to think that in the future obesity will be a mental illness

[postitgirl]

ok , bear with me....
I've been watching a few programmes about anorexia, I don't know why, they've just 'popped up' on netflix and amazon, and it's so interesting how even though people with anorexia are literally starving themselves, they still don't eat. So I started thinking, I've been trying to lose weight for years and year and years, and it's so bloody hard, because there is a thing in my brain that equates pleasure with over-eating crap. I go on a diet, and my willpower lasts for a few days, if I'm lucky, and then this overwhelming urge to break the diet, to binge, to eat chocolate and all the bad things, not just a small square of chocolate, like a bar, plus ice-cream etc etc. Any of us who struggle know what i'ts like. And it's getting worse as I get older. I'm becoming more attached to that feeling of 'release' when I do overeat... I'ts like a stress reliever to my brain - I'm suddenly a nicer person to my kids, I feel chilled, I feel satisfied, I feel happy, but of course i'ts a vicious cycle of self-hatred etc etc.
So it just occurred to me that in the future, maybe the treatment for obesity will be similar to that of anorexia, with the blame being taken out of the equation, that it will be treated literally as a mental disease - a disease where your mind is taken over, in a similar way to the way anorexia takes over. just the way some of the young girls were talking about how it was the "anorexia talking" even thuogh they knew they were making themselves ill, and could even die, the anorexia wouldn't let them eat.
Just as someone who has struggled mentally with my weight for all these years - i'ts like the "fat" talking. Cos when I'm "sane" of course I want to stop doing it, I want to get fit, and slim etc etc. And I know what I should be eating and what I shouldnt I could probably get a degree in nutrition at this stage I've done so much research on what I should eat and not eat.
What do you all think - can anyone relate.

I know what you mean. I hope you don’t get hate for it here though.

I agree. There's been some movement on e.g. sugar addiction and binge eating disorder being more widely recognised, but overeating is still seen as a lack of self control rather than an illness.

I was diagnosed with binge eating disorder a couple of years ago at the same time as being diagnosed with ADHD. I've not told anyone about the BED because so few people believe it's a real disorder.

I do agree. Over or under eating can mean theres disorder in the mind.
People can become addicted to food or addicted to restricting. Food can have a huge impact on emotions and vice versa.

I've worked with many people who have needed to lose/gain weight for various reasons and almost every one of them had deep emotional issues connected to it. Not all but most.

I would love to see more support out there for anybody with food related issues,regardless of weight.

A lot of the people on those American programmes who are morbidly obese tend to all present serious childhood trauma. There is a correlation

I related to everything you just said there.

I agree, but I see it already as a mental illness, in so much that any addiction is.

I 100% have a sugar addiction. Its vile, I hate it, I splurge and binge on sugar, if I don't have some I'm irritable, restless, bite all my nails etc. After I binge I feel guilty, gross, disgusting, promise I'll not do it again... Then tomorrow rolls round.

I'm not obese though. I don't know how I'm not but I'm not, so I don't think I'd ever qualify for any intense treatments to overcome it. I should look into hypnotherapy or something.

I think it's more likely it'll be considered a hormonal issue triggered by a combination of genetics and a modern western (ultraprocessed) diet.

I think it already is.

overeating because of hyperfocus and lack of impulse control is already connected to ADHD

I think there are a lot of psychological aspects to overeating/weight gain, but then again most people have complex psychology, which manifests itself in different ways. I'm not sure how helpful the 'mental illness' label would be for most overweight/obese people.

@MrsTrustice

A lot of the people on those American programmes who are morbidly obese tend to all present serious childhood trauma. There is a correlation

Oh definitely.

I have never understood why anorexia attracts so much sympathy yet severe morbid obesity is just seen as greed/gluttony and something to be mocked. Both are a form of self harm and mental illness in my opinion

It is considered as a mental health issue, and treated as such, by many of us already. Unfortunately not by the NHS very much, though.

I agree, I have a sugar addiction and it’s so hard to break it. You know it’s harming you and can’t seem to stop

I think there's more of an analogy with smoking related disease and tobacco companies. With the food manufacturers in the firing line for pushing addictive agent of ill health while arguing for public freedom of choice.

