Psychological Causes of Excess Weight

Excess weight for many is a serious problem, for the solution of which all means go: everything from diet and exercise in the gym to complete starvation. Meanwhile, psychologists are sure: the cause of extra pounds has psychosomatic soil.

It has long been noted that people prone to obesity are distinguished by a desire for unrealistic goals, a sense of helplessness, self-pity, a sense of loneliness. The inner emptiness requires symbolic filling, the feeling of anxiety is reassurance. For these purposes, and used for delicious food. The desire to "seize" emotional distraction is a habit, and the result of such a habit becomes excess weight.
Food often compensates for the lack of positive emotions that people feel in their lives. And in this case, excess weight will not take long.
For those who are full, psychologists advise to think also about the relationship with parents. The fact is that prolonged suppression of anger on loved ones also causes excess weight.
There is evidence that those children who have experienced prolonged stress in the future are more likely to be forced to adjust their weight. This is confirmed by studies conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry of the Royal College of London. 6500 questionnaires of participants of the British Birth Cohort project, which was launched in 1980, were analyzed. Schoolchildren at the age of ten took part in it. Psychologists noted the self-assessment of each participant in the project, its emotional state, and also the body mass index. Twenty years later, when the children grew up, the scientists returned to their questionnaires and revealed an interesting pattern. It turned out that children who were humiliated, had low self-esteem and often experienced negative emotions, often suffered from excessive weight in the adult state . But their more balanced peers excess weight worried less often.

All these data are sufficient to conclude: the weight of a person is closely related to his emotional state. Therefore, for weight correction, often the advice of a psychologist and a psychotherapist plays a greater role than the strictest diets and grueling activities in the gym.