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Obesity And Depression Research Paper

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Obesity and Depression

Are obesity and depression closely related and should we be treating them together? Why is it that two of the leading problems in the United States are obesity and depression? With obesity taking over almost 40% percent of the population in the United States and depression being present in 25 million Americans each year with over 50% percent of them dyeing from self-inflicted harm. According to Sue McElroy, a psychiatrist in Mason, Ohio, 15 years ago she started to realize that most of her patients that came to see here for their depression were overweight as well. She had said that “Many of my depressed patients were overweight and currently upset about being overweight” (McElroy). Why is it that depression and obesity …show more content…
Depression affects 350 million people worldwide and 16 million in the us every year. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death which happens every 12 minutes in the United states causing 42,000 people to die every year. With depression being one of the most prevalent illnesses and mental disorders in the United States two out of three people do not seek nor receive proper treatment for depression (NNDC). Five percent of the entire world’s population are suffering from depressing making it the leading cause of disability in the world. In the United States. Depression Is ranked the third leading cause of disability in the work place, making stress and family crisis number one and two, they happen to be two main causes of depression along with anxiety, obesity, injury, bullying, and hormone imbalance. There are many ways to tell if you are depressed, some mental and physical ways of feeling depressed are extreme irritability over minor things such as anxiety and restlessness, anger management issues, loss of interest in favorite activities, fixation on the past or on things that have gone wrong, thoughts of death or suicide. Some physical symptoms include: insomnia or sleeping too much, debilitating fatigue, increased or decreased appetite, weight gain or weight loss, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, unexplained aches and pains. Although depression is most commonly looked at as a mental illness it also takes a toll in harming your body. Some of the effects it has to doing harm are effecting the brain such as memory loss and insomnia, gives you a greater risk of heart attacks and weight gain, you start to feel week and develop a lesser pain tolerance and feel very

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