I read it in one of my dearest, closest friend's blog and I wanted to write about it today - about the prejudices held against you when you are overweight.
(Yes, I am eating chocolate while blogging this. Haha).
It's tough when your'e overweight because it's immediately visible. It's not like being on drugs because you can hide that. You can hide all sorts of naughty behaviours or mental illness and you can hide a lot of other things that might not be great (sex addiction for instance)...but when you're fat - everyone knows it.
They can see it a mile off.
What I want to address, is the stigma that comes with it.
"They probably eat take-out every single meal"
"Lazy"
"Fat bastard"
"Yuck"
"Do some exercise"
"Just cut back on the 10 pies a day, for God's sakes"
But there is no compassion towards overweight people. There is no understanding or gentleness and what I want to write about today is that kindness and care is needed. Especially for those struggling with their weight.
WHAT IF People who are 'fat' were not labelled immediately as 'lazy'? What if Doctors saw them as people in need to help, not just 'worthless' or 'ugly'. Overweight people are people too! They are struggling with things we have no idea about and if we label and stigmatise them, we put walls up and block decent, kind, awesome people off when they need our help and kindness most.
I don't know if anyone but Marc, Becci and Christabel reads my blog. I hope so. Not for my own fame (that of course would be lovely) but because I want to reach out to those who might feel better knowing they are not alone.
Today, I want to address medical staff in particular.
If an overweight person approaches you with an illness/a pain/something they feel is 'just not right' in their bodies - Don't just write it off as weight-related.
Because illnesses are nothing to do with how well that person fits into their clothes.
Really LOOK at the person in front of you - really listen.
What if that overweight person in front of you needs immediate surgery? What if they have a heart murmur? Cancer? A twisted bowel? What if their medication is affecting their weight gain and it's not just "too much kfc"?
What if?
Because the person in your Doctor's office might be in an incredible amount of physical pain and if you just write it off as "being fat", then you're going to miss it and someone is going to be unwell for an extremely long time when you as their Doctor/Nurse/Physician could have easily fixed it by just seeing them as a HUMAN in need rather than as a number on a scale.
(Yes, I am eating chocolate while blogging this. Haha).
It's tough when your'e overweight because it's immediately visible. It's not like being on drugs because you can hide that. You can hide all sorts of naughty behaviours or mental illness and you can hide a lot of other things that might not be great (sex addiction for instance)...but when you're fat - everyone knows it.
They can see it a mile off.
What I want to address, is the stigma that comes with it.
"They probably eat take-out every single meal"
"Lazy"
"Fat bastard"
"Yuck"
"Do some exercise"
"Just cut back on the 10 pies a day, for God's sakes"
But there is no compassion towards overweight people. There is no understanding or gentleness and what I want to write about today is that kindness and care is needed. Especially for those struggling with their weight.
WHAT IF People who are 'fat' were not labelled immediately as 'lazy'? What if Doctors saw them as people in need to help, not just 'worthless' or 'ugly'. Overweight people are people too! They are struggling with things we have no idea about and if we label and stigmatise them, we put walls up and block decent, kind, awesome people off when they need our help and kindness most.
I don't know if anyone but Marc, Becci and Christabel reads my blog. I hope so. Not for my own fame (that of course would be lovely) but because I want to reach out to those who might feel better knowing they are not alone.
Today, I want to address medical staff in particular.
If an overweight person approaches you with an illness/a pain/something they feel is 'just not right' in their bodies - Don't just write it off as weight-related.
Because illnesses are nothing to do with how well that person fits into their clothes.
Really LOOK at the person in front of you - really listen.
What if that overweight person in front of you needs immediate surgery? What if they have a heart murmur? Cancer? A twisted bowel? What if their medication is affecting their weight gain and it's not just "too much kfc"?
What if?
Because the person in your Doctor's office might be in an incredible amount of physical pain and if you just write it off as "being fat", then you're going to miss it and someone is going to be unwell for an extremely long time when you as their Doctor/Nurse/Physician could have easily fixed it by just seeing them as a HUMAN in need rather than as a number on a scale.
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