Many cases of obesity tend to have psychological, not physical, causes, experts say. According to Burghard Klapp, a physician and professor at the Obesity Centre of Charite university hospital in Berlin, obesity is "not seldom" the result of an addiction similar to alcohol dependence.
Obese people like to see their obesity as a physical problem, however, "because it's easier to deal with something on a physical level than on a psychological one," he said.
"The more strongly a person is given to obesity, the more suspicious one ought to become," remarked Klapp, who specialises in psychosomatics. He said it made sense to ask what other impairments the person had in addition to excess weight. Overweight people often suffer from psychological disorders or social anxieties and take prescription sedatives, which, like alcohol, can be addictive, he noted.
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