Weight stigma can be an insurmountable barrier to accessing health care, according to health consumer Jeni, who has shared her experiences with the Health Consumers’ Council.
“It is easy to look at me and make assumptions,” says Jeni, a 53-year-old single mother of two children. “My life has been defined and shaped by my weight – particularly since a series of health issues knocked me for six in my late 20s.
“Living with obesity means I experience subtle attitudes from others at every turn. When I’m in the waiting room at a clinic. When I’m in a consult with a clinician. When I’m at the shops. Negative judgmental biases are held about people with obesity that lead to unfiltered language and adverse responses when seeking help.
“Looking back over my life, I now know that when I was growing up, I had complex medical conditions that were not diagnosed. What they mistook for awkwardness and socially offbeat behaviour was autism, dyslexia and sensory disorder not to be diagnosed until I was 51.
“I was not always ‘fat’. At the age of 10, I started to develop a chubby face. I wasn’t overweight, however, but this is when the teasing started, and I had pressure from my mother about losing weight and exercising. By the time I was 13, again not overweight, I was encouraged to do aerobics and diet.
“I had never had a focus on food until I started dieting and now I was starving and thinking of food every minute of the day.
“I began loathing myself and developing a fear of looking in a mirror or having a photo taken. I still was not overweight, just on the high side of the average weight for my height, but my family doctor told me to diet in case I got fatter.
“The things that happened to me as a child were nobody’s fault, it was a sign of the times, and I am not alone in having been treated with dysfunctional and harmful influences from people in positions of authority with well-meaning intentions. I was constantly on diets and exercise routines for years, trying to keep my weight down. I wasn’t huge but over the average weight so was called obese.”
Jeni says that weight stigma has, and continues, to play a large part in her struggle with weight as she has faced poor quality of care, a lack of understanding from health professionals, and an absence of real-life supports.
“If you are obese, you are labelled and dehumanised as a drain on society, or someone who has made poor lifestyle choices. I feel this makes it easier for those people who should be helping us, to sweep us aside and dismiss our needs or our right to a better life by putting the blame squarely on the individual.
“In 1997 I became very ill. For six months I presented at the emergency department of a Perth hospital on more than seven occasions – only to be sent home with no solution to my problem. I couldn’t eat and lost 15kg, but because they still thought I was overweight I was ignored. They didn’t realise I was actually suffering from serious malnutrition and pancreatitis.
“I finally had an emergency operation, but my life and health would never be the same. My mobility was reduced, and my weight bloomed.
“I was offered anti-depressants, but I was not ‘depressed’, I was in pain, and no longer could do the thing I loved – horse riding. I had to leave my job as they did not understand how sick I was, and I could no longer physically move like I had before.
“I never thought that I wouldn’t get back to my old self. If I had been given the correct care at the right time, the surgery would have been successful, and my mobility wouldn’t have been impacted.”
Jeni’s health was further impacted when she developed an eating disorder in the wake of her medical condition and lack of mobility.
“It was a downward spiral,” she said. “Future illnesses were not treated due to my weight gain, and this just perpetuated itself into the body I live in today.”
Over the years Jeni has presented a number of times to hospitals and been sent home without treatment.
“I felt due to my weight I was put in the too hard basket. I have developed a fear of medical centres due to the abuse I have received from staff and struggle to attend appointments due to anxiety.
“I feel there is an insidious lack of health care for those who are obese, which creates more health complications and that has prevented me from everyday life enjoyment.
“Maybe if we acknowledge more that obesity is a disease and not a lifestyle choice, more patients would be taken more seriously when asking for help.”
Jeni has joined The WELL Collaborative to work with government and Health Consumers’ Council (WA) regarding health and obesity, in the hope of educating and gaining more funding in the right areas to give patients a better outcome and improve people’s lives.
ED: Further resources are available on the SHAPE (Supporting SHAPE (Supporting Holistic and Person centred weight Education) website https://shape.wapha.org.au/