Sky-high joy and the next moment everything is gray in gray, culminating in the realization: no one understands me. Puberty is characterized by a complex pattern of different developmental tasks and is accompanied by a roller coaster of emotions. The majority of adolescents manage to cope with the chaos, but 18% get into a psychosocial identity crisis and about 5% become psychologically conspicuous. They need urgent medical help.
Obesity apparently leads to premature puberty
Girls who have been overweight since the age of 3 often enter puberty earlier. This was discovered by scientists at the University of Michigan (USA). They observed the development of body weight and body mass index (BMI) of more than 350 girls up to the age of 12. The result:
Being overweight probably ensures faster maturational development. In girls who weighed too many pounds as toddlers, breast development often began as early as age 9. As a rule, this first sign of incipient puberty is observed at 10 years of age at the earliest. Also, young participants whose BMI fluctuated widely between 3-6 years of age usually reached sexual maturity at an earlier age. The early onset of puberty can be the cause of behavioral problems and psychosocial stress, the researchers emphasize. Therefore, parents should pay attention to a healthy diet and sufficient exercise in their offspring already in childhood.
Nothing can stay the same
The change in appearance, which generally begins earlier in girls than in boys, requires acceptance and an active decision for the changing appearance. One’s experience often shakes one’s self-image, challenging self-worth and self-control. How children, their parents and the social environment experience and suffer through the tumultuous phase depends on the girls’ disposition, previous experiences and acquired skills. In many cases, they do not feel in harmony with their bodies and therefore do not feel understood. Dissociation from adults, especially parents, occurs as they attempt to experiment with risky and provocative behaviors such as dress, makeup, and language. It is amazing that the complex changes in physiological, social and emotional development are mastered by more than 80%, but 15-18% get into a psychological crisis, 10-13% of all adolescents show behavioral problems and another 5% serious mental disorders that require medical treatment. The earlier the inevitable developmental process begins, the more difficult it is to comprehend the path to sexual maturity. The main stress reactions are adjustment disorders, urge restlessness, oppositional disorders and disturbed eating behavior, as well as anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
When food becomes the enemy
Coming to terms with one’s own body weight begins in late childhood. On the one hand, the number of overweight children and adolescents has been steadily increasing in recent years; on the other hand, half of all girls of elementary school age already want to be thinner. Many ten-year-olds have already been on a diet. With the onset of puberty, eating disorders often occur, drawing attention to themselves with the following signs:
- Reduction of food quantity and composition (reduction of calories, for example, abandonment of sweets).
- Decrease in body weight with the aim of continuing to lose weight.
- Regular weight control
- Fear of gaining weight.
The path to anorexia is often marked in this way and not infrequently leads to binge eating – a bulimia. The sooner professional help is sought (possibly even against the will of the minor), the sooner chronicity and the risk of depression can be avoided.
Depression often goes undetected
According to new surveys, about 1% of all preschoolers and 2% of elementary school children suffer from depression. This is manifested by a reluctance to play, a lack of joy and drive, low self-esteem and sad moods. Until puberty, as many girls as boys are affected. At puberty, up to 5% are depressed, and girls are then two to three times more likely to be depressed than boys.Unfortunately, the disease is still often not recognized today, so that probably less than half of the affected children and adolescents receive therapy. Warning signs are:
- Neglect of previous hobbies
- Decrease in contact with peers
- Decrease in academic performance
- Mood swings, appetite and sleep disturbances, also headaches and abdominal pain.
Suicidal thoughts are not uncommon
Up to 350 children and adolescents kill themselves each year in Germany. After traffic accidents, suicide is the second leading cause of death in this age group. If girls express suicidal thoughts during puberty, these should be taken very seriously and medical help is strongly recommended. To remain silent here and not talk about it is dangerous! One should become clairvoyant if the following is true:
- Withdrawal from interpersonal relationships; especially to peers.
- Aggression against one’s own person
- Suicidal fantasies
- Increased physical complaints.
With these explanations, the doctors of the professional association of gynecologists want to help better understand the behavior of young girls and counter problems in puberty in time.
