Ifemenam 1

Onyekachukwu Tanitoluwa Ifemenam

ENG4U

Kayla Hill

13 Nov. 2022

*3-3E: Final Research Essay (35 marks)

Topic: The Effects of Obesity on the Mental Health of Adolescents

While many people refer to obesity as a lifestyle disorder characterized by an

excessive buildup of body fat, the Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the fact of being

extremely fat in a way that is dangerous for health.” The rates of adult and adolescent obesity

are so high that many refer to it as a continuing epidemic due to increasing access to

unhealthy food and a more significant prevalence of unhealthy lifestyles. Even though

obesity is rising, many individuals are unaware of its negative implications, especially for

young adolescents. Many people, especially teenagers, experience stigmatization and

discrimination from their peers because they are overweight, which diminishes the person's

sense of worth and establishes an ideal of how they must look, leading them to hate

themselves because they do not meet the criteria for what is "acceptable" or "beautiful”.

However, individuals do not realize that not everyone desires to be that way, whether it is

their genetic makeup or the food they eat. There are several threats to a person's mental health

when they are routinely ostracised because of their weight, some of which include

depression, personality problems, and body dysmorphic disorder. Many of these mental

challenges these teenagers may face could lead to a life of crime, making the environment

unsafe, unhealthy coping habits, or worse, suicide as depression leads to a state of mental

imbalance.
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Many overweight teenagers do not feel like they fit in, mainly because they frequently

experience bullying and bigotry because of how their clothes fit or how much they eat and

this often leads to depression. Suma Chand and Hasan Arif define depression as "a mood

disorder characterized by a protracted sense of melancholy and loss of interest." A sense of

misery, emptiness, or irritability mixed with physical and behavioural changes that

significantly impact a person's capacity to execute activities are among the most typical

characteristics of depression. As a result of their perception that they are unwelcome and not

exceptional, victims of this discrimination often exhibit depressed traits and isolate

themselves from others. They sometimes go ahead to take out their anger on loved ones and

end up hiding from the people who matter most. According to research done by Blasco et al.,

atypical depression, a particular type of depression, was linked to teenage obesity. Atypical

depression is a type of depression in which happy occasions might make the depressed feel

better (Chand, et al). Even though this may not appear like a severe kind of depression, most

of the time, the depression's overall spiral may drive these kids to engage in alcohol and drug

misuse, appetite loss, malnutrition, and suicidal thoughts and behaviours, which generally

affect the state of their mental health or lead to an intoxicated adolescent committing crimes

or being nuisances to others.

Secondly, the stigmatization and discrimination experienced by these overweight

teenagers may cause personality problems such as overthinking, with bipolar disorder being

the most prevalent. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar disorder

causes abrupt changes in mood, energy, activity level, attention, and ability to carry out

everyday tasks. The depression that some of these obese teens may already be experiencing is

strongly correlated with this mental disorder. Uncontrolled mood swings are a significant

component of bipolar disorder, and these fluctuations may cause eating disorders that

exacerbate obesity in these individuals. According to Mangge et al., the medications used to
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treat bipolar disorder stimulate hunger, along with the mood fluctuations associated with the

disorder, which might lead to binge eating and general weight gain. As highlighted by Tully

et al, bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness characterized by mood instability and results

in marked impairment in overall functioning and health‐related quality of life. As obesity

poses a great threat to health, the “feeling of being odd” that teenagers who suffer from it feel

can cause instability in their mood, therefore leading to this disorder in the long run.

Similarly, adolescents who are constantly reminded of their body image due to their

overweight nature become acutely aware of how they seem, which can lead to body

dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a hazardous mental condition. BDD can be defined as an

obsession with a perceived flaw or ugly aspect of their appearance (Veale and Bewley 2278).

It is a disorder defined by a disturbing or harmful obsession with a minor or unreal physical

flaw. (Bjornsson 221.) Since these teenagers are continually being told by their friends that

they are too overweight or unattractive, this problem develops and causes them to become

increasingly angry with how they appear. According to research done by Allison Carter et al,

in a national, population-based sample of Canadian females aged 12 to 29 years, 14.70%

reported dissatisfaction with their bodies. This pushes these adolescents into anxiety disorders

or restrictive eating disorders. In some severe cases, it may result in anorexia, a condition

characterized by an obsessive urge to restrict one's food intake to lose weight, which poses a

threat to the adolescent’s life as their bodies are not provided with the adequate vitamins it

needs to function and can affect its overall result (Li et al. 2111). The belief that they will

always have a "flaw" due to their obesity causes them to spend their whole lives trying to

correct it, which seems most important to them. Some people try extreme measures like

fasting and intense exercise, while others seek medical help by getting liposuction and having

bariatric surgery, which could sometimes lead to death. This could further lead these

adolescents into severe depression, anxiety, and even suicide. All these mental problems are
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caused by the fact that these obese teenagers are constantly being reminded that they are not

perfect and that their body image is unattractive.

The stigma and prejudice these overweight teenagers experience as a result of their

weight is the primary cause of all the mental illnesses and problems they experience. When

they are routinely ostracised because of their weight, they are exposed to serious mental

disorders like depression, personality problems, and body dysmorphic disorder. There would

be an increasing number of occurrences of some of these mental diseases if the bullying and

prejudice against fat people persisted. Rather than fat-shaming them and treating them

harshly for who they are, one common message that should be shared to lessen these impacts

is to show them love and appreciation for their life decisions and push them to work towards

healthy lifestyles without having to make them feel uncomfortable in their skin.
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Works Cited

“Bipolar Disorder.” National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Accessed 23 Oct. 2022.

www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/bipolar-disorder

Blasco, Beatriz Villagrasa, et al. “Obesity and Depression: Its Prevalence and Influence as a

Prognostic Factor: A Systematic Review.” Psychiatry Investigation, vol. 17, no. 8,

Korean Neuropsychiatric Association, Aug. 2020, pp. 715–24.

https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2020.0099.

Bjornsson, Andri S., et al. “Body Dysmorphic Disorder.” Dialogues in Clinical

Neuroscience, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 221–32, Informa UK Limited, April 2022

https://doi.org/10.31887/dcns.2010.12.2/abjornsson

Cambridge Dictionary. Obesity Definition. 9 Nov. 2022,

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/obesity

Carter, Allison, et al. “Association Between Internet Use and Body Dissatisfaction Among

Young Females: Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Canadian Community Health

Survey.” Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 19, no. 2, JMIR Publications Inc.,

Feb. 2017, p. e39.

https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.5636

Chand, Suma P., and Hasan Arif. “Depression.” StatPearls, 2021,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430847

Li, W., et al. “Anorexia Nervosa and Body Dysmorphic Disorder Are Associated With

Abnormalities in Processing Visual Information.” Psychological Medicine, vol. 45,

no. 10, Cambridge UP (CUP), Feb. 2015, pp. 2111–22.

https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291715000045.
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Mangge, Harald, Susanne Bengesser, Nina Dalkner, et al. “Weight Gain During Treatment of

Bipolar Disorder (BD)—Facts and Therapeutic Options.” Frontiers in Nutrition, vol.

6, Frontiers Media SA, June 2019,

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2019.00076.

Tully, Agnes, et al. “Interventions for the Management of Obesity in People With Bipolar

Disorder.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Wiley, Apr. 2018,

https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd013006

Veale, D., and A. Bewley. “Body Dysmorphic Disorder.” BMJ, vol. 350, no. jun18 9,

BMJ, pp. 2278–2278. June 2015.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h2278