There’s so many things that can help improve your overall mental health, but probably no more important than maintaining a healthy weight. Although obesity is not a mental health problems it can trigger a host of psychiatric disorders.
It’s not easy to talk about painful emotions, so it’s no wonder that many people turn to food to drown their feelings. Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder are common among people with obesity. Often, doctors must treat these symptoms before real weight loss can begin.
In one study, doctors found that traumatic stress greatly increases a person’s likelihood of becoming overweight or obese. The risk is especially pronounced among women. Traumatized people may turn to food to avoid their pain, may harm themselves with food as a manifestation of self-loathing, or may feel so hopeless that the notion of embarking on a weight-loss plan feels impossibly overwhelming.
Obesity and Eating Disorders
Eating disorders and obesity are usually seen as very different problems but actually share many similarities. In fact, eating disorders, obesity, and other weight-related disorders may overlap as girls move from one problem, such as unhealthy dieting, to another, such as obesity. This information sheet is designed to help parents, other adult caregivers, and school personnel better understand the links between eating disorders and obesity so they can promote healthy attitudes and behaviors related to weight and eating.
Binge eating disorder is an eating disorder that compels people to consume large quantities of food in short periods of time. A binge eater might consume 1,000 or more calories in just a few minutes. Unlike other eating disorders, people who binge eat do not purge after, but they often feel guilt, shame, or depression. This type of eating behavior contributes to feelings of shame, loneliness, poor self-esteem, and depression. Conversely, these kinds of feelings can cause binge eating problems. A person may binge or overeat for emotional reasons, including stress, depression, and anxiety.
Some people with a history of obesity cycle in and out of obesity and food-restrictive eating disorders. Though people with eating disorders are often thin, that’s not always the case, especially with diseases like bulimia.
Pressure to conform to an unrealistic standard of beauty can tip some people with obesity into anorexia or bulimia, or cause them to so severely restrict their calories that they miss out on vital nutrients. This is just one of many reasons it’s important not to insult the appearance or value of people who struggle with their weight, or to blame all health problems on weight issues. Put under enough pressure, an eating disorder is the natural outcome of the desire to lose weight as quickly as possible.
Depression and Obesity
Adolescents who are depressed may be at an increased risk of becoming obese. One recent study found that depressed adolescents were two times more likely to become obese at the one year follow up than teens who did not suffer from depression.
In addition, many people with eating disorders suffer from clinical depression, anxiety, personality or substance abuse disorders, or in some cases obsessive compulsive disorder. Therefore, a mental health professional may need to be involved in treating an adolescent who is obese or suffers from an eating disorder or other weight-related problems.
Eating disorders may lead to:
- Stunted growth
- Delayed menstruation
- Damage to vital organs such as the heart and brain
- Nutritional deficiencies, including starvation
- Cardiac arrest
- Emotional problems such as depression and anxiety
Obesity increases the risk for:
- High blood pressure
- Stroke
- Cardiovascular disease
- Gallbladder disease
- Diabetes
- Respiratory problems
- Arthritis
- Cancer
- Emotional problems such as depression and anxiety
Mass Media and Disordered Eating
The mass media, family, and peers may be sending children and adolescents mixed messages about food and weight that encourage disordered eating. Today’s society idealizes thinness and stigmatizes fatness, yet high-calorie foods are widely available and heavily advertised. At the same time, levels of physical activity are at record lows as television and computers replace more active leisure activities, travel by automobile has replaced walking, and many communities lack space for walking and recreation.
It’s not easy to talk about painful emotions, so it’s no wonder that many people turn to food to drown their feelings. Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder are common among people with obesity. Often, a therapist must treat these symptoms before real weight loss can begin.
Randi Fredricks, Ph.D.
References
Buta E, Masheb R, Gueorguieva R, Bathulapalli H, Brandt CA, Goulet JL. (2018). Posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis and gender are associated with accelerated weight gain trajectories in veterans during the post-deployment period. Eat Behav. 2018 Apr;29:8-13.
Koçyigit BF, Okyay RA. (2018). The relationship between body mass index and pain, disease activity, depression and anxiety in women with fibromyalgia. PeerJ. 2018 May 28;6:e4917.
Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2003). Obesity and Eating Disorder Prevention: An Integrated Approach? Adolesc Med. 2003 Feb;14(1):159-73.
Neumark-Sztainer, D., Story, M., Hannan, P.J., et al. (2002). Weight-Related Concerns and Behaviors Among Overweight and Non-Overweight Adolescents: Implications for Preventing Weight-Related Disorders.” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Feb;156(2):171-8.
Yanovski, S.Z. (2002). Binge Eating in Obese Persons. In Fairburn, C.G., Brownell, K.D. (eds), Eating Disorders and Obesity, 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 403-407.
Waller, G. (2002). The Psychology of Binge Eating.” In Fairburn, C.G., Brownell, K.D. (eds) Eating Disorders and Obesity, 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 98-102.
Goodman, E, Whitaker, R. (2002). A Prospective Study of the Role of Depression in the Development and Persistence of Adolescent Obesity.” Pediatrics. 2002 Sep;110(3):497-504.
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