The Continued Prominence of Obesity, Eating Disorders, Diabetes, and Stress

Even amid severe pandemics such as the one ravaging the world at present in the shape of Covid-19, the issues of obesity, eating disorders, diabetes, and stress have always taken center stage. The reason for this is still elusive, but researchers and scholars have increasingly made efforts to pin down the cause. Even though meaningful evidence is on the fore to explain the phenomenon, it falls short, since the empirical accounts provided apply theories associated with health psychology minimally or fail to do so entirely. These theories are crucial since they explain the psychology of different health-related behaviors, often showing how the various systems inherent in a person's body and external forces act in isolation or in the cohort to affect a person’s tendencies. This paper will seek to provide compelling reasons for obesity, eating disorders, diabetes, and stress, remaining in the attention of everyone drawing from three health psychology theoretical models. The theories of concern are the biopsychosocial model, the health belief model, and the theory of planned behavior. The paper takes the standpoint that varied psychological outcomes often interact to amplify the attentiveness of people when it comes to obesity, eating disorders, diabetes, and stress.

The biopsychosocial model

George Engel coined the biopsychosocial model in 1977 (Henriques, 2015). The model holds that three things cause health-related behaviors: biological processes, psychological processes, and social processes. According to Havelka, Lučanin, and Lučanin (2009, p. 303), these three processes often interact closely to facilitate the development of an illness. Adding to this, Babalola, Noel, and White (2017, p. 291) reveal that the biopsychosocial model usually understands an illness, along with patienthood, as emerging from a person who is part of a whole system comprised of sub-personal levels, for example, organs, nervous system, cells, and tissues, and supra-personal level, such as people living in a psychosocial context. The theory adds that the determinants for and the prognosis of mental health challenges are due to an exchange between the psychological, biological, and social factors. According to Babalola, Noel, and White (2017, p. 291), none of the three elements has a monopoly on the explanation and cure of a health-related issue.

Each of the three facets of the biopsychosocial model helps provide a sufficient rationale for the continued attentiveness to obesity, eating disorders, diabetes and stress. The biological processes, according to Bruner (2015), explain health-related behaviors as caused by heredity, illnesses, and trauma. This being the case, then it is relevant to claim that more and more people are continually wary that the issues outlined above are part of their families. Individuals fear that the challenges are hereditary; hence they are at risk of developing them. The perception that obesity, eating disorders, diabetes, and stress might perhaps affect them at some point in their lives is making people have a recurring desire to know more about health problems. They want to become enlightened on how they can mitigate their risk levels or reduce the extent of harm caused by the disorders if they are affected. Hence, they must engage in information-seeking behavior concerning the disorders frequently, if not each day.

The psychological processes also help to explain the continued prominence of obesity, eating disorders, diabetes, and stress. According to Bruner (2015), the psychological facet of the biopsychosocial model often focuses on experiences that have caused pain and suffering in people's lives, promoting thoughts and feelings. These, in turn, lead to the development of beliefs. Applying these premises to the phenomenon at hand, one might argue that all people are continually exposed to pain and suffering due to obesity, eating disorders, stress, or diabetes. The individuals fighting these illnesses face the primary agony due to the diminished quality of life caused by the issues. Those who do not have the diseases face secondary pain and suffering. For example, the community has to meet the cost created by the prevalence of diabetes. In line with Bruner’s (2015) claims, the consistent pain and suffering forces people to think endlessly about obesity, eating disorders, stress, or diabetes. Their thoughts are ranging, among them being how to curb the diseases so that they can alleviate the pain and suffering they cause. They might take the initiative to actualize the thoughts. This has indeed been witnessed through the implementation of the Healthy People 2020 program. The program has motivated people to engage in physical activities to challenge problems, including obesity and diabetes.

“SAKAKIBARA, CHIE. &quot;PEOPLE OF THE WHALES: CLIMATE CHANGE AND C...

“SAKAKIBARA, CHIE. "PEOPLE OF THE WHALES: CLIMATE CHANGE AND C...