According to the Star-Telegram, one-third of all American adults are obese.  In about 15 years, that number will rise to 42%.

That’s really, really scary, especially in conjunction with another statistic: more than one in every ten Americans takes an antidepressant.

We’re getting fat.  Fat and sad.  Which is understandable.

I am inundated, every day, with healthy tips and tricks, workout motivations, too-perfect bodies, and it makes me hate myself.  Why?  Because I am normal.  My BMI is 21.  I’m not an athlete, but for a biochem major, perhaps that is to be expected.

What worries me about the increase in overweight and obese adults and teenagers is that very soon I expect to see a corresponding rise in eating disorders, low self-esteem, and yes, depression.

Here’s one reason: eating disorders don’t necessarily make you skinny.  Look, I know it’s a shock.  But many young people suffer from bulimia and BDD (body dysmorphic disorder – basically the binging without the purging of bulimia) and neither of those disorders automatically make you thin.  Even anorexics may be puffed up with edema and gas retention to the point of looking to be a normal weight.  The point is: you cannot judge the health of a person based on their appearance alone.

I’m going to relate to you a very common pathway towards BDD, obesity, and depression – one I fight every day, incidentally.  A young woman sees workout tips or skinny models or belittling media.  She goes on a strict diet-and-exercise regime, which, because she is only human, only lasts a few weeks.  She sees her failure, is depressed, and spends a night with Ben, Jerry, and Dr. Pepper.  The next day she looks in the mirror, thinks “God, I look disgusting,” and the whole cycle begins again.

I wish the media would put more of an emphasis on the fact that obesity, while a disease, is not a sin.  There is absolutely no reason to feel depressed about yourself, even if you are so large you cannot get up to go to the bathroom.  You are still alive and that means the fight is not over.  No obesity is irreversible.

We need a better support network in this society.  We need to spread a message of unconditional love, a message which has been sadly lacking in recent years, as evidenced by the weight and antidepressant statistics.

Better yet, we need the media to stop being so two-faced.  Stop showing us airbrushed models and then turning around and belittling us for being fat, media.  Good God, aren’t there enough problems in this country without you throwing this extra straw on our humped backs?