you restrict your shopping as much as possible to that outer ring, you leave with yummy healthy foods in your shopping trolley, and not unhealthy temptations. And in the farmers’ market, all produce is generally fresh, clean, organic, and healthy to boot. What is not to love? It might take some extra time to do the food shop for the week in this way, but your physical health and your body will thank you.

Keep healthy snacks as staples in the kitchen

When we get hungry, we often grab for what is closest and easiest to prepare. This is where it gets difficult for a lot of people when trying to stick to a healthy diet, because they often do not think ahead enough to have healthy snacks ready for on-the-go movement and hangry moments. So, keep the fridge and kitchen cupboards stocked with healthy snacks, and you cannot go wrong. Whether it is containers of nuts, corn thins, fruit salad, or pre-cut veggie sticks (to name a few easy options), healthy snacks are delicious, nutritious, and do not come with the side of guilt or unnecessary fats or sugars. Of course, everything in moderation, but it pays to stick to a predominantly-healthy diet.

Sleep found to be crucial contributor to mental health

When it comes to understanding how diet and exercise each impact our overall health, to say that there is an overwhelmingly body of research and understanding, would be putting it mildly. However, there is not nearly as much information out there in regards to the impact that quality of sleep has on an individual’s mental health. Over recent years, it has become more and more obvious that mental health is just as important as physical health or emotional health, but even still, the reasons behind mental health risk are still heavily debated and not entirely agreed upon across the board.

Mental health linked to sleep quality

Essentially, the consensus most widely accepted these days is that mental health issues can be caused by an array of contributing factors. For some individuals, it is being around negative people, or existing in negative spaces. For others, it is a specific place, or a trauma they are struggling to overcome. And for some people, it is (at least partially) their sleeping pattern that has the most significant effect on their mental health. It sounds surprising to some people, but sleep has been proven, in multiple recent research studies, to have a genuine and sometimes profound impact on an individual’s mental state. Essentially, when we do not get enough sleep, our bodies are fatigued, and as a result our brains do not function to their usual standard. This results in a type of mental fog that leaves us unfocused and unlike ourselves.

Understanding when the warning signs are glaring

Sometimes, no matter how much we would like to think we are in control of our health, we simply are not. And sometimes, it is more difficult than one might initially think to even realise that there is a problem in the first place. These days, people are busier than ever. Because of the busy lifestyles many of us lead today, not everyone has the time in their average day to slow down enough and consider how their sleeping pattern may actually be affecting their mental health. It is important to take a step back when you feel unbalanced, and do the work to understand why and what you need to do to get back on track – even if that takes more time than expected.

How to combat the problem of wavering sleep

The unfortunate truth is that sometimes, getting a good night’s sleep is easier said than done.

Natural remedies like essential oils or music are a great way to help ease yourself to sleep at night. However, if the problem persists and proves to be more severe, it is time to consider other methods of treatment. Sometimes it takes more than some pleasant oils or a new mattress to right this ship. It is not at all uncommon for people to seek out professional healthcare assistance to remedy their sleeping issues, and it has proven to be incredibly beneficial to many people over time.

Three sleep-related products that really go the distance

Sleep is one of the most precious things we have. Quite literally, sleep plays an active and constant part in our overall health and the quality of our life. And sometimes, it is the unfortunate reality that we do not get the right amount of sleep – or the right quality of shut-eye. Of course, sometimes the problem is as easily solvable as going out and buying a mattress to replace the one you have had for perhaps too long. But there are cases where it takes more than a thought-out mattress change to help you back to a place of great sleep.

The sleep industry is booming in the wake of rising sleeping issues around the world, and as a result of that ongoing boom, it goes without saying that there is an ever-increasing array of sleep-related products consumers can choose from. It can sometimes be dizzying to constantly be trying every sleep-related product you can think of in the name of getting a good night’s sleep – especially when a lot of them fall short on what they are promised to achieve. Luckily, the sleep blog Savvy Sleeper has many recommendations.

An oil diffuser & the essential oils to match

An oil diffuser is one of the most commonly bought sleep-related products, and for good reason, too. Smell is a large part of relaying and equating atmospheric experience, and when we go to sleep it is not uncommon for lack of scent (or worse, unpleasant scent) to keep us awake. An oil diffuser, and the essential oils you put into it, literally works wonders. In adding some lavender or rose (or any other manner of calming, relaxing scents, for that matter) into your diffuser about twenty minutes before you go to sleep, you set the atmosphere and the calming tones that will help you drift off easily and peacefully.

