Mental Obesity; Your Mind Could Be Making You Fat!

Mental Obesity; What else can cause Weight Gain?

There are several mental or psychotic conditions leading to obesity. Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Manic Depression are just a few. In some of these cases if the condition doesn't lead to being overweight, the conventional treatment will. Studies have revealed that some anti-depressants and anti-psychotic agents have caused weight gain. To date there is no clear cut understanding of the link between mental illness and obesity. Trials have been carried out but the results have been very inconsistent. Some drugs have produced weight loss in the first six months but continued treatment caused weight gain over the next six months. This reinforces the need to treat the whole body holistically instead of treating symptoms.

Reading the report on the trials made me realise that very little is known about mentally induced obesity and the way to treat it. The approach seemed to be very much "Trial and Error". That is certainly not the way I would want to treat my body.

It is an obvious fact that no two individuals are exactly the same. One person suffering depression may lose weight while another will experience weight gain. Therefore we can reinforce once again that, no matter what the condition is, it must be treated by treating the whole body, not just a symptom affecting a part of a body.

Mental Obesity

There are many scenarios which can cause us to act in a way which is sure to cause obesity. If we are unhappy many will eat copious amounts of comfort food including Chocolate, Sweets, Cakes, Biscuits and of course Ice Cream. Eating Comfort Foods when we are unhappy is a sure fire way to Mental Obesity. This is something to which we become conditioned from the time we are born. Kids are given all manner of sweet things when they are unhappy to try to make them happy. Therefore as adults, when we are unhappy, we reach for the comfort foods or other indulgences.

Why do we do that?

The whole population has become the victim of very clever marketing. The whole Advertising Industry directs its marketing campaigns to where they will achieve the best results. Primarily this is Children. If they can convince the children then the adults are involuntarily forced to follow.

What Do I Mean?

We all know that all Children, soon after they learn to talk, develop a "Terrible Disease" called "The I Wants", usually without exception. The symptoms are treated by giving them what they want. A tempoary fix until the next time. Where do Companies advertise if they want to sell a new Confectionery Bar? -- You guessed it! Childrens' TV programs of course. Can you see now that Mental Obesity is not necessarily associated with Mental Illness?

Why do kids eat?

I want to reinforce here why kids eat even when they are not hungry. Have you ever observed? -- Kids are inheritly active. They need to be doing something or they get bored. They can only watch so much TV before they need to do "Something". Usually the first thing they think of is to "eat". Closely followed by "drink". Now what heve we got?-- Answer. --Calorie Intake without Calorie Burn. -- Result -- Weight Gain.

If you have a problem and need some help, send me an eMail:- geoffharley1@bigpond.com