For Ten Minutes Forget That You Are Fat And Depressed
One in three American adults is overweight, and more than half of those have varying degrees of depression. The rest are in conversely varying degrees of denial. This situation has brought to social awareness the existence of a bias – the weight bias. An overweight person will feel this bias from the rest of society in the form of ridicule, discrimination, condescension, and in the sad fact that you can count the number of fat A-list celebrities on one finger.
To illustrate how destructive this weight bias is, let’s review the main causes of obesity, which are generally genetic factors, psychological factors, and environmental factors. And possibly the most profound of environmental factors is the social weight bias. For so many fat and depressed people their struggle with obesity is a downward spiral. It is the weight bias that most feeds this destructive feedback loop.
Sadly, an overweight person is likely to experience the worst of this weight bias from inside their own head, with negative internal self-speak. Negative thoughts are re-enforced by negative interactions in society on a daily basis. How can anyone be expected to pull out of such a downward spiral with these kinds of forces being exerted on their wings?
We have to stop the pain RIGHT NOW! For at least the next ten minutes, you are going to forget that you fat and depressed. You are going to have a an out-of-body experience. You are going to observe yourself and others around you from an objective perspective. You need to experience the social weight bias from this safe place of objectivity; a place with no body-loathing; a place, if you can get there, of happy fulfillment, even if you all you can do is imagine it. Most importantly of all, the weight bias is now absent from your head! Go to that objective place now.
Start by looking at others around you. Right away you’ll notice that obesity is enormously relative. Many of the people contributing negatively to the weight bias are heavy themselves. They ridicule others to inflate their own false sense of self-worth. Those that aren’t overweight are dealing with their own body-image issues, or other issues, and with their baggage they can’t help but negatively impact the weight bias. Why should their pain impact you? Presently, you come to realize that anyone can separate themselves from much of the destructive power of the weight bias, and rise above it.
Next take a look at your Self, and not in the mirror, but again from the point of this safe objective perspective free from bias. You are looking at someone that you love deeply as a person, their physical form notwithstanding. So what advice would you give them, as a loving friend? Go ahead and give it to them; believe me, they’ll do what you say!
Stay in this place of objectivity for as long as you like, or as long as you can. Perhaps you might like to do it daily as a meditation. You needn’t think of it as denial. Here you can experience existence on the other side the weight bias. Minus the pain of that destructive influence, you might be able to reverse the downward spiral of being fat and depressed. From this objective perspective you will be in a better position to take empowered actions to improve your Self.
Obesity, depression, denial, and the weight bias are real problems affecting everyone in the world, but we really only care about how they affect you. You do not have to be fat and depressed. We invite you to join the few of us who have managed to rise above the weight bias, and were then able to effectively handle the remaining problems.
Paul Beach is a philosophy major college dropout who simply could not see eye-to-eye with his professors, and finally reached a point where he couldn't take it anymore. Now he dispenses his own brand of wisdom to a growing body of people seeking Truth.