An eye mask to keep out the blasting sunrise

Sometimes our sleep can be affected by something as seemingly simple as light distribution in our sleeping areas. Perhaps going to sleep isn’t the issue, but waking up too much or too early is. In this case, a simple eye mask is the perfect solution. When the sun starts to rise and your bedroom fills with too-bright light, a sleeping mask will keep it all out, allowing you to sleep that little bit longer and that little bit sounder, which is what we all want, right? The best part is that sleep masks can be a cost-effective solution as well, meaning you get more bang for your buck.

A CPAP machine for when you struggle at night

The CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine is quite literally designed to help you breathe while you are asleep. As you may have guessed, they are quite expensive by nature, but if you struggle to breathe when you are asleep, they are worth their weight in gold. These magical machines have been helping struggling sleepers for years now, and while they can take some initial getting used to, they are priceless in the peace of mind and overall comfort they bring to one’s sleeping pattern.

Breaking Bad Habits in College

College is a formative period of your life. It’s obviously a time when you’ll learn loads of new information that will (hopefully) assist you in planning a career, and a time when you’ll be able to expand and reinforce your social circle. But it’s also a time when your existing habits will dig in deeper, and when your new habits may come to define you for years to come.

It’s incredibly hard to break a bad habit, especially when you’re dealing with an enormous workload and new kinds of academic stress. But with the right mentality and commitment, you can eliminate the worst habits plaguing your health, academic performance, and happiness, and set yourself up for a brighter future—all before you graduate.

Breaking Your Bad Habits

These strategies can help a dedicated college student break almost any habit:

  1. Find a substitute. Your most powerful tool will be finding a substitute for the habitual action or behavior. It’s incredibly hard to stop doing something that’s part of a regular routine, but it becomes much easier if you find something to take the place of that bad habit. For example, if you currently smoke cigarettes, you might look forward to having one after class, after meals, or at other major points throughout your day. Replacing tobacco cigarettes with a JUUL could be the first step to getting rid of that habit for good, giving you many of the same sensations, but with less of a damaging effect.
  2. Interrupt your habit loop. Most habits occur as part of a three-stage “habit loop,” making it hard to stop the habit by itself. There’s the trigger phase, when something alerts you to a situation that makes it easier to engage in the habit; for example, you might feel anxious or enter a specific phase of the day. Then, there’s the habit itself. After that, you’ll feel rewarded by the behavior. It’s hard to make the habit directly less rewarding, but it’s possible to identify and reduce the power of triggers in the first phase. For example, you could learn to identify when you’re feeling anxious and aim to reduce your feelings of anxiety, rather than resorting to nail biting or picking your skin.
  3. Practice mindfulness. One way to improve your awareness of trigger points is to practice mindfulness, or bring your attention to the present. It takes time to develop this habit and ability, but it’s worth the effort. After even a few weeks of practicing mindfulness, you’ll be more keenly aware of your thoughts and feelings. That means you’ll be better able to manage anxiety, stress, and habit trigger points, so your bad habits are easier to work out.
  4. Make the habit harder to practice. You can also use physical impediments to make your bad habits harder to practice, especially as a short-term measure. For example, if there’s a mobile app stealing away most of your time, you could delete it or hide it on your phone, making it harder to access when you want it most. You could circumvent this, but it would force you to think about your habit, rather than mindlessly indulging it.
  5. Enlist the help of others. Consider talking to the people around you and enlisting their help in eliminating your bad habit. For example, you could ask your friends and roommates point out when you’re engaging in the habit, so you’re more aware of when it occurs, or you could ask them to join you in a new, healthy habit like going to the gym.
  6. Improve your big-picture. Many bad habits are created from negative life circumstances. For example, if you’re struggling with depression, you might resort to binge eating junk food. If you’re socially anxious, you may drink excessively to cope. You can make these bad habits less tempting by improving your big-picture situation; oftentimes, this means eating healthier, exercising regularly, seeking therapy, and learning anxiety management techniques.
  7. Reward yourself for positive changes. When you do make progress in reducing your bad habits, it’s important to reward yourself to preserve that momentum. For example, if you go a week without having a cigarette, you could treat yourself to a new outfit, or a new video game you’ve been wanting. Keep track of how many days you’ve gone without engaging in the bad habit, and set long-term goals that keep you working hard.

