How Diet Culture Fuels Anxiety and Depression (Diet Culture Series | Part 1)

What's the connection? Could your client trying to eat healthier be causing (or exacerbating) their anxiety and/or depression? Could their efforts to eat healthier be an attempt (consciously or unconsciously) to alleviate their anxiety or depression?

Yes. Yes, it could. 

I’m going to jump to the end and give you the punchline. Then I’m going to back track and take three posts to explain just a few of the ways how it could.

The punchline?

When your client tries to eat healthier they are unconsciously playing a game that offers safety, a sense of worthiness and belonging as long as they can win. But… the game is rigged. Their inevitable failure, how society treats them as a result and what they believe that says about them, sets them up to feel worthless and ashamed. Often leading to predictable cycles of anxiety and depression.

This is a hugely complex topic. So please hang in there with me for a few minutes, while I try to explain.

And here’s what that's going to look like.

In Part 1, I take a critical look at the game that we think we’re playing (the game’s rules and our expectations) and what we believe our winning (or more likely losing) says about us as a person.

In Part 2, I show how the stakes get even higher since society treats the winners and losers differently. Punishing the losers with very real consequences.

In Part 3, I highlight one aspect of how the game is rigged and set up for us to fail and then blame ourselves.

Let’s get started. 

To understand the game, we have to first understand the cultural context. I do this by taking a step back and examining the Diet Culture water that we all, including your client, are swimming in.

The Diet Culture game has A LOT to say about good and bad people. It paints a very clear picture of what good people do, look like and deserve. And likewise for bad people. 

When we dig down through the Diet Culture messaging to the bedrock we find (among other things) four Diet Culture Myths. These are Myths that we all grow up being taught are facts. They affect all of us to one degree or another. They are so foundational in our society, that we don’t even think to question them. 

What are the four Diet Culture Myths?

• All food is either good or bad

• Thinner is better

• Your weight is in your control

• Your body is your enemy 

These bedrock Myths form the foundation of Diet Culture’s cultural norms and expectations. 

These are the rules of the game. They instruct us about what is good (how we win) and what is bad (how we lose). We learn from them what makes us good (winners) or bad (losers). 

Like so…

The Good Food/Bad Food Myth: Be good and eat only good food. Good people stay away from bad food. If you mess up and eat bad, you can work to make up for it.

The Thinner Is Better Myth: Thinner is always better. You could always be thinner, so how could you not always be trying to lose weight? Good people spend their lives pursuing health. It is, after all, a lifestyle.

The Your Weight Is In Your Control Myth: Good people value their health and are disciplined enough to eat healthy and lose weight. Do whatever it takes to make sure that the number on the scale only goes down. If you’re not losing weight, or the weight starts coming back on, it’s your fault. You need to try harder.

The Your Body Is Your Enemy Myth: You need to be careful because your body tries to get you to eat bad. Don’t listen to your body when it says that it’s hungry or too tired to workout. It’s trying to sabotage your plans to eat healthy and exercise. You have to fight against your body’s desires if you want to be healthy.

Inherent in these Myths is a hypermoralized version of “health” where health is synonymous with weight. Along with the assumption that our health (aka weight) is completely within our control and is solely a matter of personal responsibility.

So if somebody isn’t thin (aka healthy), it’s by choice. Or by weakness. Some innate characteristic of inferiority.  

From all of this we can discern Diet Culture’s Universal Truths. 

Good (healthy/thin) people will have good (healthy/thin) bodies because they make good (healthy) choices. 

These are the Diet Culture game winners.

On the other hand...

Bad (unhealthy/fat) people will have bad (unhealthy/fat) bodies because they make bad (unhealthy) choices.

These are the losers.

Diet Culture says that these “bad people” don’t try hard enough to eat healthy (or be good) because of some internal flaw or weakness. Which is why they are also considered less competent, less capable and less productive members of society. Therefore less valuable and less worthy of respect, belonging and access to shared resources. 

That’s why proving that we’re good (healthy/thin) people is one way to protect ourselves in a society that stigmatizes and  pathologizes certain body sizes simply for existing. It’s one big way that we navigate spaces of belonging and avoid rejection. 

So, we chug along. Unaware. Trying our hardest to play by the rules to prove that we’re good, self-controlled, valuable, successful, worthy of belonging. 

Often driven by the threat of, or even the perception of, losing the game. This ever present threat could be a source of anxiety and/or depression for your client. 

Scripture and how God actually made bodies to work debunk all of these Myths.* These Myths are not true, but they are very real.

The systems that create, reinforce and perpetuate these Myths are very real. With real consequences for our everyday lives - our jobs, our health, our safety, our sense of belonging.

How? 

Through weight stigma. 

Weight stigma raises the stakes and determines who in society is welcomed and who isn’t. 

Weight stigma is the mechanism through which Diet Culture rewards the winners while punishing the losers with very real consequences that could have a significant impact on your client’s mental health and wellbeing.

In Part 2, I offer just a tiny sampling of those consequences. 

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Want to go deeper?

Download the free “Becoming a Weight-Inclusive Provider” workbook for Mental Health Professionals.

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