The psychological effects of being heavy – and obesity – are often devastating. Larger people are regularly ridiculed by others whose weight is in the normal range. Making fun of overweight people is unexceptional in today’s society. The obese are often have to put up with a range of psychological barbs and social denigrations. Because of this a common problem is poor self-esteem, feel inadequate and are frequently considered as the source of their own problems.
Every day social situations are , or can be, embarrassing for a person with obesity. Going to a beach or at public swimming pools, where they have to wear clothes which are more revealing, becomes an awkward occasion. Those who decide to play competitive sports they often undergo the humiliation of being the least wanted. During school, obese or overweight children perform worse when measured academically than ‘normal’ weight peers – they also have lower grade point averages. As young adults, there is often more difficulty gaining acceptance into college and securing jobs and future promotions. Small wonder that these life experiences lead to poor self esteem and self-confidence. So starts a vicious cycle of social isolation, emotional withdrawal, depression, inactivity, more overeating, and further weight gain.
The body image distortion and general body disappointment suffered by obese and overweight people are sometimes implicated in the growth of negative self-worth, and can act as risk factors for depression in addition to unhealthy eating behaviours. Body image can be affected and shaped by such things as your cultural values and beliefs regarding physical beauty.
There is no doubt that many overweight people tend blame their obesity on personal medical issues , for example, thyroid disease. The plain truth is , fewer than one percent of those who are overweight or obese have a true hormonal imbalance, or any other other medicalcondition. While there isn’t a single reason that 100 gets to the cause of the issue, genetics, poor nutrition, bad eating habits and lack of exercise are the likely causes.
Of course there are some easy things an obese or overweight person might do to enhance his/her self-esteem. For starters they can seek consultation with their general practitioner to find out just how serious the problem is, or if there really is a problem at all. Everyone is built differently and many seem to be overweight whencompared to friends and family are really normal.
They should reduce the amount of TV watching. There is a correlation being overweight and watching television. Most of us watch at least 3 hours of television a day, – do you know what is the item most regularly featured purchase item on TV? Food! What’s the most likely thing people do when watching television? Eat! TV would probably be better limited to just a couple of hours a day, as a maximum. In fact, television watching can be done while exercising.
Those who are overweight shoulder the responsibility to protect themselves from the harm, pyschological and physical brought about by being obese. By establishing patterns of healthy eating and exercising sensibly, they can conquer the challenge of overweight, allowing them to enjoy life to the full and not be weighted down by being bigger than the ‘average size.