Sometimes the magic works

One of my favorite movie lines comes from “Little Big Man” when Chief Dan George’s character comes down after the mountain after going there to die and says, “Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn’t.” This line comes to mind when I see the magical thinking in much of what many believe will make everything different for fat people. For everything problematic, and much which is not problematic, in fat people’s lives  the universal remedy is to lose weight. Lose weight and there will no longer be any of the stares or other negative emotional effects of being fat.Therapists routinely urge fat patients to lose weight in order to be “healthy”. And given the massive stigma, common sense would seem to suggest that losing weight would make people happier. Except for one little thing. New research suggests that losing weight does not improve mental health, a finding entirely unexpected by the researchers Sarah Jackson and colleagues. In their study, they found for fat people who are otherwise healthy and not depressed, at the end of 4 years the proportion of participants with depressed mood increased by almost 300% in the group that lost weight (about 15% of participants) compared to a rather modest 85% and 62% increase in mood problems in the weight stable or weight gain groups, respectively. This flies directly in the face of what is commonly believed and in fact what most therapists would believe to be the case. These researchers suggest that these fi...
Source: Jung At Heart - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs