I don't think we should waste time trying to figure out if obesity causes psychiatric disorders or vice-versa: it's like trying to see the forrest thru the trees: you'll always be stuck looking at individuals until you rise above and try a different point of view. I realize that this post has gone on some form of a tangent, however, I argue that it's still relevant to psychiatric disorders. Because at the heart of this is the fact that there is a correlation between psychiatric disorders and obesity. And, at least in America, it would seem that it's a perpetual cycle knowingly created by corporations whom unconsciously are bankrupting the American people of their self-confidence.
Monday, April 25, 2011
BMI over 30? You probably have some type of a psychiatric disorder
Author's Danielle Barry and Nancy Petry review the associations between various psychiatric disorders and obesity in their article, Obesity and Psychiatric Disorders, (published in Psychiatric Times, in 2009). In response to the title of this post, "nearly two-thirds of Americans are are overweight or obese", so you most likely have some psychiatric disorder. While the article points out that because of how studies are conducted, it is difficult to identify the causal pathways between obesity and psychiatric disorders; I feel compelled to question why that even matters? Of course Americans who are classified as obese have psychiatric disorders. Whether the psychiatric disorder caused the obesity or vice-versa, it's generally irrelevant; shouldn't we be trying to address the larger issue at hand? Barry and Petry mention "weight-based discrimination" as one of the possible causes of psychiatric disorders/obesity. Let me reiterate in case you didn't find that as amusing as I did, Weight-Based Discrimination. Doesn't it beg the question, what won't we use for discrimination? American's unconsciously promote this form of discrimination thru the popularized ideals of the human body. I personally hold magazines such as People, Us Weekly, and other "trash-mags" as accountable for this phenomenon. We all know the "Best Celeb Bodies" articles and covers, all promoting this ideal of human body shape, yet, how many people actually have those bodies?
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I found an article about weight discrimination in Social Psychology Quarterly "The Stigma of Obesity : Does Perceived Weight Discrimination Affect Identity and Physical Health" (by Markus H. Schafer and Kenneth F. Ferraro)
It talks about the negative affects of being obese, and how you are perceived as "lazy, self-indulgent, and gluttonous"and the psychological affects of this stigmatization can be devastating.
So this would create a sort of loop, you're obese because you have a psychiatric disorder, and you have a psychiatric disorder because your obese" so trying to disentangle the cause from the effect is impossible and probably irrelevant.
this study also points out "Most studies on stigmatization in sociology focus on ‘‘unusual condi- tions,’’ such as severe mental illness (e.g., Schulze and Angermeyer 2003) or HIV/AIDS (e.g., Parker and Aggleton 2003). This interest in the ‘‘unusual’’ has been noted as an arbitrary boundary mechanism that sets apart stigma scholarship from its close intellectual cousins—prejudice and discrimination—which focus on usual traits such as race, gender, or religion (Stuber, Meyer, and Link 2008)."
with 62% of Americans being overweight, it is hardly "unusual".
So is it discrimination? If you kill an overweight person, should it count as commiting a hate crime? Probably not, I'm not buying this "weight discrimination."
So this is a pretty delayed response, but I had no idea anyone even responded in the first place. In my opinion the "weight-based discrimination" is neither spoken nor publicized. It is an unconscious influence for those who are obese. While really only airlines like SouthWest which require passenger's over a certain "horizontal" size to by two seats, actual commit this type of discrimination. I believe it's more of an internal discrimination brought upon by the vast images of "Ideal Bodies" in the media. In an effort for full disclosure, 3 years ago I weighed 100 lbs more than I do now. And I struggled with anxiety and discomfort due to my size. I wasn't publicly discriminated against, however, walking into any magazine store was actually painful. I constantly would question myself: why I didn't look like that? Was I worth my weight in gold? probably not because that would be somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. All joking aside, the perceived "ideal man" in every ad/editorial/movie/etc. became a taunting image reminding me that I was legally obese. Fortunately I never suffered from any form of serious depression, however I had and still cope with extreme anxiety issues. Which brought upon which is, like you said, a loop which isn't very important. But I strongly believe the issue it hints at is the greater culprit that needs to be addressed. So In response to your comment, I don't believe the discrimination is committed consciously by the public. However, the media's influence is a scary power wielded like a ten year old with a magnifying glass looking for profits regardless of the ants he might burn along the way.
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