Obesity And Its Psychological Effects: Its Prevalence In Patients

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WORLD OBESITY DAY

Obesity has never been described as a psychiatric disease, but there are some psychological factors that affect the mental health of a person with obesity; among them anxiety, depression and eating disorders.

Obesity is a chronic, progressive disease and when we talk about how it affects health, we think about the development of cardiovascular diseases, a decrease in the quality of life and an increase in mortality. But this endogenous disease, which has become one of the most serious and rapid health problems in the population, also affects the psychological and social aspects of individuals. “Psychological obesity prevails at a rate of 100 percent in all obese patients. This level will vary according to the personal circumstances of each individual and their career,” says Jesús Javier Díaz, President of the National Association for Obese People and the Treatment of Obesity (Asepo).

Mental health is an important part of health. About the good is unique and can be weakened by stress, social changes, exclusion or discrimination, or a crazy lifestyle. In fact, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association, 51% of people with obesity have a history of severe depression. Additional research has shown that obese women with binge eating disorder who are troubled by their appearance later develop body dissatisfaction and depression.

In addition, the patient is involved in an environment in which he feels bad and is not accepted, who can avoid behaviors and take refuge in his behaviors, maintaining or increasing them, which turns this situation into a serious consequence that is difficult to resolve. repercussions on weight gain, creating a very negative circle for any change, no matter how much change.

“There is no need to complete a psychosomatic evaluation and this test can only be completed by either a psychologist or a psychiatrist.”

President Asepo is clear. “Today, the obese person is completely marked by their disease because it has a very visible impact on their body. The reason for the rejection, criticism or stigma of a person is all physical. Now yes, this has an even greater impact on the healing of a person’s mind, because it makes them isolate themselves more socially, for example. Or you should be more attentive to what she does or says, since she is the center of all eyes and this creates a terrible anxiety image that presses her steps, affecting this, further aggravating her health.

In this regard, there are some main reasons that can affect the mind of someone who is obese. Among them there are fears and dangerous plots; loss of self-esteem; emotional disturbance due to wrong eating habits; unhappiness; anxiety pseudogynecomastia; depression, agoraphobia and eating disorders (TCA). In these, the perception of self-importance takes place.

“If the perception of oneself is not realistic and constant, it can play a very trick on us. For it can mean, as they say, or “throw in the towel” or produce an effect completely against fat, that is from fat, which is true, anorexia, which is a lie. Let me explain: we are obese because, among other things, we eat more food and therefore gain weight, this is true. Now we do not eat because we are fat. This is a lie, if this state of not eating food is eaten over time and maintained, starvation we will die”, continued Díaz.

A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Obesity is never classified as a psychiatric disease in the DSM classifications, published by the American Psychiatric Association, or in the ICD classification of the World Health Organization (WHO), but it is considered a multifactorial and multicausal disease, therefore “It is not considered as a single or singular entity, such as a metabolic component can, as it happens today, expertise.

For this reason, “a psychosomatic evaluation work must be carried out and this test can only be carried out by either a psychologist or a psychiatrist, all other experts are excluded because they lack the power to carry out said test. which help us to address this problem from a specialist point of view and thus to obtain a medical mission, as we can see, is not being done. just pills are prescribed and ‘yes’, concludes the expert.

Because everyone needs health… ConSalud.es