5 Ways Society Can Help With The Effects of Obesity on Mental Health

A focus on Millennials and Gen Zs

My Interest

I never thought I know the standard definition of what it means to be Obese or Overweight until I developed an interest in researching this issue.

I aimed to first broaden my knowledge of Mental Health — and being someone very interested in the personal development of young people, I also wanted to examine the effects of obesity on the mental health of Millennials and Gen Zs.

With the optimism that I might be able to find non-medical ways but scientifically proven, that society and individuals can help young obese, or overweight people.

Introduction

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), being obese or overweight interprets a body mass index (BMI) of a person where over 25 BMI is considered overweight, and with over 30 BMI is obese.

Though the nontechnical meaning of being overweight or obese refers to an excessive or abnormal accumulation of fat in a manner that presents a health risk.

Mental Health refers to a person’s condition concerning their emotional and psychological well-being. In this WHO report, before the Covid_19 pandemic, 1 out of 8 persons worldwide suffered from a mental health condition. Furthermore, there is evidence of 10 years less life expectancy in individuals struggling with severe mental health issues than the general population.

Young people with mental health issues are identified to be a particularly vulnerable population group at risk for developing overweight and obesity conditions. This is because obesity causes depression and anxiety for most Millennials and Gen Zs.

Also, a mixture of severe mental health challenges and excess weight in young people may add to the disease burden and reduce self-esteem, social participation, and self-care behaviours like adhering to medication prescriptions while increasing stigmatisation.

Most known attempts to curb the rise of obesity in this population globally focus on food intake or nutrition monitoring and physical activity levels and exercises.

Five Psychosocial Ways Society Can Help With The Effects of Obesity On Individuals’ Mental Health

Outside the scope bracket of controlling obesity and overweight through (dieting and physical activities), I find that there are other ways society, families, and individuals can help.

I summarise my findings under five headings. While focusing on essential items to make this post relatable and valuable for readers.

• We should minimise the focus on weight alone

I find that the current focus on the body weight of an individual by society and the constant talks on social media could be impacting and adding up psychological or psychosocial discontent for Millennials and Gen Zs who are struggling with body issues, increasing BMI, or eating problems/disorders.

Instead, an overall general healthy lifestyle should be promoted. Behaviours that promote a healthy lifestyle are not only needful for obese or overweight Millennials and Gen Z but for the whole demographic population irrespective of body weight condition.

• We should intervene with weight bias and stigmatisation.

In every society, there is a culturally motivated beauty standard difference between males and females.

An article by Sachi, uncovers how there is a cultural beauty and weight acceptance difference between males and females in Japan — Why Japanese are Skinny? Are Those Genetics or Actually Have Great Nutrition? I have lived in the West for a couple of years now and it is the same. Also, in Africa!

So, there is a need to intervene in weight bias.

• We should embrace healthy body status promotion.

Millennials and Gen Zs with body weight are more concerned about body weight than their healthy-weight counterparts.

An early focus on identifying and preventing body weight and shape image concerns could potentially minimise the negative psychological impacts of obesity on millennials and Gen-Zs.

This promotion is equally crucial to target triggers and develops prevention treatments.

• We should target older generational role models.

Conceptions from older generations and weight — bias attitudes contribute to general societal weight bias.

As a society, all individuals of all age demographics similar to the idea of minimising the focus on weight alone should be educated in promoting healthy lifestyles and shift from judging weight and shape from the spectrum of models of health in the media.

• The need for further research

One of the things I enjoy about academic research, which I have carried on with me to even my leisure research for writing or out of interest in a subject area or simply to be informed as an individual, is a section where the researcher suggests the need for further research and how and the area to be researched.

So, therefore, I will suggest further research in these areas — instead of studies that compare obese versus healthy-weight individuals, researchers should focus on understanding those factors that put most obese or overweight individuals at psychological risk.

The recurring gender differences on some of the impacts of obesity on mental health equally present the need to investigate why that exists and how to help both genders on differential levels if need be.

And finally, keep researching the prevalent mechanisms that contribute underlyingly to this abnormal weight gain like the roles of genetics and neuroendocrine processes, lifestyle and psychiatric medications, and lastly environmental factors.

Reference

Shelly, R.-M., Gail, M., Angela, B. & Alana, I., (2012). Mental Health, Wellness, and Childhood Overweight/Obesity. Journal of Obesity, 1(1), pp. 1-10.

Stewart, S. & Ogden, J., (2022). Motivating or stigmatising? The public health and media messaging surrounding COVID-19 and obesity: a qualitative think aloud study. Health Education, 122(4), pp. 374-386.