Weight Loss and Anxiety
I watched an interesting video yesterday on the BBC website. It was about a young man who had lost 6 stone in weight and other than the obvious health benefits from it he reported that the weight loss helped him with his anxiety. Now this is no great surprise to me and most likely for others in my profession as one cannot deny, body image and weight are a huge contributing factor to anxiety for many young and older members of our society.
Weight or the excess thereof, is used by many people as a means of judgement. Even if that judgement may be unconscious, people in the main still look at people of size differently to those who are perceived to be thinner and healthier. Weight gain can also lead to people taking on different behavioural and beliefs which also help to perpetuate these views. Mode of dress, posture and other factors can help to maintain the poor body image a person of size may hold. Of course, if that person is also single, a new anxiety comes into play which is how will they ever find a partner with the extra weight on.
People are, of course, entitled to preferences, but we need to help people of size to feel good about themselves and if we do that, a peculiar thing will happen, they will begin to lose weight. Because when a person feels better about themselves, they do not need to use food to self medicate. Hypnotherapy and psychotherapy are very good ways to help people to do this.
