Understanding Mental Obesity and Anorexia
A Guide to Addressing Mental Health in Christian Circles – Part 4
If you will recall, to be in good physical shape requires healthy eating, physical exercise, and rest. As it goes with physical fitness so it goes with mental fitness. In other words, one must eat healthy mental meals, engage in mental exercises, and rest mentally. Today, I would like to focus on the mental diet, but describe two states of being that we can be in mentally and don’t know it. There is a mental state that I call mental obesity and another mental state I call mental anorexia.
Mental Obesity
Obesity as it relates to a physical condition doesn’t necessarily mean overeating, but more important the excessive accumulation of unneeded body fat. Physical obesity is having too much body fat. With that said, so then, what would you say is mental obesity?
What is mental obesity?
Mental obesity is what we would call “information overload.” There are times in life where too much of bad information can overload us and overwhelm us. By the nature of what the internet can offer us and the accessibility of vast amounts of information, we can blame our technical advances for an increase of mental obesity. In the secular or common world, this would look like that person who watches too much of the news from one side. When we sit and watch the news constantly, it inundates us with negative information designed to achieve the purpose of the content creator which does not serve our purpose.
In the Christian community however, mental obesity would be that person who spends more time watching reality shows than one does studying their Bibles, God’s word. While mental obesity seems harmless, it is more destructive than physical obesity. A person only goes, where one’s thoughts take her or him. Do you have symptoms of mental obesity and don’t know it? It might be time to evaluate your mental diet. What are you putting into your mind?
Now that we have mental obesity out of the way, let’s see what mental anorexia is like.
Mental Anorexia
Anorexia as it relates to your physical body is a disorder of a person characterized by low weight and low food intake. In other words, a person starves themselves. So then, what would you say is mental anorexia?
What is mental anorexia?
Mental anorexia would be starving oneself of information or better stated good information. The old prophet said that God’s people are destroyed for what they do not know. [1] There is one thing for sure, you can be destroyed by what you don’t know. Being deficient in information can turn your life upside down.
Here is what that would look like. There are some people who are okay with not learning, growing, or picking up new information. There are tons of examples I can give. When you have no idea or no information on how to maintain your automobile, it creates expensive problems for you. That’s what we mean by destroyed. When you have no idea how to handle your financial resources, destruction in that area is inevitable.
In the Christian community, the impacts are greater. Lack of knowledge can result in your never truly living. Jesus said I’ve come that you might have life. [2] If you lack this knowledge, you will go to your grave and never have lived. That’s mind blowing. Worse than that, without the proper information can sentence one to an eternity that doesn’t include Heaven.
Are you mentally deprived of the information your mind needs to live? Is your mind starving, craving a good mental meal? Don’t go through life starving when there is a table of good mental food available to you.
There are campaigns out there to end physical obesity and anorexia. But what about mental obesity and mental anorexia? Will you join me in this campaign? Let’s end these two disorders that’s robbing most (51% or more) of the life that God has in store for them. We will start by sharing what we know of it with others. It’s time we take our mental fitness to the next level.
Question: if you had to pick one of these disorders to work on which would it be mental obesity or mental anorexia?
[1] Hosea 4:6 NKJV, Bible.com, accessed September 19, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/114/HOS.4.6.NKJV
[2] John 10:10 NLT, Bible.com, accessed September 19, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.10.10.NLT
All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.
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