Health and social care unit 4

DEMI LOVATO LIFE FACTORS

Life factors mean that there are a variety of factors that affect a person’s life. Life factors include genetic factors, biological factors, environmental factors, socioeconomic factors and lifestyle factors. All of these factors contribute to a person’s life. I shall be exploring the life factors through the celebrity of Demi Lovato.
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BULLYING

An example of an environmental factor that has affected demi Lovato is bullying. Bullying is treating someone in a way that has the intention of causing any form of harm, it was in school that Demi Lovato experienced this physical bullying she experienced in school which she left after a lot of verbal and physical abuse. As a result of her being bullied about her weight, she stopped eating at the age of 12 and dropped 30 pounds so a life coach was then called in to help her out. People also wrote “hate petitions” about her and sent them around to be signed. This may affect her physically as; she couldn't sleep at night as she would be worrying about going to school the next day– so we would have sleepless night. This may affect her intellectually as; she could fall behind in her school work as if they were calling her
“stupid” or “smartarse” about her intelligence. Also she would lose concentration in her lessons which contributed to her failing academically and dropping grades. This may affect her emotionally as she is not reaching her full potential. Socially Demi Lovato struggled to make friends and maintain relationships due to the abuse she suffered she often isolated herself and didn’t enjoy normal teenage activities.

MISUSE OF SUBSTANCES

Demi Lovato went through a stage of taking cocaine, which could be considered a form of self harm, Demi Lovato used to take cocaine- this is a misuse of substances-drugs. Demi Lovato described the drug use as a form of escape from loneliness she felt. This may affect her physically as drugs affects their body.
Cocaine affects your vital organs, you have difficulty breathing, can have collapsed lungs, get heart conditions such as angina, weakened heart walls, and also it ruptures the blood vessels in your brain. This may affect her intellectually as taking drugs affect your mental health this can include anxiety, mood swings, depression, sleep problems and psychosis which would have a huge effect on her career. Emotionally the affect the drugs have on her mental health could lead to depression, suicide and even violent outbursts. So her friends and family may feel as though they have to cover for her, which can add an emotional strain and lead to resentment. This may affect her socially as this can have a negative impact on her career as she is meant to be a young child’s/adults role-model and the drug use could change the publics view of her this could have a negative impact on her career as she could get bad publicity from the press.

HEALTH ISSUES

She became so depressed that she began to cut her wrists and other places where no other people could see. She also used to cut herself to take her mind off of things. Demi didn’t care what happened, she had no fear. She also says that she felt a lot of pressure of having to be “perfect” and being a perfect role which lead to her cutting herself as a form of escape. To cover up the scars of cutting, Demi has tattoos of inspiration words to help her remember to be a strong person one wrist says “Stay” and on the other wrist it says
“Strong”. This may affect her intellectually as she wrongly thinks self-harm is the only way to cope with everything bad that happens. The stress of depression and feeling the need to self harm will effect a person emotionally as they will be extremely confused along with feelings of regret and confusion. This may affect her socially as she feel as though she is being withdrawn from society and she becomes anti-social. Also she could be feeling a lot of pressure from her fans, family etc. so a way for her to escape this pressure is for her to self-harm and cut herself. This time of self harm would have been a dangerous stage of
Demi’s life where she was putting her life at risk.

DIET

Demi started to think she was fat and described feelings of guilt for eating. When she was 15, she was only eating 2 meals per week and she felt as if she wasn’t losing enough weight so she began experimenting with laxatives and appetite suppressants. Then Demi began battling bulimia, this amount of forceful vomiting lead to blood and acid being thrown up. Diet affected Demi unbelievably, socially and mentally as it was due to diet that she changed her entire career and she starting singing instead of acting with Disney to avoid constantly being on TV.
Demis constant battle with insecurity about her weight affects her physically as her body was very fragile and looked fragile, so everyone had to be careful around her and to look after her as well. Also the physical effects of her diet are that she would have weak muscles, a low immune system, damaged organs and vocal chord damage. This would effect her as she wouldn't be able to perform as best as she could. This may affect her intellectually as; she’s not eating the right food, so her body isn’t getting the right nutrition’s, so the brain can’t function properly.

