As a young child and early teenager, I never understood why I had this urge to binge when I felt sad or lonely and a feeling I learned to accept was anxiety. Food was a friend and comfort blanket for me after a long way or when I had been surrounded by negativity. Food was always there to love me when I felt unloved. This vicious cycle would lead to low self-esteem, self-hated, and a feeling of worthlessness that I still struggle with today. More than the physical aspect of being overweight the mental and emotional was way more crippling.
Self-esteem, depression, emotional eating, and discriminations all seem to be results of childhood obesity. As a kid the last thing you want to do is stand out and being heavier than the other kids would be a good way to set yourself apart leading to isolating themselves and depression. Every child deals with these feelings at one time or another but being overweight magnifies them. Our book says children who are overweight are usually poor at sports and less likely to be considered attractive in adolescence (Rathus, 2015), which will usually lead to a child’s self-esteem being negatively