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'm massively overweight. It's definitely psychological/emotional for me.

I've never been so anxious in my life or as heavy. I hate being this way but have this need to eat crap. I've tried not but will order it in instead. It's just inescapable for me and the only thing that brings me brief comfort. It's a horrific way to live in a society that only values the slim.

I believe it doesn't help MH when you physically can't get from A to B without chronic pain or feel people will stare at you outside.
I firmly believe it is an addiction, anything you can't control that hurts you is addiction.
If it is treated as an MH disorder a huge part of the population will suffer from it and the other side of it is will obese people be sectioned like aneroxia patients, have regular medical visit when they need to stripped be weighted regularly, pockets searched? Force fed vs forced starvation, daily diaries, full family involvement into their eating choices? It'd possibly scare people enough to stop obesity if anything.

Catchthepigeons

Yes I think overeating is partly caused by mental illness, and I studied neuroscience as part of my degree. It’s a combination of many factors which lead you to become obese. Stress and lack of time are two of the top reasons, these both contribute to poor mental health. Also genetics, there are various genes which increase your likelihood of becoming obese. There are also genes which contribute to mental illness. Hopefully advances in technology will lead to advances in genomics and epigenetics and we’ll have clearer answers in the future.

@redcarbluecar

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.

I think a mental illness label would change the treatment pathway. At the moment, people with eating disorders get very little support/treatment from the NHS. An appointment with a dietician is about all you can hope for. But that's pointless, because if someone is binge eating crisps or chocolate, telling them to eat pulses, cut out sugar, etc., isn't hitting the point is it? (I've been to dieticians, they basically just tell you everything you can read yourself in the leaflets or online about healthy eating and don't give any advice about the mental aspect of what is really an addiction). Someone with an eating disorder needs help/support to work out the triggers, reasoning, etc., i.e. the mental health impacts.

It's self comfort.
I used drugs for self comfort until NA. I don't know why people suffering food addiction don't attend OA.
Anonymous programmes whether it is AA NA or OA are proven methods of recovering with an amazing support system that deal with the reasons for self sabotaging comforts and the rewards we play emotions off.

Exactly, Kazzy. There won’t be many people who don’t know that eating less crap and eating more veg might help. It’s not that that people need assistance with. But it’s way cheaper for t NHS to offer one diet sheet or one appointment with a dietician than it is to fund 6 months of hypnotherapy or psychotherapy.

I can binge eat anything, brocoli, cauliflower, carrot, meat, brown rice, egg, avocado...anything

The point isn't mmmmmm this tastes nice. It's burying emotion and stopping panic from rising. Flashbacks, overwhelming sobbing, dissociation, all trigger it for me.

Someone with an eating disorder needs help/support to work out the triggers, reasoning, etc., i.e. the mental health impacts. All provided at OA.

@EmeraldShamrock

I believe it doesn't help MH when you physically can't get from A to B without chronic pain or feel people will stare at you outside. I firmly believe it is an addiction, anything you can't control that hurts you is addiction. If it is treated as an MH disorder a huge part of the population will suffer from it and the other side of it is will obese people be sectioned like aneroxia patients, have regular medical visit when they need to stripped be weighted regularly, pockets searched? Force fed vs forced starvation, daily diaries, full family involvement into their eating choices? It'd possibly scare people enough to stop obesity if anything.

I don't think so. I was fat as a child and reported by the school to social services at the age of 8. Obviously, at that age, what I ate was under the control of my parents, yet all the blame was put onto me (for eating what my parents gave me!). Then, weekly weigh ins followed, along with a strict diet (boring salads mostly, whilst rest of family enjoyed their processed/salty/sugary/fatty foods!). It was a miserable existence, I did start to lose weight, but it turned me after a few months. I started binge eating in secret, getting school friends to buy me stuff from the school tuck shop which I ate in the toilets (so teachers wouldn't see), etc. My entire adult life has been subject to binge and secret eating, even now, 50 years later. Despite numerous visits to GPs, and a few visits to dieticians, none have had the "tool box" to deal with a mental eating disorder. I've basically had to examine my own reasons for eating, discover my own triggers, and change my lifestyle to avoid having opportunities for binge eating. I could have done all that a lot quicker than 50 years had there been some proper counselling/advice available back at the start, or at least a decade or two earlier!!