Getting Help

While most bad habits can be mastered and broken through sheer willpower alone, others may require more serious forms of intervention. For example, if you’re physically addicted to a substance, it may be nearly impossible for you to overcome your addiction by yourself. In this scenario, it’s important to recognize the severity of the problem and seek professional help.

Once you’ve been able to break one bad habit, the rest will seem miniscule by comparison. Over time, you’ll gradually perfect your habits and ultimately end up better able to succeed—both in the classroom and in life after college.

Three ways sleep impacts whole health

When it comes to how we sleep, it ultimately centers around comfortability. During the night, if one sleeps on a mattress that is wrong for them, then it is easy for negative impacts to build up, affecting the way that the person sleeps and, over time, their whole health as well. This is especially true when the habits become patterns that are held over a lengthy time. As with anything, once a habit becomes a pattern it is more difficult to break away from. So, doing the research on which mattress is the best and most effective place to start making positive changes. To get the most out of Sleep Junkie do your research diligently, on various websites and in stores, and make an educated decision based on the best benefits, advice, and overall quality of the mattress. But why is sleep so important to whole health? Well, there are many reasons, but there are three core reasons that are fundamental pillars to whole health achievement and maintenance over time. So, what are the three key ways that sleep impacts whole health?

Physical markers

New studies and various research have consistently found that disjointed sleeping patterns are linked to markers of physical ailments, like heart disease, diabetes, and weight distribution. When we have an unhealthy sleeping pattern – whether that be oversleeping, sleep deprivation, or fractured sleep, for example – our bodies experience and deal with the less-than-ideal changes in varying ways. Oversleeping, for example, is known to be a contributing factor to obesity, because the body has a more difficult time processing what we ingest when it is out of sync. Physical health is detrimental – focus on it.

Mental stability

When we do not get enough sleep, our brains do not get the chance they need to rest and revitalize for the next day. Our minds are always working, constantly moving to preserve memories and adhere to expected memory functions. When one does not get the right amount of sleep, at the right time of the day for their lifestyle and personal schedule, their mental functions – including memory facilitation and chemical balance in the brain – alter and swivel, making it hard to maintain a healthy mental stability. There are even circumstances where disrupted and irregular sleeping patterns can have a hand in making mental health issues like anxiety and depression worse. Because our bodies are not in sync with our daily activities, it can be hard to relocate the balance, leading to dangerous free falls in mental stability.

Overall quality of life

We need to stop treating sleep like a luxury. It is the complete opposite. As a crucial necessity to our health, we must commit more wholeheartedly to getting enough shut-eye at night. There is nothing more frustrating than going through an entire day feeling like you have a lack of energy, a disjointed relationship between chosen lifestyle and sleeping pattern, or a loose cog that makes it difficult to remember things throughout the day. Sleep is a fundamental pillar to achieving positive peak quality of life, and therefore there is a necessity to keep it intact and as in-routine as we possibly can. Nobody wants to go through life feeling low on energy and lackluster, and sleep is one of the best ways to zest up the energy levels and get ready for the day and night ahead before going back to bed and doing it all again tomorrow.

Drug addiction as a health issue, not a criminal rebellion

It goes without saying that drug use around the world is illegal. And while the dangers of ingesting these substances warrant their illegality, there is also another facet to drug addiction (or any type of addiction, for that matter) that is just as important, and does not get nearly as much recognition in the media and in everyday life. That facet is the health issues that drug addiction cause. While we spend a lot of time and money focusing on drug addiction as a criminal act, we must spend more time addressing its severity as health issue. This is where the root of the problem lies. This is where attention to detail must be paid.

Understanding that drug addiction is a health issue is something that many people cannot wrap their heads around. People often view drug addiction as a self-imposed act of idiocy, and nothing more. Realistically, however, drug addiction is often kick-started through a mentality that is both broken and isolated. And even when addicts begin the search for help, this preconceived societal attitude remains decidedly negative. For any positive change to occur, we must change this approach first and foremost. We are part of the health crisis becoming so much worse.

Rehabilitation is a process that only really works when the individual themselves is entirely ready to make the change. When an individual makes the courageous decision to pull themselves out of the haze of addiction enough to simply admit that they need help, we should be doing our absolute best to encourage and support that train of thought. Without encouragement and ongoing support, this train of thought passes through one ear and out the other, and the person falls back into addiction as quickly as they fell into it in the first place.

The severity of the health implications caused by drug addiction is so massive, that it realistically needs to be explored in depth. But in short, individuals who suffer from drug addiction cause significantly more damage to their bodies and minds, than those who do not use drugs and other illicit substances. Sometimes, the damage can become too much, and the body succumbs to the addiction. Death by drug addiction is becoming more and more common, and there is an innate sense of panic. We have the capacity to be part of the problem. We must make the choice to be, and to be every day, not just when it suits us.

