To think obesity is an eating disorder? *POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING*

[pinkliquorice]

I don't want this to be triggering or offensive in anyway. If you are stuggleing with your weight or an eating disorder and are likely to be triggered by these discussions please dont read on.

Do you consider obesity to be an eating disorder in the same way as anorexia for example? AIBU to suggest this? Me and my partner have been discussing it all evening

Extra info:
(Being out of the healthy BMI range on either sides is obviously really dangerous and can have numerous negative effects on health and can even result in death.
But why as a society do we view being dangerously overweight any different to being dangerously underweight?
I have struggled with anorexia and bulimia on and off since I was 13 and when I have been severly underweight I have been given support and sympathy not judgement and that is the only reason why I am now better.
When my weight has fallen below a certain mark I have been hospitalised and given treatment to help me return to a healthy BMI, but for someone over the healthy BMI range they are not given the same treatment.
Body positivity is extremely important to me, and everyone no matter their weight deserves to be happy and respected but is there not an opposite to the Pro-Ana movement?
If someone commented on me being underweight and told me I needed to eat, I would go into panic and restict even more as controlling and reducing my weight and food consumption was my comfort, I was addicted to not eating and that took my pain away.
Surely obesity is the exact opposite of this, is it not the case that often when someone is overweight, they eat for comfort and if someone tells them they are overweight and they need to eat less that they eat more to take the pain away.)

Again, I know this is a really sensitive subject and I dont want to upset or cause offence to anyone.

@Gameofgnomes

I am so sorry, it is wrong you should be given the same support and treatment that someone with an eating disorder on the other end of the scale would get.

The level at which hypothyroidism is medicated in the U.K. is a lower threshold than in the US for example. Getting medicated to sort out underactive thyroid is not simple.

I agree and there is a massive link between obesity and abuse , low self esteem etc

I have read of abuse survivors who overeat so that they won't be attractive as one example

Yanbu

@RB68

Completely agree.
Peoples relationship with food and how this affects them changes depending on their mental state and life.
Just like I used not eating as a way of controlling my life and food caused me stress others use food as a comfort in hard times.

I completely agree, I've had times in my life when I've eaten so much (without vomiting) that I'm awake all night with stomach ache and then still want to force more in.
I'm a comfort eater and have fought against food my whole life.
Now with the help of my slim sister and my mum I'm getting on top of it and learning to eat normally again. My relationship with food was so difficult I literally got to the point where I didn't know what or how to eat.
I've had to take up an awful lot of hobbies to stop me thinking about food - sewing, walking, crafts so my hands are always busy and I'm too absorbed to think about over eating.

@Verbena37

Of course it’s not that simple but a lot of people are obese without having thyroid problems which is what I was focusing on.
If there is no medical explanation for why someone is dangerously overweight they should be treated and be assessed for an eating disorder which would mean physical and psychological treatment t help them return to a healthy bmi, just like with anorexic patients this may need to be involuntary sometimes.

@IrritatedUser1960

I am so glad you are being supported and are getting better.

I have binge eating disorder. It’s treated similarly to bulimia - I had fluoxetine and a course of CBT with limited success. I found it dug up a lot of crap but didn’t give me any coping mechanisms or help me stop binge eating. I know why I do it but not how to stop it that makes sense. Food is always what I turn to.

I agree with what a number of PP's have said. Not all, but i think many obese people have undiagnosed eating disorders.

At the start if this year I was Morbidly Obese, it crept up on me over 10 years, though I was always the chubby kid.

It was CBT that finally cracked it for me. I have a food addiction, it occupies every waking moment. Eating until I felt sick, lying awake with acid reflux, obsessive thoughts about what I could eat, eating in secret and hiding wrappers. Then the shame, not looking in full length mirrors or shopping with friends s you know high street shops don't sell your size. Hating how you look and being embarrassed to be in public places...it goes on! Its like the taste of food gives a wave of endorphins but you know this is the source of your unhappiness.

I heard Russell Brand talk about drug addiction and it was so similar.

I feel the whole pro obesity acceptance movement is as harmful as the pro ana stuff.

But it's not acceptance is it? It's understanding. The example I gave of the alcoholic was striking. He rang the DWP up because he was presumably found FFW and told them he was going to take his own life. Their protocol was that they had to ring 999. So they did. Before he got in the ambulance. He had to finish his drink. At the same time as they were taking this man to hospital, another sweet old lady was waiting who the GP had rang hours before telling them they suspected internal bleeding. The man with the alcohol addiction was in theory, prioritised. Nothing but an outpouring of sympathy for him. There was understanding for him. It's fine to accept one nut not the other when all examples listed are essentially harmful to health.