REHAB

Demi went into rehab in October 2010. This was to deal with her self-harming, substance abuse and depression. She describes the treatment as “really hard and scary”, saying that she had 14 hours of therapy a day however she could feel that the therapy was working and she began to feel happier daily. Demi at times wanted to leave rehab not because she didn’t want to fix the problem but because she missed the people from outside, however she was convinced to continue. Rehab changed Demi’s life physically as it made her a healthier and happier person her body began to function properly as she began to eat properly and receive the nutrition that she needed. Mentally, the therapy received changed Demi’s out look on life and her view of herself it helped her be a more positive person and a more educated person in terms of how to say no and how to treat her body correctly.
Emotionally she may have been missing her family and friends however this could make her value what’s good in her life, rehab also lead to Demi being a more emotionally secure person. Socially rehab made Demi a more positive person and therefore a person who is more confident and found it easier to be in the public eye and be in social situations with people, also it may have taught her how to deal with social media websites and news considering she is a celebrity and she may still face future abuse/bullying due to that.
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PREDICTABLE HEALTH EVENTS

1. Health issues:
Demi has experienced health issues from a young age such as bulimia it could be predicted that due to her suffering mentally with illnesses and physically with illnesses in the past along with her history of substance abuse she may relapse due to constant public attention due to her singing and acting career. Physically this possible relapse could make it difficult for Demi’s body and mind to cope, if she does have a relapse her body will be much more at risk to collapsing as it is repeatedly is put through stress and it may struggle to fight of sickness and infection. Also she would lack concentration which would affect her career as an actress. This will impact her emotionally as there will still be times in her life where she feels low and depressed as she’ll self-harm, also the emotions surrounding her strength should she relapse and the way her habits may affect her family. This will impact her socially as when she would self harm herself she could begin to feel as though she is being withdrawn from society, and then become anti-social.

UN-PREDICTABLE LIFE EVENTS

1. Break-up’s
Demi went through a hard and an emotional break-up with Joe Jonas, this break-up was unpredictable and due to the emotional distress she could fall into a relapse and begin taking drugs or gaining insecurities again. This will impact her emotionally as she would of gone through a rough time with the break up would just feel really emotional (such as anxious, upset and depressed) however Demi found that through music she could channel her emotions and although it may have been predicted that a breakup could make her relapse infact she done the opposite and found a positive route out of the situation. This will impact her socially as she may stray away from society– her family and friends this could lead to greater feelings of loneliness and depression. Death
Experiencing a death of someone who is close to you has bad effects on anyone, demi experienced the death of a friend this will impact her physically as she may be depressed and this unpredicted event could lead to
Demi abusing her body again as she already suffers with issues dealing with pain and upset. This will impact her intellectually as she may lack concentration and it may affect her career. This will impact her emotionally as she could be emotionally drained which would therefore impact her career and the way in which she presents herself to her fans. Socially this could mean Demi would begin to isolate herself from her friends and fans and for someone who is a celebrity this is a big risk to take as it may make the public lose interest in her and the public if she is depressed and in isolation.

THEORIES OF AGEING

There are 3 types of theories that are related to ageing; Disengagement theory,
Activity theory, and Continuity theory.

Authors of the book “Growing Old” Elaine Cumming and William Henry summarised that growing old isn’t a cheerful time in which people grow old happily and simply accept that their lives and activities should change due to their age. They said it is a time where elderly people begin the process of realising they have a short life span left and struggle coming to terms with this. This theory of struggling to come to terms with old age was developed by Elaine and William and they called it disengagement theory: For example, someone who was in the disengagement stage, would be in a nursing home staying there, not wanting to see anyone or participating in any activities that are provided as they are rejecting the process of being elderly.

THEORIES OF AGEING

The activity theory was developed in the 1960s. This is a positive relationship between a person’s level of activity and life satisfaction, which then increases how positively a persons there self-concept is and improves their ability to adjust in their elderly years. It states, people who achieve optimal age are those who stay active. As peoples life stages change they must be active and change with them for example when they reach retirement they can then do things they never had time to do before, like travel it is suggested that this active attitude is what will make them happier in the transition through social life stages. For example, someone who was in the activity theory would want to do activities for the majority of the day, and be as active as possible throughout the day. This activity theory was created by Robert Havighurst.

