First of all, after conducting relevant background knowledge research by LZU-HS-PRO-A, 2 teams determined that obesity and depression are common diseases in daily life, and there is a deep connection between them.

  Depression is a very common mental illness characterized by continuous and long-term depressed feelings. Each episode of depression lasts for at least 2 weeks, one year, and even several years. The main symptoms include low mood, slow thinking, decreased volitional activity, cognitive impairment, physical symptoms and so on. About 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and 75% of those affected in low - and middle-income countries do not receive treatment.

  What triggers these two symptoms? In addition to external factors, the main causes of depression are heredity, HPA axis, cytokines, sex hormones, neurotrophic factors, etc. The causes of obesity include genetic and environmental factors, changes in metabolism and endocrine function, increases in the number and enlargement of fat cells, psychiatric and neurological factors, lifestyle and dietary factors, drug-induced obesity, and intestinal problems.

  Depression often causes palpitations, tightness in the chest, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and other symptoms at the same time, resulting in a large number of depressed patients experiencing weight loss. But there is still a large proportion of depressed patients who may be obese for their own or medication reasons. Some depressed individuals will continue to eat and even overeat to relieve their depression, which can lead to obesity; Antidepressants such as mirtazapine may also increase the appetite and food intake of depressed patients when they take norepinephrine or specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors, causing patients to gain weight and become obese.

  Based on the above situation, after detailed discussion between the two teams, RDFZ_CHINA designed the relevant questionnaire and collected the data. About 70 percent of the 596 people surveyed had a BMI (weight in kilograms divided by height squared) of 24.9 or less, the healthy range. However, about 45 percent of the population considered themselves overweight or overweight and were dissatisfied with their body shape, and more than 80 percent of the participants wanted to lose weight.

  80.54% of the respondents felt depressed with varying degrees of frequency, and 44.17% of them felt depressed because of dissatisfaction with their body shape. 40.44% of explicitly reported experiencing body shaming, mainly from the marketing of body anxiety on social media and from people around them. Nearly 60% said they had experienced or were aware of social prejudice against obese people. More than 30% of people will definitely feel uncomfortable when buying clothes. The main reasons are lack of confidence in their own body shape, inappropriate size range of brands, and brand marketing on a single body shape.

  Through this survey, we can easily find that people have a very deep misunderstanding of obesity, and the whole society also has a clear discrimination against the obese group. And the direct result of that is a tendency to depression, or a deepening of depression. If the double pressure of social and mental causes patients to feel stigmatized and delay treatment, it may aggravate symptoms, which is not conducive to helping patients recover. And this will affect the crowd may be our friends, relatives.

  After analyzing and studying the data, LZU-HS-PRO-A gives practical solutions in life.

  From a personal point of view, maintaining attention and support for patients, encouraging patients to seek medical treatment, trying to create a less stressful environment, being patient, and treating patients with due respect are the most effective. Patients should also be encouraged to carry out certain weight loss measures, such as changing the dietary system, doing appropriate exercise, using weight loss drugs, equipment, etc. From a social perspective, it is not only necessary to popularize mental health-related knowledge to the public, but also to strengthen early childhood education.

  Obese and depressed people are always especially vulnerable to being discriminated against by their peers during their school days. The ultimate cause is that immature teenagers reject and ridicule those who are different from most of their own age groups. It can be attributed to the lack of relevant knowledge popularization and lack of education. Precautions can mainly take the form of:

1. Take mental health-related knowledge courses as early as possible

  Pre-puberty is an excellent time to form impressions of things, but insufficient understanding can exacerbate people's xenophobia and resentment so that when depression and obesity are mentioned, people will think of negative things. Therefore, the establishment of relevant health courses will undoubtedly reduce such situations.

2. Cultivation of moral concepts for children

  The co-cultivation of parents and teachers have a huge impact on children's moral values in the future, and some unconscious forms of address, such as "fatty" and "jelly belly", will have a profound negative impact on children, and may hurt their feelings. Children should be taught to respect and understand other people and learn to view the world with a normal mind and empathy.

  We want to say that both depression and obesity can be alleviated, and the barrier to cure should not come from the incomprehension of people around us, or even the whole society. Patients need the same care and respect as we do. One less prejudice, one less discrimination, one more happiness.

  In the whole survey process, thanks to the design of RDFZ_CHINA questionnaire, we further deepened our understanding of the current situation of social depression groups. At the same time, in the process of cooperation, our two teams help each other and benefit each other. As two teams of high school students, we lack experience in all aspects, and exchanging and learning experience with each other is a very effective win-win situation. We will communicate with each other about problems encountered in our work, discuss solutions and reflect on them afterwards. This collaboration has made both of our teams better.

  Finally, we hope to work together to reduce the number of people suffering from obesity and depression in the society in the future, which is also our common goal and direction of efforts.