A Reflective Essay on Experience of Caring for an Obese Adolescent

Running Head: OBESITY: CHRONIC ILLNESS
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A reflective Essay on experience of Caring for an Obese Adolescent
Name of the student:
Institutional Affiliation

OBESITY: CHRONIC ILLNESS 2
Description
Jane was a young adolescent aged 15 who I was looking after and once came up to me
and revealed that she had low self-esteem, felt lonely and depressed because of her weight. This
conversation took place between me and her at her place while her parents were away leaving
only the two of us in the house. The conversation took place for about an hour during which she
divulged that she was huge from her childhood and this is a genetic disorder in her family. It
wasn’t such a bother till she was 10 and one of her classmates called her a “fat ass” and that was
the onset of her low self-esteem She stated that she was bullied and harassed at school by both
her schoolmates and teachers, had no friends and was often very lonely and as result she had
sank into depression. She was quite worried that no one would ask her out because of the fact
that she was obese and called herself ugly. She disclosed that she highly blamed her parents for
not helping her regulate her diet and not encouraging her to take part in physical activities.
Instead they didn’t let her play with other children and that left her with an only choice of staying
indoors and playing with her toys. She was also bitter with her parents because they never
assured her of her beauty thus making her believe what her peers told her. .Moreover, she said
that she dreaded going back to school after the summer. I told her that I had gone through the
same situation and we could craft a diet plan that could help her.
Feelings
During this conversation and during the time i took care of her, I had a series of
feelings. When she opened up to me I felt sympathetic because I had had a similar experience
while I was in highschool.Like her, I had suffered from obesity from the age of 12 to 20 and
therefore I could relate with her situation. I also regretted not encouraging her to open up prior to
her speaking up. There was a sense of fulfillment since she thought of me as a person she could
confide in .I was also very proud of her since she took a very brave step of coming to me and
opening up because most teenagers suffering from obesity shy away from talking about it. I felt
accomplished due to the fact that I was able to convince her to let me help her come up with a
diet plan that would go a long way into helping her lose weight since I had used the same diet
plan on myself as a teenager. However I felt inferior since I wasn’t able to tell her parents that
she needed their support