Obesity and Depression

 

OBESITY AND DEPRESSION: which comes first?

 

What is depression?

How could you define depression? had always been a puzzle.Many people are depressed and they don't even know it while others seem depressed but actually they aren't.

However depression primarily consist of two components that are: psychological (which affects mood) and physical( which affects sleep and appetite).

A recent study showed that depression is leading cause of functional disability among U.S adults.

How can we measure depression?

 

 

Beck depression inventory (B.D.I) is the most commonly used scale for the measurement of depression:

It is a kind of questionnaire which consist of 21 questions out of which

l Psychological sub scale contain 8 items

l Physical sub scale contain 13 items 

 

 Cognitive or psychological sub scale

• Past failure

• Pessimism                       

• Punishment feelings

• Self dislike

• Self -critic

• Suicidal thoughts

• worthlessness

• guilty feelings  

 

 Somatic or physical sub scale:

 

👉Sadness                                                                                        👉 Loss of interest in Sex

👉Loss of pleasure                                                                          👉 Change in sleep pattern

👉Crying                                                                                          👉Irritability

👉Agitation                                                                                      👉 Change in Appetite

👉Loss of interest                                                                            👉 Concentration Difficulties

👉Indecisiveness                                                                              👉Fatigue

👉Loss of energy                     

 

 

Each of the questions given above is rated as the    pattern

given below:

   

• I don’t feel sad at all
• I feel sad
• I feel sad all the time and can’t stop it

• I feel so sad that I can’t  bear it

• • Now rate all these 21 given items and add up the results

    that will range between 0-63.

  • Now you can predict results by the scale given below:

    l Score of 1-10: These ups and downs are considered normal

    l Score of 11-16: Mild mood disturbances

    l Score of 17-20: border line clinical depression

    l Score of 21-30:Moderate depression

    l Score of 31-40: severe depression

    l Score of 41-63: extreme depression

     You can comment down and let me know what is your score!
    

  Does depression causes obesity?

  

  
  

  Many people think that obese people often suffer from depression but it’s still unclear which comes first? Could being extremely fatty depress someone or depression itself leads to overweight if I say “yes”and “yes”I am not wrong, the fact is depression and obesity goes hand in hand, being overweight can have substantial influence on your mental and physical health.

   

  A meta analysis study depicted a link between obesity and depression it shows that obesity was found to increase the risk of depression , while on the other hand people mourn over depression frequently,endure lack of motivation for the things they like such as going on an evening walk or burning some calories in the gym as we all know obesity is nothing more than an imbalance between calories intake and use, so it leads to obesity.

  Weight loss surgery ( Bariatric Surgery) can be helpful?

  

  
   

  “Bariatric Surgery” is the technically considered the last way to reduce your body weight which is quite useful and popular now a days but can it be helpful to get you out of depression? which I would say maybe or maybe not, if it was the only cause of depression then yes! But to undergo this surgery you need to meet some conditions

  Studies have shown that almost half of the patient that were suffering from depression ascertained improvement after the surgery.

   

  Life after weight loss treatment: 

  Here we will discuss some tips to avoid depression after weight loss treatment:

  n Anger issues_ It’s obvious that those friends who have been seeing you fatty for years is gonna amaze after this treatment ,but instead of these social insecurities you have to motivate yourself to improve your social as well as professional life,if still it doesn't work try to take anger management classes from experts to get rid of these unhealthy feelings.

  n Workout_ weight loss treatment and then its management isn't  an easy pill to swallow,so even after the surgery you have to take care of your calories intake, have to eat healthy food off course which doesn’t include junk food and exercise,workout will not only maintain your weight but also reduce depression by releasing chemicals through your brain, and you will have a better control of yourself.

  n Positive attitude_ Keeping yourself away from negative thoughts will not only helps you fights with depression and other diseases but also keep you motivated toward success as _John Mitchel_ once quoted:

  “ our attitude towards life determines life's attitude towards us”

  n Talk to experts_ Depression is real and lethal as well , if you are having feelings and symptoms of depression talk with the experts even after surgery if you were consulting with them before,make friends and have fun with them, sometimes by taking life too seriously we do injustice with ourselves

  n Medication therapy_ along with maintaining your diet and doing proper exercise to maintain your weight so that you can relief from depression ,it is also necessary that after consulting with your doctor and pharmacists you should continue antidepressants as well for better results ,though it has been seen there would be no need of medications at all after particular period of time..

   

                                                   Muhammad Umair (Rph)

                                                (umairmian666@gmail.com)