DEMI AND AGEING D1

I chose to explain the activity theory and the dis-engagement theory in further detail and I think there is potential for demi lovato to fall into these two theories.
I suggested dis-engagement theory as a theory that may possibly effect Demi as she has a history of separating herself from society and the expectations of society when she finds herself in stressful situations, like her previous bullying issues or drug addictions. It is possible to expect that Demi when facing the stress of accepting old age she may reject this and act against what is expected of somebody who is ageing. This is purely predictions based on her past actions. This will effect Demi’s development as it could cause her to be an entirely different person should she choose to isolate herself from the rest of society her brain could prematurely age as she is no longer socially active. I think the disengagement theory will suit Demi best as an elderly looked after person because due to her life in the lights she may need to take a step back from society and it might be more successful for her elderly development if she spends some time away from society’s expectations and spent sometime thinking of her own needs.

DEMI AND AGEING D1

On the other hand it may be possible that Demi may fall into a category of activity theory. This predication is due to her wisdom after everything she has faced throughout her life and therefore when she ages she may become actively involved in health promotions or anti-bullying schemes. She may work in the community to advise young people on their options and actions and therefore she will be an actively acting elderly person taking part in the schemes and opportunities provided for elderly people. This theory may effect
Demi’s development as it will make her a more active individual and therefore her life quality and happiness will be increased. This theory of ageing could be best for Demi rather than disengagement theory as she has had a very active life style all her life and to change this could cause her to be depressed the activity theory would probably benefit Demi the most as an elderly person who needs to be looked after in the correct way.

PHYSICAL SIGNS OF AGEING

When you become older, your muscles begin to shrink and lose mass. The number and size of muscle fibres also decrease. The heart muscle becomes less able to propel large quantities of blood to the body- so older people tire more quickly and take longer to recover. The water content of tendons, the cord like tissues that attach muscles to bones decrease as we age this makes the tissues stiffer and less able to tolerate stress. This would effect demi as she has quite an active career and it could cause her to have to change her lifestyle therefore she may begin feeling sad or depressed if her life changes too severely and she has no control over it.
With age, your heart has to work harder and pump more blood than a younger heart. Due to this change in blood flow elderly people struggle to perform basic homeostatic functions such as maintaining body temperature. This would impact
Demi as she could suffer from many diseases that occur from the changes of major organs, this could impact her social and singing/acting career.
The first physical signs of aging include the skin becoming less elastic. Another sign of aging is that your sleep rhythm may alter. At night, you may not sleep for as long as you used to and it is possible that you may wake up more during the night. PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGNS OF
AGEING

Memory loss is one of the most common psychological effects of aging. For many people, remembering everyday things becomes more difficult. Memory loss affects short-term memory more than long-term. It may be easy to recall events that happened thirty years in the past, but difficult to recall what happened on the morning news.
Absentmindedness is also a characteristic psychological effect of aging. Clear, lucid thoughts become increasingly difficult. Older people may repeat themselves in conversation, or have trouble doing regular activities. This impaired cognitive functioning could also be a sign of althzeimers disease. It can lead to severe degeneration of mental functioning.
Depression is fairly common as many people age. Perhaps you used to have a full head of thick hair. You used to be able to eat anything you want without getting gas or gaining weight. Maybe you used to be a strong as a bull and be able to run like the wind. As you got older though, you gained weight, you went bald, you can't lift things like you used to. You recall the good old days and then look at the shape you're in now. That can make nearly anyone depressed.

THE EFFECTS OF AGEING AND
CONFIDENCE/SELF ESTEEM

The loss of a youthful appearance, as well as the emotional and social changes that may accompany menopause and aging can hurt our self-esteem. The changes that are seen at midlife can be disconcerting. Some research indicates that these changes in the body image have a significant impact on our sexual desire and sexual self-esteem at midlife.
The issue of lowered self-esteem/confidence mainly stems from the issue of comparing ourselves to younger people as we age. When we are young we have better body function, more elastic skin, less wrinkles and a harder working body with more physical abilities meaning we are in healthy shape. As we get older these functions change and we begin to lose what we once took for granted. In these cases its easy for an elderly person to be hit with confidence and self esteem issues as they are going through an extreme bodily change. Also with women the life stage of menopause can sometimes make a women depressed as she feels less womanly due to her inability to have anymore children. Also the issue of life expectancy slowly becoming shorter confidence and self esteem can surround regrets and elderly person has had throughout their lifetime.