Being obese in it carries a lot of psychological consequences. Being a woman who is obese adds to the psychological burden. My experience as a bariatric surgeon interacting with a cross-section of women who were obese and were looking for a surgical cure makes me compile the psychological burden they undergo.
General False Beliefs Prevalent Among Obese Women Due to Media & Peers
- A false belief that they are non-attractive to the opposite sex is a psychological killer. Unfortunately, this causes a lot of mental stress and they have a just feeling that they are not living their lives full.
- Another false belief that being obese is not being beautiful is also prevalent.
- A general feeling of inferiority complex runs in them because of the feeling of helplessness.
- The worst psychological consequence is the false feeling of not being loved. This can indeed have an adverse effect.
Psychological and Other Consequences
- They have extremely low self-esteem. This makes them shy away from social occasions and they do not mingle with their peers. To not participate in such social occasions they might avoid going by saying certain white lies in the last minute.
- They think they have less energy than their peers and this gives the impression that they are lazy.
- An invariably higher level of stress and anxiety can be observed in women who are obese. This stress level also induces them to binge eating. Call it a vicious cycle. This binge eating makes them further obese. Obese women who are in an active age group of 18-30 are definitely more stressed.
- The failed attempt aimed at reducing their weight comes to haunt them. So a streak of frustration and hopelessness runs inside them.
- Obese women react with anger for most things that happen around them. The manifest of anger they think projects them being strong women. But they are child hearted and in actual terms they need help.
- Obesity also causes irregular menstruation cycle. This makes them psychologically uneasy.
- All obese women will have neuroendocrine hormonal imbalance leading to endogenous depression. This is usual and this has to be tackled.
To summarize, children who are obese are unable to express their psychological struggle and women who are obese have a sense of unease and a strong inhibition to seek help. Worst is, their folks at home simply do not comprehend their psychological pressure. This imparity worsens the situation and is the main challenge that needs to be dealt with.