teen who eats 13,000 calories a day!

[Cassie 8]

I myself battle the urge to overeat and purge every single freaking day. I also am quite overweight.

I am a smart person. I know about nutrition, calories, exercises, blah blah blah freaking blah. And for the longest time -- 20 years actually-- I couldn't put it all together and stop the cycle and lose weight. It has only been in the last 4 months that I have been able to overcome the battle in my mind and move forward in my weight loss, it has been slow but it is happening.

The girl is 15 years old. She needs help, not judgement. Food abuse / addictions are extremely difficult to deal with. I can only imagine the despair she must feel.

[Marilyn. 340]

you can't really call smoking for enjoyment an addiction....

smoking because you feel a compelling need to smoke is an addiction... and it would be a lot harder to stop....

[Cassie 8]

Natural selection, survival of the fittest, whatever you want to call it. If its one of my family members or close friends then I try to help (regardless of what their problem or addiction is). If its a stranger, I don't want to waste my time and resources on you. I would rather send that money to children with cancer who have no choice. I am not sympathetic to anerexic or bolimic or cutters or drugies. I don't think obesity is somehow less of an addiction than any of the others. The thing is that more and more people are doing this to themselves while other people starve around the world. Maybe we should send the obese people there for awhile, maybe then they will learn how to eat less food. Same with the drug addicts. There are children in this world suffering in war zones, watching their family and friends die, not getting enough food, missing school because it is too dangerous, etc. I think I will put my sympathy with their mental anguish before someone who has had one or two things tramatic in their life. People need to be tought what they should be thankful for. No matter how bad it is, you can always find someone who has it worse. Maybe (if it is related to depression or psyhcological stress) we need to point out how good they have it.

this post disgusts me in more ways than one.

[S and S 12]

Natural selection, survival of the fittest, whatever you want to call it. If its one of my family members or close friends then I try to help (regardless of what their problem or addiction is). If its a stranger, I don't want to waste my time and resources on you. I would rather send that money to children with cancer who have no choice. I am not sympathetic to anerexic or bolimic or cutters or drugies. I don't think obesity is somehow less of an addiction than any of the others. The thing is that more and more people are doing this to themselves while other people starve around the world. Maybe we should send the obese people there for awhile, maybe then they will learn how to eat less food. Same with the drug addicts. There are children in this world suffering in war zones, watching their family and friends die, not getting enough food, missing school because it is too dangerous, etc. I think I will put my sympathy with their mental anguish before someone who has had one or two things tramatic in their life. People need to be tought what they should be thankful for. No matter how bad it is, you can always find someone who has it worse. Maybe (if it is related to depression or psyhcological stress) we need to point out how good they have it.

this post disgusts me in more ways than one.

It disgusts me that you think small children with cancer should not get care because we are so busy fixing the addicts of this world. There isn't enough money for everyone who has illnesses.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

This girl can't seem to stop the process of eating herself to death. Like any addition, it takes self control and determination to kick a habit. We have all suffered loss, grief, unhappiness at one time or another but we have to pick ourselves up and carry on. As regards eating, I would love to be able to eat a whole chocolate cake every day but I don't because its unhealthy and would lead to weight gain. People need to take more responsibility for themselves instead of relying on others for help. This girl is acutely aware no doubt that she is mordbidly obese. She knows she will die if she carries on eating to the extent that she currently is, but even this does not stop her from consuming thousands of calories per day. This is something that can be controlled and this girl needs to "woman" up and make an effort.

But this just goes back to what I said before - you can't expect someone with a mental health problem to behave rationally, they don't and that's the crux of the problem. You have to get beyond bad self-esteem, feelings of loss or whatever is the cause of the damaged psychology. Unfortunately its a lot easier to say to someone "just get over it" than it is to actually do it.

[Marilyn. 340]

Natural selection, survival of the fittest, whatever you want to call it. If its one of my family members or close friends then I try to help (regardless of what their problem or addiction is). If its a stranger, I don't want to waste my time and resources on you. I would rather send that money to children with cancer who have no choice. I am not sympathetic to anerexic or bolimic or cutters or drugies. I don't think obesity is somehow less of an addiction than any of the others. The thing is that more and more people are doing this to themselves while other people starve around the world. Maybe we should send the obese people there for awhile, maybe then they will learn how to eat less food. Same with the drug addicts. There are children in this world suffering in war zones, watching their family and friends die, not getting enough food, missing school because it is too dangerous, etc. I think I will put my sympathy with their mental anguish before someone who has had one or two things tramatic in their life. People need to be tought what they should be thankful for. No matter how bad it is, you can always find someone who has it worse. Maybe (if it is related to depression or psyhcological stress) we need to point out how good they have it.

this post disgusts me in more ways than one.

