Excessive Tanning: Funny or Dangerous?
There have been plenty of parodies and spin offs of the latest reality TV show phenomenon known as Jersey Shore. All of the jokes relating to this new TV show have one common factor that they make fun of: the overly tanned individuals represented on the show who tend to end up having a orangish skin tint from overexposing themselves to UV lights. While this is a humorous way to poke fun at the often-ridiculous characters that are portrayed on these shows, it can point the way to a real and serious problem that some people struggle with every day.
It seems like each day there are more things that people can become addicted to. There are the more traditional addictions that you hear about often such as drugs and alcohol addictions. These days we are also hearing about more and more celebrities checking into rehab for sex addiction, people having difficulties with online porn addictions, and kids who are so hooked to their video games that some professionals classify them as addicted. With all of these new things that people are becoming addicted to it is not that unrealistic that tanning has become another issue for individuals to struggle with.
Tanning Today
Some UV exposure can be healthy for individuals. It gives you a dose of vitamin D and has been proven to help with mild cases of depression. Unfortunately today’s society promotes the image of the skinny or toned individual who has a nice bronze tan as the ideal body image that people should strive to achieve. With so much pressure to look a certain way individuals are forced to go to drastic measures to try to achieve the perfect look. This pressure can lead some individuals prone to developing addictive behavior patterns to become addicted to the cosmetic processes involved in maintaining a certain body image.
Going Too Far
Even with the warnings from dermatologists and other health professionals, individuals still insist on overexposing themselves to UV light in order to increase the darkness of their skin color. In moderation tanning only mildly increases an individuals chances at negative reactions to the UV exposure, such as skin cancer. In larger doses that are repeated consistently over time the individual is much more prone to developing some form of skin reaction that can range from mild and easily treatable to life threatening.
Over tanning is characterized as an addiction when the individual who is exposing themselves to the UV, either via laying out in the sun or using a tanning bed, becomes dependent on the feelings that they get after tanning or when they feel a sense of loss or depression if they have not performed the behavior in a while. When an individual bases their happiness with their self-image on whether or not they think they are tan enough it becomes a serious issue that will probably require some form of treatment to remedy.
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