I was a normal sized kid. When I hit middle school/puberty and had more agency in feeding myself, I became overweight. I always wondered if I was overeating to soothe an underlying anxiety issue. It makes a lot of sense to me that I likely had anxiety issues first which caused me to gain weight, not that my anxiety was caused by being overweight. Anxiety in kids wasn’t something people were looking for in the 80s.

In my 20s, I lost 80lbs and was still depressed and anxious. I was definitely treated better by peers but neither losing weight nor being treated nicely improved my mental health.