Lee From America's Fall From Wellness: What Happens When Wellness Goes Too Far
“Because of that story, I stopped drinking and I still don’t drink. It did kick-start a lot of positive things, but it made me really obsessive about weight loss and the food I was eating,” Danielle said. “I also think that, when I was sharing things about [weight loss on social media], I was like, I can’t backslide. I felt like it was a test, that I was being held accountable. It created this undue pressure.”
In the quest for wellness, Danielle held herself to what she called unrealistic standards because they were set forth as the ideal. But adhering to extreme diets or other measures to change your body may not always be healthy.
Wellness is about finding ways to mitigate stress and anxiety.
“There are a lot of supplements and fad diets being promoted as healthy, so I think if you’re in a particularly vulnerable state, it could be that you’re not able to see how dangerous it is,” Mysko said. “The trend we’re hearing about in the field is that more and more people are citing health and wellness as the driver rather than, ‘I want to lose this particular amount of weight.’ Instead it’s, ‘I just want to be healthy.’ When that is validated in the larger culture, it becomes even more insidious and tricky to treat.”
Ultimately, Danielle changed how she approaches food, weight, and social media. Now, she said she avoids talking about her eating habits, and her Instagram is filled with snaps of her in workout gear with captions about how she’s working to be more accepting of herself in all ways.
Still, Danielle does subscribe to other aspects of wellness in hopes of easing the chaos of her life.
“I have crystals at my desk, I am into all of it. I have a diffuser that releases essential oils in my office right now,” Danielle said. “I think wellness is really really important. For me, I think living in New York City undoes a lot of what is most natural for our bodies. Wellness is about finding ways to mitigate stress and anxiety.”
Aspects of wellness are rooted in science, and can help reduce stress and keep you healthy. Research has shown that meditation can lower blood pressure, relieve anxiety and depression, ease insomnia, and more. Diffusing certain essential oils, studies have suggested, might also positively impact anxiety and depression, improve sleep, and improve quality of life. Additionally, some practices that we deem wellness today—like yoga and Ayurveda—are cornerstones of Eastern cultures that have been used effectively for centuries.
The difference between these ancient and scientifically backed practices is that many wellness trends today are branded a “quick fix,” promising to help you unlock a higher level of being.
But that doesn’t exist.
“[Wellness can be] dangerous in the broader culture as well because it promotes this message of a quick fix,” Mysko said. “If you eat this way not only will you be healthier but your life will be better.”
It's not to say that engaging in wellness practices are bad. If there are things that genuinely make you feel good about yourself and your life, there's no reason not to do them. And, of course, self-care is important and necessary. But Mysko said it's when we buy into the idea that there's one thing that will make us better, or that if we just keep doing more we'll totally transform, that we become vulnerable.
“Health is a holistic concept. It’s not just physical health, it’s mental health, emotional health. It’s not just, ‘I can eat this type of food, or do this diet, or take this supplement and be healthy,’” she continued. “There are many other factors that go into what makes a person healthy. That is not translated in the images we see.”
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