The Relationship between Obesity and Depression

Obesity – the physical affliction. Depression – the mental disorder. Is there any link between these two highly prevalent disorders of India?

Several research studies have been conducted to understand the relationship between these two chronic conditions. According to one such study, about 43 per cent of adults with depression disease were found obese. 

Likewise, obesity is often associated with emotional issues such as depression. One study found that people who are obese had a 55 per cent greater risk for developing depression disease over the course of their life than people who weren’t obese.

The link between Obesity and Depression

Obesity and depression go hand-in-hand. For the majority of people, extra fat on their body tends to make them feel sad, eventually leading to chronic depression. This is commonly seen in women since they give a lot of importance to their body image. More often than not, obese people try to beat their blues by eating more and end up accumulating more fat on the body, which in turn makes them more depressed.

Talking about today’s youth, adults, and children – social media is a new mirror for them. They are highly active in their social media circuit and their social appearance matters a lot to them. They are the favorite victims of depression. They take the social media responses very seriously and tend to slip into depression and obesity faster.

Also Read: How to prevent childhood obesity

Obese people turn depressed majorly due to two reasons – low self-esteem and altered self-perception. Frequent attempts to go on diets and getting snide remarks during public appearances leave them frustrated and make them feel ‘depressed’.

Depressed people don’t feel like doing exercise and they usually confine themselves behind the walls. Many tend to binge eat as an emotional response to depression disease. As a result of a sedentary lifestyle, sadness, and self-loathing, depression leads to obesity.

Both obesity and depression are also found to have strong genetic links. Therefore, children of people with either or both problems are more predisposed to have them as well.

Also Read: What is depression and how should one deal with it?

Treatment and medication for both the conditions

It is very important to break free from this crucial cycle of obesity and depression. As these two conditions are chronic ones and require long-term care and attention.

There are several treatments available to address obesity and depression. However, few medications can cause either or both the conditions as a common side-effect.

Many prescribed anti-depressants cause weight gain as a common side-effect. Some weight management therapies can lead to emotional ups and downs that can cause depression in an individual. Therefore, you need to be very careful while selecting the treatment method to address these problems.

Homeopathy can certainly be of great help in treating obesity and depression. It takes a multi-pronged approach to address the problem. In addition to treating the condition based on physical symptoms, it also takes care of your mental health, personality, and temperament. Homeopathic doctors can guide you, encourage you to deal with both the conditions simultaneously, that too without any side-effects.

Depression and obesity treatment in homeopathy takes care of your underlying medical, hormonal or psychological factors, genetics, lifestyle, work and your home environment and can help you cope with it. Homeopathic medicines can help you lose weight by improving your digestion and metabolism. In addition, it also helps in reducing emotional hypersensitivity and regulates serotonin (happy hormones) balance in your body.

Besides taking treatment for depression and obesity, you can also reduce your risk of either condition if you stay active, talk to someone, and stick to your treatment plan.