Now replace that word alcohol with 'had to finish his cake before he got in the ambulance' and the internet would have broken amongst the fury.

Acceptance is not something I see. The fat shaming is testament to that.

I describe my binges as self harm eating because that is what they are. A bit like cuts and scars will make you 'ugly' and manifest how you feel so does eating bad things. I have to feel sick too before I stop.

There is help available on the NHS for extreme obesity, in the same way that there is for being extremely underweight. What many are missing is that both these issues need to be extreme, obese in BMI terms would not be nearly high enough to qualify for intervention by specialist services, which would include bariatric surgery.

I have binge eating disorder but I'm not overweight.. I have periods of control/restriction where I lose the weight gained and the cycle starts over.

Obesity may be correlated with ED but it's not the same.

@Bombardier25966

But there isn’t enough help at that end of the scale, disease and mortality related to obesity are through the roof.
People are walking around the streets 10 stone plus overweight without adequate treatment, they are being allowed to eat themselves to death and are even being denied medical treatment unless they loose weight themselves.
When I was just just 2 stone below the bottom end of the healthy weight range, I was hospitalised and force fed until I achieved a healthy weight and bmi.
It should work the same on both ends of the scale, we could prevent so many deaths and illnesses if we took being overweight as serious as we took being underweight.

I have suffered from anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating before. All tied into control, self-esteem, anxiety, depression and body dysmorphic issues. Now in the slightly overweight category with occasional binges/purges. Nobody could tell from the outside. Right now all that NHS offers me is CBT (rubbish for me) or SSRIs (similarly useless - on my third variety now). I guess what I am saying is that ED can present at all and any weights. It's the mental side that's the deciding factor. I would hazard a guess that most very obese will have some binge eating, emotional overeating, so you'd be right there.

When I was just just 2 stone below the bottom end of the healthy weight range, I was hospitalised and force fed until I achieved a healthy weight and bmi

That’s because you would have been in imminent danger of dying and because of the anorexia you had lost your capacity to refuse treatment. Not all anorexics are treated under section 3 of the mental health act.

I agree that there should be much. more help available for people who are morbidly obese but you’re equating two situations which aren’t the same.

@PurpleDaisies

But surely anyone who has allowed the weight to reach such a dangerous level either under or other has lost that capacity and need to be treated?
Morbidly obese people who are giving themselves heart disease, diabetes etc and ultimately dying are not hospitalised so they can have food intake reduced.
Mortality related to obesity is so much higher than from anorexia and that is because being dangerously underweight is taken seriously and treated to avoid preventable damage to health.

Givemeallthechocolate i hear you. Also diagnosed with personality disorder and the emptiness is horrific. i have been using food, shopping, internet etc compulsively just to fill the hole. even relationships that are bad. it is horrific and sadly, PDs are one of the "less publicised, less understood" mental health issues. i hope this will change, with time.

But surely anyone who has allowed the weight to reach such a dangerous level either under or other has lost that capacity and need to be treated?

No, capacity assessment is more complicated than that. There’s a good description here...

www.scie.org.uk/mca/practice/assessing-capacity/

People are allowed to make bad decisions about their health.

It's all about Control.

Anorexics rigidly control their eating.
Obese people have lost all control of their eating.

I agree op. Obese people do not get the help they need.

Yes u may be right about overeatjng being an eating disorder.

I think there is help on the nhs for both ends of the scale. And in the middle, there’s loads of information on how to eat healthily, how many calories you should be eating etc. But at the end of the day, barring surgery there are no quick fixes, and someone overwreeight has to really want to lose the weight because it’s ridiculously hard to do. I’m borderline overweight and am almost constantly on a diet ( then I eat what I want for a few months and put weight on again). I just love food and feeling really full.

The reasons we eat a lot can be linked to MH but again there’s no quick fix.

I think being very underweight is treated more seriously because there is a bigger and more immediate risk.

YY Jon YY the Tonight programme did an expose on the high amount of fast food places last Thursday They focused on how a lot of them were in places where there was more poverty. Twitter was full of nasty comments.

Some of the fast food outlets are in NHS hospitals or on the grounds.

Mistress well done Youve lost 1 stone more than i did I lost 10.

Is obesity an eating disorder? Well it's caused by disordered eating to the point that it causes health issues so yes.