Even on shows like My 600 lb life, they have to actually lose weight and maintain a healthy diet for months before they’re considered for Liposuction and other surgeries.
Sure, that care should be available, but you have to lose the weight first and maintain healthy habits. There’s no excuse for it.
There’s more to it than just “develop healthy habits” though. There are psychological reasons one could have for overeating like having eating disorders or using food to treat depression which could require psychiatric assistance. My brother died at 600+ lbs after breaking two lap bands. He required some serious intervention, but we couldn’t afford what he needed, he was homeless and he couldn’t hold down a job, so he died instead.
Mind you, being overweight wasn’t the only cause for his death. He was eating very unhealthy foods because they were a cheaper means to fill himself up since his stomach was huge. His severe ADHD prevented him from being able to hold down a job despite being a fairly intelligent person.
He did some shitty things in his life, so don’t give too much sympathy, but in retrospect doing something to help his ADHD early on could have helped to prevent the train wreck that became his life. Maybe that would have helped him do better in school, be better to our parents, be able to hold down a job, etc. which could have prevented overeating to treat his depression.
I get that, I really do. Mental health is a really really important part of being healthy.
But at the end of the day, eating less is the solution to the weight loss. Mental healthcare is the solution to mental health problems. They’re interconnected, but one can be solved independent of the other. And I do realize that it’s difficult.
Ok but also doing something very difficult at the best of times is particularly difficult while also struggling with mental health issues. And beyond that even if you succeed you’re not unlikely to swing hard the other way. People with serious mental health issues that manage to lose a lot of weight have a nasty habit of doing so using an eating disorder.
But at the end of the day, eating less is the solution to the weight loss
And abstinence is the solution to unwanted pregnancies and STDs. The solution to alcoholism and all other drug addictions? Stop taking drugs/drinking.
Did I just provide medical advice? Or did I just make it clear that I don’t know anything about sex education and drug addictions? I think it’s the latter, and I think you’re making similar arguments wrt fat people.
You’re flattening the realities of life, and needlessly stigmatizing and moralizing eating . for every fat person you save with this gospel, there’s many more anorexic people absorbing the same message.
That’s not what they’re talking about. Doctors will attribute anything they can to your weight instead of actually testing and treating you. There are a lot of problems with being over weight but there’s also legitimate illnesses being missed.
Even on shows like My 600 lb life, they have to actually lose weight and maintain a healthy diet for months before they’re considered for Liposuction and other surgeries.
Sure, that care should be available, but you have to lose the weight first and maintain healthy habits. There’s no excuse for it.
There’s more to it than just “develop healthy habits” though. There are psychological reasons one could have for overeating like having eating disorders or using food to treat depression which could require psychiatric assistance. My brother died at 600+ lbs after breaking two lap bands. He required some serious intervention, but we couldn’t afford what he needed, he was homeless and he couldn’t hold down a job, so he died instead.
Mind you, being overweight wasn’t the only cause for his death. He was eating very unhealthy foods because they were a cheaper means to fill himself up since his stomach was huge. His severe ADHD prevented him from being able to hold down a job despite being a fairly intelligent person.
He did some shitty things in his life, so don’t give too much sympathy, but in retrospect doing something to help his ADHD early on could have helped to prevent the train wreck that became his life. Maybe that would have helped him do better in school, be better to our parents, be able to hold down a job, etc. which could have prevented overeating to treat his depression.
I get that, I really do. Mental health is a really really important part of being healthy.
But at the end of the day, eating less is the solution to the weight loss. Mental healthcare is the solution to mental health problems. They’re interconnected, but one can be solved independent of the other. And I do realize that it’s difficult.
Ok but also doing something very difficult at the best of times is particularly difficult while also struggling with mental health issues. And beyond that even if you succeed you’re not unlikely to swing hard the other way. People with serious mental health issues that manage to lose a lot of weight have a nasty habit of doing so using an eating disorder.
And abstinence is the solution to unwanted pregnancies and STDs. The solution to alcoholism and all other drug addictions? Stop taking drugs/drinking.
Did I just provide medical advice? Or did I just make it clear that I don’t know anything about sex education and drug addictions? I think it’s the latter, and I think you’re making similar arguments wrt fat people.
You’re flattening the realities of life, and needlessly stigmatizing and moralizing eating . for every fat person you save with this gospel, there’s many more anorexic people absorbing the same message.
That’s not what they’re talking about. Doctors will attribute anything they can to your weight instead of actually testing and treating you. There are a lot of problems with being over weight but there’s also legitimate illnesses being missed.