Experience-"And eat, and eat, and eat, and eat, and eat until I die!"

            It’s no secret to anyone who knows me (or has seen me) that I’ve struggled with obesity myself, and to a 130 pound-lesser degree still do.  The bridge between ones personal relationship with obesity and the medical field’s professional objectivity (some might say ‘distance’) can be a vast one, depending on the stage of acknowledgement.  Obesity—like its sister disorders anorexia and bulimia—is just as much a mental disease as it is a physical ailment.  Unlike Anorexia/Bulimia*, where many people feel sorry for the individual, feel they are a victim of societal pressures, those suffering from obesity are usually seen as bringing these issues upon themselves, sinners (specifically, Gluttons), or deserving of their disorder.  After all, the problem is a simple fix, right?  Just put the burger down, and get up off your ass!

            When discussing obesity with obese individuals one gets a wide array of feelings.  Some don’t seem themselves as obese, they’re just ‘a little pudgy,’ ‘big boned,’ or ‘have a glandular problem.  A sort of denial.  The morbidly obese, however, generally can’t escape the issue, but still choose not to address it, which makes it hard to actually address the issue of being overweight with those who are overweight.  An issue the medical field of psychology addresses.

            Psychology tells us that people are most often obese due to an issue of avoidance.  Some emotional trauma they either don’t want to deal with, or feel food is the only way to deal with it.  They will either use food to make themselves feel full, pushing away all other feelings (especially emotional emptiness) and people, creating a literally thicker physical armor, or abuse food because they feel it’s the only thing they can actually control in their life (similar to cutters, who take charge and control of the pain letting it out on THEIR terms).

            Still others focus predominantly on the physical nature of the condition, such as dietitians, physical therapists, and the vast majority of physicians.  To them, the condition is physical, and if you get the physical condition in line the mental will follow—something I personally feel is ass-fucking-backwards.  More and more are beginning to realize this doesn’t work, and people tend to just backslide if the underlying emotional issues aren’t met.  Sadly, the obese play into this themselves.

            Many obese people—if they choose to take any action—go to the gym, but not the psychiatrist or psychologist.  They choose to focus on the physical nature of their condition, avoiding the emotional element.  Avoiding in a new way, perhaps a physically healthier way, but still avoiding.

*To be clear, I am well aware of the stigma placed on Anorexics and Bulimics (“Just eat a damn cheeseburger!”), and don’t mean to undercut that very serious issue in any way.  However, this post isn’t about that, and as a generalization I find my observations to hold fairly true even if only in the broadest sense.