Phobia of fat people
People come in all sizes and colors. This makes the world rich in variety, but some people cannot handle this well. For example, people are afraid of Islam, afraid of people with different skin color and the phobia of fat people also exists. Do you suffer from the fear of fat people? Then this is a blog you should read. In the end, it is still important to be able to deal with overweight people because you will meet them, shake their hand and work with them.
Prejudices about fat people
There are many prejudices about overweight people. Overweight people are supposedly lazy and lack self-control. Overweight people are unattractive, lack morals, and are less kind than slim people (that’s what you might think).
As mentioned, people come in different sizes and colors. Consequently, many people are familiar with racism. Racism means putting someone behind on the basis of race. Unfortunately, fatism also exists, in which you put someone behind based on size.
A 1994 study titled “Prejudice against Fat People: Ideology and Self-Interest” shows that racism and fatphobia are actually rooted in the same underlying causes. You believe you have different values and beliefs than fat people; you refuse to be told what to do by overweight people; you do not accept that they can have any form of authority; and there is no correlation between your beliefs about fat people and your own weight.
So for the latter, you won't see yourself as fat compared to other overweight individuals while you may be suffering from it yourself.
The difference between racism and fatphobia is that racism is not accepted, while fatphobia is harder to combat. Although there is now more awareness of being overweight and that it is okay, there is still less understanding of the harmfulness of fatphobia than of racism.
For example, there is less social control against being fearful of fat people than, say, fear of Islam, which many people are often blamed for when they have this fear (which actually creates a hidden fear and does not eliminate the fear).
The annoying thing about the phobia of fat people is that the stigma of being overweight still makes you less likely to get a job, and if you do, less likely to get a promotion.
It also provides denigration in relationships, at work and even with healthcare workers.
Chance of phobia for fat people
The 2015 study, A multinational examination of weight bias: predictors of anti-fat attitudes across four countries, found that phobia of fat people mainly affects men and those without friends and family who suffer from obesity and therefore have had negative experiences with it.
Checking beliefs about fat people
If you suffer from fear of fat people, it is helpful to first check your beliefs about overweight people.
For example, you can check whether a belief about diet and obesity is true. In fact, genetic factors are often much more important in explaining obesity than diet. This is also why dieting does not always help you lose weight.
So always check your beliefs about being overweight, this can already reduce a lot of fear of fat people.
Why are people fat?
As mentioned above, obesity in many cases is also down to one's genes. In research on adopted children, the degree of obesity was better predicted by the biological parents than by the adoptive parents.
In addition, people who are overweight often lead different lives than those who are not. For example, the taste of food is important when they go grocery shopping, and they don’t often check nutrition labels. Furthermore, they often get less physical activity.
So it's kind of a 50/50 ratio of genetic defects and different interests when it comes to lifestyle than slimmer people. However, this says nothing about work ethic or anything about other parts of life outside of diet and exercise.
Find out cause phobia for fat people
To reduce fat anxiety, it is important to identify the cause. In that case, the anxiety can sometimes be resolved much faster.
Acquired from upbringing
Prejudice is often something you pick up from your upbringing. Just as with racism—or fear of people with a different skin color—someone in your circle may have frequently expressed their opinion in the past, causing it to become a belief that you should be afraid of overweight people.
Had a negative experience with fat people
A negative experience with someone overweight may also have caused anxiety. From the study Applying the contact hypothesis to anti-fat attitudes: Contact with overweight people is related to how we interact with our bodies and those of others from 2014 shows that this is when you can often become more prejudiced and even have a greater urge to be slim.
Regression or Socratic Conversation
Don’t have a clear, identifiable reason for your fear of overweight people? Then a hypnosis expert can help you through regression or a Socratic dialogue. These two techniques help you get to the root of the belief causing the fear.
This allows you to find out that the beliefs don't make sense and that helps you build new beliefs that can eliminate the fear of fat people.
Confronting Phobia
A popular way to reduce anxiety is to confront it. Especially for overweight anxiety, contact can reduce anxiety.
By having more contact with overweight people, you can certainly reduce your anxiety. The above research shows that positive contact with overweight people causes you to suffer less prejudice, regardless of your own weight. You do start paying more attention to your own body.
If you find it very scary to confront your fears, the hypnosis expert asks you to make a list of fat fears and categorize them. For example, you have 10 fears. The smallest fear comes 10th and the biggest fear comes1st.
Then the hypnosis expert helps you confront those fears. This is done, for example, first with a guided visualization and later in real life.
The goal of guided visualization is for you to learn how to keep your body and mind under control the moment you are in conversation with someone who is suffering from obesity. For example, should you get all kinds of thoughts about being overweight and what this says about the person, this is something that will come up during such a visualization and you will immediately learn how to keep your attention on the conversation.
You’ll also learn to change physical reactions, such as tense muscles. For example, through relaxation techniques where you focus on your breathing and on reducing tension in your muscles. A mindfulness body scan, for instance, can be helpful here.
Changing Beliefs
Especially if you had a negative experience in your youth with someone who was overweight, this may have caused you to never want to have anything to do with fat people again or even to run in a different direction when someone overweight comes near you. Of course, this does not help in this day and age when more and more people are suffering from obesity.
A hypnosis expert will help you figure out beliefs and change them. This can be done, for example, with hypnotic suggestions that you can repeat until the anxiety no longer bothers you. This repetition takes place during self-hypnosis. You practice this first with the hypnosis expert before working on this at home.
Next, you can repeat suggestions such as:
"What 1 fat person has ever done says nothing about other overweight people."
"Overweight people work just as hard as non-overweight people."
"Obesity is often genetic."
"Overweight people are just as nice as other people."
"People who are overweight are just as clean as other people."
These are just examples. Depending on your beliefs about people who are overweight, you can take away other suggestions to reduce anxiety in order to function better in everyday life with people of all shapes and sizes.
So the fear of overweight people can be caused by many things, but it can hinder your social functioning quite a bit. Especially with more and more people suffering from obesity. Therefore, fighting this fear is very important and hypnosis can help you with this.
Would you like to learn more about how hypnosis can help you overcome your fears? Then come to an event or check out the training programs offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.
Pin this handy infographic as a reminder:
Sources:
http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1994-37253-001
https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo201532
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614007047
https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/news/20180620/why-obese-people-find-it-so-tough-to-slim-down#1