Better Life Obesity

Obesity

Australia is experiencing very high rates of obesity and overweight; recent conservative estimates suggest that over half of today’s Australian adult population is either overweight or obese, and this number is predicted to increase in the next decade to two-thirds. 30% of Australian adults (7.2 million men and women) are predicted to be obese by the year 2025.

As well as a heightened risk of death, and greater rates of serious illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer, overweight and obese people also tend to experience greater psychological problems. Commonly reported issues include poorer quality of life, low self-esteem, greater social isolation, greater likelihood of depression and anxiety, problems with managing emotions, greater dissatisfaction with body image, and higher levels of stress.

There is not one universal cause of weight and eating problems, and two people with the same history, genetic make-up, lifestyle and stressors can still manage their weight very differently. Just like there is more than one cause of weight problems, managing weight successfully usually requires more than one type of treatment. For example, reaching and sustaining a lower, realistic bodyweight after a long history of weight problems may very well require ‘lifestyle changes’ such as exercise and eating changes, but it may also include accessing support from close others, and gaining the help of a therapist.

In helping a person manage their weight, the role of the psychologist can be as diverse as the causes of and treatments for weight problems themselves. Depending on the focus of the client, a psychologist can: Help set realistic and manageable goals that improve the chances of success; assist with improving body image, confidence and self-esteem; explore the underlying feelings, beliefs, past hurts, fears, and issues linked to and maintaining the client’s weight issues; and support a client through their journey as they make important life changes as a way of tackling their weight problems.

Return to the Life Support page.

One person's experience

Anna found herself sitting across from a therapist one day: “I just don’t know what to do any more. For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with feeling good in my own skin. I was always big, but these last 11 or 12 years in particular, I feel like I’ve spent more time dieting than not. I am tired – I am tired of trying, and tired of letting myself down again and again. I just want to feel better about myself; to go out in public and not feel worried that people are watching me, to feel attractive like I used to, and to feel in control of my life again. That’s probably the worst of it – I feel so desperately out of control of my own life! People tell me that they love how uninhibited I seem, but if only they knew how much my life revolved around my unhappiness with my body, my eating, and my weight. It feels like in every other area of my life, things are going ok – but this one area, which affects everything else…It’s just awful.”

With the help of her therapist, Anna was able to take the understanding of her weight problem she’d gained through years of appointments with G.Ps and dieticians, and come at those problems with a different approach. While other practitioners had helped Anna better understand what her body was doing and what was required for her to do, therapy began with exploring what strategies Anna had already tried and what the greatest difficulties seemed to be, and from there they together set realistic goals that worked around Anna’s life circumstances and tailor-made strategies that she could use. The strategies included ways to: manage the emotional aspects of her eating; improve how she felt when socialising and out in public; bolster her self-esteem; and regain control over the aspects of her life that were causing her the greatest distress. They regularly reviewed these strategies and goals, until Anna felt confident enough to continue on her journey of overcoming a lifelong weight problem with only occasional check-ins with a therapist.