Drug addiction is one of the most dangerous forms of addiction because of the short amount of time that it takes to take tight grasp of the people it affects. The health issues that surround and are directly associated with drug addiction (and again, all forms of addiction) are issues that demand more attention – not just from the medical industry, but from the world. Being supportive and open is the only way to help these people walk through the fire, and find their way through to the other side. And everyone – I repeat, everyone – deserves that chance.

Exploring the Relationship Between Social Media and Body Dissatisfaction

Body image and self-esteem have long been thorny issues for young people, especially given the ubiquity of media exposure. Over the past decade and a half, social media seems to have taken this to an entirely new level.

Studies show that social media exposure has a negative impact on body image for both young women and men … and for their health and well-being, this needs to be addressed head-on.

Social Media: Causing More Harm Than Good?

Social media is billed as an extension of our everyday lives: an online portal through which we can share our experiences and engage with others as they live out their lives. As much as we consume social media and obsess over timelines and posts, however, it’s vital to recognize that social media is not real life.

It’s more of a repetitive “highlight reel” that largely shows only the exciting, sexy, adventurous moments in the lives of our friends and followers. When you’re stuck in the cycle of refreshing your news feed and swiping through post after post, it’s easy to become disillusioned, and presume your life, body, experiences, and so on don’t match up.

Data from Pew Research Center surveys indicate that 88 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds look at some form of social media on a regular basis. And though the numbers decline as people age, 78 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds and 64 percent of 50 to 64-year-olds also spend regular time on social networking apps and websites.

In addition to the rise in the number of people who use social media, there’s also been a steady jump in the amount of time folks are spending on these platforms. The average person now spends nearly two hours on social media every day.

Some teenagers spend as much as nine hours per day on social platforms: an astonishing and unsettling statistic that sheds some light on just how great of an impact apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat can have on current youth and young adults.

According to a study by Martin Graff, the head of psychology research at the University of South Wales, women are less likely to be happy with their bodies if they spend more than 60 minutes per day on social media. The study showed that excessive social media consumption leads to unrealistic comparison of oneself with others, which feeds an unhealthy sense of body image and exercise.

Instagram is perhaps the worst offender. Studies show that “fitspiration” images — pictures of healthy, fit, and scantily-clad individuals — have a negative impact on one’s mood, self-esteem, and body image.

College-age women are the most likely to feel progressively worse about themselves and their bodies. Unfortunately, other research also suggests that poor body image makes girls less assertive and at greater risk of developing health issues during their lifetime.

Thus, social media may seem innocent, but it could be creating major challenges and having side effects that will echo for decades to come.

Healthy Suggestions for Greater Body Confidence

The current social media landscape is broken. But don’t expect it to get better any time soon.

Instead, we need to teach users how to avoid the bad, find the good, and embrace greater body confidence. According to experts in the field, here are some practical ways to do that.

  1. Reduce Social Media Consumption

The first and most obvious suggestion is to reduce the amount of time you spend on social media. Individuals should strive to devote just a few minutes to online traffic and to be tactically wise about whom they follow.

The more you follow real people — that is, friends, family, and neighbors — the less you’ll feel pressured to live up to an unrealistic standard. For optimal results, aim for fewer than 30 minutes of daily social media usage.

You may also find it healthy to go through a social media detox, during which you log out of your accounts for an extended period of time.

  1. Take Small Steps to Boost Confidence

Obviously, people ought to address their body image and make changes to feel more confident about who they are. But instead of trying to take on significant or permanent changes — such as weight-loss procedures or plastic surgery — individuals should address body image in healthier and safer ways.

Shapewear is a great example of a product that enables individuals to improve body confidence without taking drastic measures that risk harm to themselves. Little steps like these can offer significant returns.

  1. Build Relationships Offline

Online relationships aren’t necessarily fake, but they’re not typically as authentic as an offline relationship that compels you to interact face to face. In order to combat the inauthentic image people create online, strive to build more in-person relationships.

Finding Freedom From Disillusion

Social media isn’t evil, but it can have a dramatically negative impact on the mental health and psychological well-being of its users, particularly young women. When we become aware of this, we can start to shift our focus and attain greater freedom.

This might look different for each person, but it’s crucial that we don’t sit back and try to ignore what’s happening.