Childhood Sexual Abuse and It's Link to Obesity

"Incest (which I am defining here as it is defined by Survivors of Incest Anonymous, as sexual abuse by a family member, extended family member, or other person known to us whom we were led to trust) adds devastating betrayal issues and more crippling shame to the wounding."

"When trusted people violated our bodies they betrayed us heinously. They did further mutilate our relationships with our hearts and souls, with our bodies and sexuality - because we thought it was our fault. We thought it was our fault because we were kids relating to older people who were higher powers to us - and because too often the perpetrators told us it was our fault and threatened us if we told. A child who is abused by one parent and doesn't tell the other parent, or by a grandparent or uncle or family friend and doesn't tell parents - is a child who already knows that he/she will not be believed, a child who has already gotten the message that her/his needs and emotions are not important to the parent (s.) Any child who felt loved and protected by his/her parents would immediately tell them if someone was hurting her/him.

The incredible pain and shame generated by sexual abuse often causes a person to identify their body, and their sexuality, as the enemy. Incest and sexual abuse cause self hatred."

"Obesity is one of the effects of sexual abuse for some people. Food is not only a way of nurturing self and numbing the pain, but the extra weight is like armor put on for protection against the betrayal of our bodies and sexuality."

“The first study to link obesity with childhood sexual abuse (CSA) was reported by an observant clinician who noted that a high proportion of women enrolled in a weight loss program had a history of CSA (Felitti, 1991). Three (Felitti, 1993; Springs & Friedrich, 1992; Wadden et al., 2006) of four clinic-based studies (Felitti, 1993; Jia, Li, Leserman, Hu, & Drossman, 2004; Springs & Friedrich, 1992; Wadden et al., 2006) also noted an increased prevalence of CSA among obese relative to non-obese female patients. Several population-based, cross-sectional studies have evaluated this association (Aaron & Hughes, 2007; Alvarez, Pavao, Baumrind, & Kimerling, 2007; Brewerton, O'Neil, Dansky, & Kilpatrick, 1999; Cloutier, Martin, & Poole, 2002; Stein & Barrett Connor, 2000), and only one (Stein & Barrett Connor, 2000) of the five studies found no association. Perhaps the most compelling data linking CSA with adult obesity comes from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study which addressed the health effects of a range of experiences in childhood in a large retrospective cohort of 13,177 California health maintenance organization members (Felitti et al., 1998). In subsequent analysis of these data which adjusted for psychosocial factors (Williamson, Thompson, Anda, Dietz, & Felitti, 2002), sexual assault in childhood that involved penetration was associated with a 30% increase in the incidence of obesity (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.2-1.5). Two recent cohort studies provide additional prospective evidence that CSA may be a causal factor in obesity for young adults (Mamun et al., 2007; Noll, Zeller, Trickett, & Putnam, 2007)."

~ endabuse.org

“In the current study, 48% of participants reported experiencing severe sexual violence. These abusive experiences were found to be significantly associated with obesity, the use of weight manipulation to avoid unwanted sexual experiences, and overeating, The cumulative effect of both severe sexual violence and childhood physical abuse resulted in a stronger association with overeating than severe sexual abuse alone."

~visual divinity.com

Abuse also is a form of control by adults over the child victims, and overeating may be a way for abused children to gain some control of their own, she said. Others have argued that being overweight is a way to make oneself unattractive and ward off undesired attention. ^“

 ~ "Obesity Risk for Female Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Prospective Study" is posted at <

 So what does this mean?  Has every obese person been abused? No. That's silly. What these studies show, is there is a proven link to childhood trauma and obesity. The studies I copied above focused on childhood sexual trauma. But, there is also a correlation between obesity and adult sexual trauma such as rape,  domestic violence, childhood physical and emotional abuse, loss of a perent in childhood, and other post tramatic stress precursors.

If you have experienced some type of abuse or trauma in your past, you should seek help, and consider mentioning it to your wls or psych as you go through your wls journey.

We have to heal our insides as we heal our outsides.  If food was used to mask the pain and shame of abuse in the past, it will not be accesible in large quantities post op.  Otherwise, there may be a higher risk of transferred addiction or self sabatoge with non compliance in post op care.

I was blessed to find a wonderful counsellor who helped me through my healing process. Eventhough I have had therapy, it is something I still deal with every day.

I have shared my story on my blog.  If you need a friend to talk to, please feel free to PM me your story.

~LaShelle