Psychological conditions that can affect your weight

A healthy body and a healthy mind are like pieces of a puzzle for a person’s overall health and well-being. Both pieces are interrelated so if you are experiencing a mental illness or condition, this may impact on your physical health as well. Your weight can thus be affected.

Depression is a condition that is related to having feelings of intense sadness and despair.  The condition may cause one to have a lack of appetite and a visible loss of weight may be observed. Other symptoms may include a loss or lack of energy, a difficulty in concentrating,  a diminishing  interest in daily activities, feeling physically ill, etc. Professional help will definitely be of benefit to you if you suffer from depression.

Stress can also cause you to lose weight.  Here we are talking about either long term stressors as well as traumatic events. Examples include divorce, death of a loved one, unemployment, etc. Many people in South Africa suffer from stress due to unemployment and also poverty.  

The daily stresses that we experience such as being late for work or getting a ticket for parking in a non-parking zone are in general isolated and thus will likely not affect weight loss. These lifestyle issues should be confronted and reacted to in a healthy manner, else you could experience physical symptoms and this may include weight loss.

If you are experiencing ongoing worry or concern about something traumatic happening or happening over and over again, you could have the condition called generalized anxiety. This may affect your eating habits and your weight. But once you have sought professional assistance and symptoms are under control, you should be able to return to healthy eating habits again.

 

 

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