I dunno. I think obesity is really the inevitable result of what we’re programmed biologically to do - eat when food is plentiful, even beyond the point at which we’re full, so that in times of food scarcity we have fat reserves to keep us alive. We just happen nowadays in the West to never have those times of scarcity and to be surrounded by the type of highly calorific fatty, sugary foods we’re designed to crave, available constantly without the need to hunt or gather them. There’s no moral failing in overreating or putting on weight, it’s what’s kept us alive as a species. Unfortunately it’s become so tied up in social conditioning and conventions.

Anorexia is seen as an illness because it goes directly against what we’re programmed to do: it takes enormous restraint and you need to actively ignore a constant and very loud alarm to be able to literally starve yourself.

I kind of agree, because I think obesity can be linked to mental illness. But there's many obese people who do not have all these linked negative thoughts and behaviours linked to their eating. They just happen to be big, maybe because they love eating, or they have a medical issue, but it doesn't always come from a place of illness, addiction, self harm etc

@Comedycook because being thin is highly sight after and fat isn't.

Obesity is definitely an eating disorder. I studied this extensively at uni yet it doesn't get recovered used as such.

Obesity is as deeply psychologically rooted as anorexia.

The (over) drive to eat is based in hormonal signals. The obesity code by Jason Fung and why we eat (too much) by Andrew Jenkinson are both worth reading.

I have had BED for years. It isnt treated under mental health services. It isnt treated at all.

At my worst I would eat and eat, whilst crying, because I knew I wasn't hungry, but I couldn't stop. I would stop once I felt sick.

All of my mental health team know and acknowledge that it is eating down and controlling complex PTSD.

Nobody will ever admit fat people could have an eating disorder. Who could they shame and feel superior to then?

Under eating prompts sympathy, over eating is universally seen as disgusting.

I very much agree with you. I have also struggled for my entire adult life and have nutrition qualifications. I have considered paying for therapy to try to work it out, as the hundreds of diets I have tried don't last for the same reasons you detailed.

My brother had gastric surgery 10 years ago and has reversed it completely through compulsive over eating , which often made him physically sick. Nothing any of us could say or do to help him to stop this destructive behaviour worked. He won't even think about engaging mental health services, and no one can make him. I think it will massively shorten his life and there is nothing anyone can do.

@MrsTrustice

A lot of the people on those American programmes who are morbidly obese tend to all present serious childhood trauma. There is a correlation

Yes. There are different, complex causes for different people. Blanket labels or assumptions won't help people.

Some people need trauma treatment and support, some people perhaps it does fall more under 'addiction', others may be physical mechanisms rather than psychological ones.

If someone without trauma receives a trauma treatment it won't help them, if someone with trauma receives an addiction intervention it won't help them. Much like giving antibiotics to someone with a viral infection isn't helpful.

What would be important in the future would be to take a more person-centred, trauma-informed approach so that everyone can receive the support they need to address the underlying cause. Instead of just being given leaflets on diet or fitness.

The link between trauma and obesity is pretty well documented in research now, but has perhaps not permeated through to being widely known in the general population. I would hope that will change over time.

*sought after. Self-control is virtuous and we admire the ability to deny our basic instinct and need to eat. Obesity is seen as disgusting and marked by a total lack of control and we worry it might be catching. There's repulsion by society. It's so fucked up.

I do not enjoy overeating, it is bland when no longer hungry. I find it extremely distressing.

But obesity is NOT a mental illness. It is a metabolic disorder

I think that people will realise that there are conditions that cause it that are mental illness, like eating disorders, and addiction to certain foods.

100% would not have required weight loss surgery if that wasn't the case, and weight loss surgery would have worked for me if there wasn't a mental aspect at play here.

But obesity is NOT a mental illness. It is a metabolic disorder

It is a very complex problem with a very large psychological and emotional component. If you ignore this side of things you’re doomed to stay obese - or at the very least to yo-yo all your life.