Weight stigma

Weight stigma refers to negative attitudes, stereotypes, and discrimination directed at people because of their body weight. It shows up in workplaces, schools, media, relationships, and in healthcare settings, where it can shape how patients are spoken to and treated.

Research links weight stigma to worse mental and physical health that is independent of body weight itself, and it can make people less likely to seek care. Recognizing it is part of why many clinicians emphasize respectful, non-judgmental language when discussing weight and treatment.

Related terms

Disordered eating — A range of irregular or harmful eating behaviors that may not meet the full criteria for a diagnosed eating disorder but still deserve attention and care.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) — A mental health condition marked by persistent, excessive, hard-to-control worry about many things over months, often with restlessness, tension, and poor sleep.

Binge eating disorder (BED) — An eating disorder involving recurrent episodes of eating large amounts of food with a sense of loss of control, and distress afterward — without compensatory purging.

Related guides

"Taking a GLP-1 is cheating": where the myth comes from, and what the evidence says — "That's cheating" is the accusation many GLP-1 users hear — and sometimes tell themselves. It rests on the belief that weight is a test of willpower and medication is the easy way out. Here's what the science of weight regulation actually shows, why the "cheating" frame collapses under it, where the myth comes from, why it spreads so easily, and how to respond to it.

GLP-1 medications and anxiety: what the evidence shows, and what to watch — Ask whether a GLP-1 helps or hurts anxiety and the honest answer is: both happen, and most people stay stable. Steadier blood sugar, quieter food noise, and weight change calm some people; a minority develop new or worse anxiety, and drug-safety databases show a small reporting signal. It is not a treatment for anxiety. Here's the balanced evidence and, more usefully, what to monitor and when to get help.

GLP-1 medications and ADHD: what to know if you have both — ADHD and obesity travel together, so a lot of people on a GLP-1 also have ADHD — and many take a stimulant. There are no trials of GLP-1s as an ADHD treatment, and it shouldn't be used as one. But if you have both, three practical things matter: stacking two appetite suppressants safely, the real ADHD–eating overlap, and the adherence hurdle a weekly injection poses for an ADHD brain. Here's the honest picture.