OBESITY: A Consumer's Guide to Psychological Treatment
OBESITY
Strictly speaking, obesity is not a psychological disorder. It is not included in
DSM-IIII, nor was it included in its predecessors. Yet, obesity afflicts such a
large number of children, has such dire consequences on their social and
physical lives, and has such grave psychological effects that it is difficult to
discuss the problems of childhood and adolescence without mentioning obesity.
Obesity is defined as excess fat on the body. But among growing children
and adolescents, it is often difficult to know what is excess fat. A fairly strict
standard defines a child as obese if his or her weight is more than 40 percent
higher than the median weight for children of the same height (Rodin,
1977). Given this definition of obesity, there are between 5 and 8 million
obese children in the United States alone.
Obesity restricts the range of physical, and especially athletic, activities in
which children can participate, but this is not its central liability. Rather, the
major problem for obese children lies in others' reactions to them. Obese
children are taunted, scorned, and rejected by others. For example, a variety
of drawings of children were shown to groups of school children, who were
asked to select the ones they liked best. The drawings included normal boys
and girls, as well as children who were obese, children who had facial deformities,
children who had had limb amputations, and the like. Consistently,
obese children were least liked. This rejection is the major psychological
consequence of obesity (Richardson, 1970).
Causes of Obesity
People become obese for constitutional and hereditary reasons, as well as for
psychological ones. On the constitutional side, there appear to be vast differences
in the size and number of fat cells that obese and normal children
have. Hyperplastic obesity results from having many more fat cells than is
normal. Normal people have around three billion fat cells, while obese people
may have nearly twice that number. This kind of obesity appears to develop
during childhood and is likely to remain throughout a person's life.
Hypertrophic obesity develops in late adolescence and in adulthood, and
results from having enlarged fat cells rather than too many such cells (Winick,
1975).
Eating, however, serves such significant psychological and social functions
in most societies that it is difficult to overlook the habit component of
this problem. Many families socially reinforce children for eating by reminding
them of the importance of cleaning one's plate ("waste not, want
not") or by tying eating to guilt and affection ("don't you like what daddy
made for you?").
Treatment
Obesity in children as in adults is difficult to eliminate. A staggering variety
Of treatments have been tried over the years, with reasonable initial success
that fades over the long term. The more promising treatments have emphasized
the acquisition of self-control and de-emphasized weight loss per se as
a goal of treatment (Jeffery, 1977; Stunkard, 1972, 1979). Overweight is
merely considered the outcome of bad eating habits. These programs therefore
concentrate on the eating habits themselves, and they encourage children
to do such things as eating only at mealtimes, eating slowly, and
expending more energy through exercise.
Strictly speaking, obesity is not a psychological disorder. It is not included in
DSM-IIII, nor was it included in its predecessors. Yet, obesity afflicts such a
large number of children, has such dire consequences on their social and
physical lives, and has such grave psychological effects that it is difficult to
discuss the problems of childhood and adolescence without mentioning obesity.
Obesity is defined as excess fat on the body. But among growing children
and adolescents, it is often difficult to know what is excess fat. A fairly strict
standard defines a child as obese if his or her weight is more than 40 percent
higher than the median weight for children of the same height (Rodin,
1977). Given this definition of obesity, there are between 5 and 8 million
obese children in the United States alone.
Obesity restricts the range of physical, and especially athletic, activities in
which children can participate, but this is not its central liability. Rather, the
major problem for obese children lies in others' reactions to them. Obese
children are taunted, scorned, and rejected by others. For example, a variety
of drawings of children were shown to groups of school children, who were
asked to select the ones they liked best. The drawings included normal boys
and girls, as well as children who were obese, children who had facial deformities,
children who had had limb amputations, and the like. Consistently,
obese children were least liked. This rejection is the major psychological
consequence of obesity (Richardson, 1970).
Causes of Obesity
People become obese for constitutional and hereditary reasons, as well as for
psychological ones. On the constitutional side, there appear to be vast differences
in the size and number of fat cells that obese and normal children
have. Hyperplastic obesity results from having many more fat cells than is
normal. Normal people have around three billion fat cells, while obese people
may have nearly twice that number. This kind of obesity appears to develop
during childhood and is likely to remain throughout a person's life.
Hypertrophic obesity develops in late adolescence and in adulthood, and
results from having enlarged fat cells rather than too many such cells (Winick,
1975).
Eating, however, serves such significant psychological and social functions
in most societies that it is difficult to overlook the habit component of
this problem. Many families socially reinforce children for eating by reminding
them of the importance of cleaning one's plate ("waste not, want
not") or by tying eating to guilt and affection ("don't you like what daddy
made for you?").
Treatment
Obesity in children as in adults is difficult to eliminate. A staggering variety
Of treatments have been tried over the years, with reasonable initial success
that fades over the long term. The more promising treatments have emphasized
the acquisition of self-control and de-emphasized weight loss per se as
a goal of treatment (Jeffery, 1977; Stunkard, 1972, 1979). Overweight is
merely considered the outcome of bad eating habits. These programs therefore
concentrate on the eating habits themselves, and they encourage children
to do such things as eating only at mealtimes, eating slowly, and
expending more energy through exercise.
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You may not-yet-have-experienced…
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Click here to learn more:
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Click Here: http://www.TheLiberatorMethod.com
AVAILABLE IN the USA CANADA UK AUSTRALIA
Inpatient Treatment Residential Treatment Partial Hospitalization Day Treatment Outpatient Individual Therapy/Private Practice Medical Evaluation Nutritional Counseling Family Therapy Couples Therapy Group Therapy Support Groups Phone Counseling and Phone Therapy Distance Counselling
FOOD ADDICTION?
Learn why Impulse Control Treatments Counselor/Therapies may FAIL and discover a new Cutting Edge Method that WORKS...
You may not-yet-have-experienced…
…YOUR POWER TO CHANGE!
I’ll explain the Empowering Counseling Method—with a proven success rate.
Click here to learn more:
http://food-addiction-treatment-cure.webs.com/