They say that adoption is the only crime in which the victim is expected to be grateful.  Likewise, obesity is possibly the only disease and handicap for which society does not feel sympathy, but rather ridicule and disgust.  While obesity is to some degree controlled by the individual, there are plenty of individuals who remain uninformed about the treatments not because they want to remain overweight, but because of the presence of so much faulty information and the confusion of it all.  While some believe that obesity runs in families, even those with a higher rate of obesity in their families seem to have little sympathy, ironically even less understanding in some cases.

Especially when developed in childhood, obesity can lead to lower self esteem rates, because they suffer not only the embarrassment of sometimes not being able to sit in a regular chair, find clothes that fit, or otherwise, but the ridicule can be extreme.  Everyone wants to have friends, and everyone wants to be popular.  But when that popularity comes from constantly having to be the comedian, even when you don’t necessarily feel that joy, and sometimes being seen as the “jolly fat guy”, it quickly gets old and tiring.  That can result in further personal sabotage, including binges involving comfort foods and sugary drinks.  A certain self loathing can develop in this person, and instead of taking care of their body, eating right, exercising, etc, they start to participate in other self defeating behaviors.

This loss of confidence can be hard in adulthood.  But if developed in early childhood, that confidence may never actually develop in the first place, making it hard to develop, regain, or maintain.  After all, how can you regain or maintain something that was never there in the first place. 

Some doctors have used hypnotherapy, talk therapy, and other alternative methods to treat obesity and help sufferers to gain a new outlook and therefore new results and a new self confidence that will help them to finally change their lives.  Once that outlook is gained, they look for ways to change physical habits and therefore change the consequences from negative to positive, from self defeating to helpful.  Many start out with methods such as yoga, which may also help users to relax and gain a different state of mind in and of themselves.  Some stick to these methods while others move onto aerobics, running, and weight lifting over time.  While some eventually turn to more extreme methods such as bariatric surgery, these definitely require a change in lifestyle and mindset, and as such, any extreme method requires patients to simultaneously undergo therapy among other things to help them to adjust to their new lifestyle and develop healthy habits.