Severe overeating is obviously self harm and linked to mental health issues, like the 600lb programmes about people getting weight loss surgery. Almost all of them had major trauma in their childhoods, alcoholic parents, sexual abuse, all sorts of awful things.

The problem with this is obesity, rather than morbid obesity, and even that’s not 100%. 2/3rds of adults in the U.K. are overweight or obese. They don’t all have a psychological condition. We’ve got easier access to high calorie food than ever, it’s affordable, it’s designed to taste amazing and get you wanting more. As more people have got fatter it’s become normal to see fatter people as standard so more and more people get fatter but don’t see it. Every time someone on here trots out “size 16 is average, so you’re not fat” they make it sound like most women aren’t overweight at 16 and they probably are, possibly also obese, unless they’re very tall.

I’m not aware of anyone who cured themselves of anorexia by just changing their diet, while quite a few people get from obese to a healthy weight by doing exactly that. Loads of people have a lightbulb moment about needing to change their lifestyle and shift some weight from needing an unrelated surgery, getting divorced, booking a flight, seeing a bad holiday photo etc.

OA can be helpful but can’t give the same effects as working one to one with a therapist on your own individual issues.

I 100% agree. Maybe a small amount of people are obese because they are simply greedy, but overeating to that degree does come across as a crutch. I think obese people can get addicted to food, and unhealthy food in particular.

I say this as someone who is borderline obese.

@Kazzyhoward That's sad and really horrible treatment towards a child.
All addictions are masking of pain or trauma no-one wants to constantly feel shit at their own methods of comfort, it's a horrible lonely feeling.

I agree it certainly in the addiction category and it should be liked upon the same way alcoholism it and not just widely accepted and ok within society.

Imagine if we had OA groups (obesity anonymous) I think people would be more conscious of it

Difference being ironically it wouldn't be anonymous!

Obesity isn't a mental illness, it's a physical condition. However compulsive over-eating is. CBT is a great tool for it and can really help.

Interesting. I think I agree with @AnneLovesGilbert. 2/3rds of adults in the UK can't have a mental illness.

@VeganCheesePlease it is a mental illness, it's to do with the inability to say no - lack of willpower

Also a lot of depression means people eat to feel happy this is proven

CBT can be a helpful part of therapy, but it doesn’t get to the root cause of why somebody’s compulsively overeating and self-sabotaging. It’s that that needs to be resolved for long term change c

[quote doesparentingsuck]@VeganCheesePlease it is a mental illness, it's to do with the inability to say no - lack of willpower

Also a lot of depression means people eat to feel happy this is proven [/quote]
Yes. As I said, compulsive over-eating is a mental illness.

Interesting. I think I agree with @AnneLovesGilbert. 2/3rds of adults in the UK can't have a mental illneSs

Depends how you define it. That proportion of people could easily be suffering from trauma/lack impulse control/have unmet emotional needs/be self-medicating, etc. These things are incredibly common. How many of us were brought up in a way that taught us to perfectly regulate our emotions, for example? Not many!!

Is it really likely that since the 1980s a huge proportion of the population have lost all willpower or self control? I think mental illness may be a factor for some but overwhelmingly it's the interaction of hormones with a diet we have not evolved to process.

@ComtesseDeSpair

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.

This is a really interesting take, I'd never thought of it like that before. I, like the OP, also see obesity and anorexia as two sides of the same coin, but after reading your post, I do see how it's actually very different.

I see what you mean and I tend to agree though I see it more like an addiction. It essentially works the same way as other addictions, the fats and sugars provide the brain with a kind of high and it keeps wanting more of it. I read a study on it a while back that was really interesting. Also can be emotional addiction, if you associate food with comfort particularly if you've been through trauma.

Of course in our society it's easy to be overweight without any addition or emotional eating, unhealthy food is cheap and quick and easy and many don't realise JUST how unhealthy some food is. But then there are also people who really struggle with it like an addiction.

I've been struggle with it, food really is my comfort emotionally and I'm sure I'm more addicted to sugar than I am coffee as I crave it so much! It's taken a lot of willpower to lose weight and I've needed to find something to replace the emotional comfort food used to give me.