United States | News & Politics

Telling an obese person to "stop it" is like telling a depressed person to stop being depressed, it totally ignores the underlying reasons.

I've struggled weight wise my entire life, been up and down 50 kilos over a decade, since actually getting an ADHD diagnosis and therapy it's trending downwards to where I want it to be.

I strongly believe from my own experiences (and others I know) there's a strong addiction component to obesity, would you describe smokers as having poor self control? There's a massive mental health (and genetic for that matter) component to obesity that's frankly overlooked, often can be a trauma response, maladaptive coping mechanism or as I said, addiction.

Have you ever talked to an obese person? My weight is/was a huge source of my self negativity, not a single person I know actually likes being obese, don't want to be that way, that cycle of self loathing is a spiral and it's really hard to break that, especially when society sees fit to attribute the entire condition to some sort of moral failing that makes it even harder for people to want to ask for help, let alone receive it.

I'm lucky, I've always been pretty active so judicious food logging + exercise works for me (and has in the past), others not so much. GLP-1 Agonists are an absolute godsend for people who really struggle from what I've been told (my ADHD meds kill appetite too, totally won't discount their contribution) they totally kill any food noise, actually helps keep them satiated, and importantly, kills their food stress response. Literally life changing, enabling them to actually get to a place where they can sustain it.

All of this is just the mental health components, there's other barriers in some places, food deserts are absolutely a thing and lack of walkable neighbourhoods does not help either.