It disgusts me that you think small children with cancer should not get care because we are so busy fixing the addicts of this world. There isn't enough money for everyone who has illnesses.

did she say that??

[Fandango 1,439]

Addiction isn't that simple. You weren't addicted to cigarettes if you gave them up that easily, not in the sense that these extreme examples illustrate in terms of compulsive addictive behaviour. This girl probably will die before she's thirty and that will be that. Another lazy fat person off the planet eh?

That's not quite true....you can do most things if you put your mind to it...recognizing the problem is half the battle with addiction...

[Cassie 8]

Natural selection, survival of the fittest, whatever you want to call it. If its one of my family members or close friends then I try to help (regardless of what their problem or addiction is). If its a stranger, I don't want to waste my time and resources on you. I would rather send that money to children with cancer who have no choice. I am not sympathetic to anerexic or bolimic or cutters or drugies. I don't think obesity is somehow less of an addiction than any of the others. The thing is that more and more people are doing this to themselves while other people starve around the world. Maybe we should send the obese people there for awhile, maybe then they will learn how to eat less food. Same with the drug addicts. There are children in this world suffering in war zones, watching their family and friends die, not getting enough food, missing school because it is too dangerous, etc. I think I will put my sympathy with their mental anguish before someone who has had one or two things tramatic in their life. People need to be tought what they should be thankful for. No matter how bad it is, you can always find someone who has it worse. Maybe (if it is related to depression or psyhcological stress) we need to point out how good they have it.

this post disgusts me in more ways than one.

It disgusts me that you think small children with cancer should not get care because we are so busy fixing the addicts of this world. There isn't enough money for everyone who has illnesses.

did she say that??

Indeed. Oh how I love people putting words in my mouth.

Seeing as a good friend of mine is currently watching her 10 year old son battling leukemia, I find your analogy particularly offensive.

There should be money to help everyone with illnesses. Call me an incurable optimist.

Oh and if you got on the wagon early enough and helped people before things got too out of hand, they wouldn't need extreme medical care and save a whole lot of money.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Addiction isn't that simple. You weren't addicted to cigarettes if you gave them up that easily, not in the sense that these extreme examples illustrate in terms of compulsive addictive behaviour. This girl probably will die before she's thirty and that will be that. Another lazy fat person off the planet eh?

That's not quite true....you can do most things if you put your mind to it...recognizing the problem is half the battle with addiction...

If indeed the addiction is the sole problem at work here... I wouldn't be very surprised if she had some deep-seated self-esteem issues too (the article mentions school bullies). Once you get into a cycle of depression its not easy get out on your own.

[Cassie 8]

Addiction isn't that simple. You weren't addicted to cigarettes if you gave them up that easily, not in the sense that these extreme examples illustrate in terms of compulsive addictive behaviour. This girl probably will die before she's thirty and that will be that. Another lazy fat person off the planet eh?

That's not quite true....you can do most things if you put your mind to it...recognizing the problem is half the battle with addiction...

If indeed the addiction is the sole problem at work here... I wouldn't be very surprised if she had some deep-seated self-esteem issues too (the article mentions school bullies). Once you get into a cycle of depression its not easy get out on your own.

Exactly.

[Marilyn. 340]

you can take away her food but she will still have the same problems underneath... I don't think overeating is her main problem.. it is probably an emotional and mental problem that she is just trying to cover up with food...

[Amby 490]

Addiction isn't that simple. You weren't addicted to cigarettes if you gave them up that easily, not in the sense that these extreme examples illustrate in terms of compulsive addictive behaviour. This girl probably will die before she's thirty and that will be that. Another lazy fat person off the planet eh?

That's not quite true....you can do most things if you put your mind to it...recognizing the problem is half the battle with addiction...

This is why I said something extreme will have to happen for someone to realize a change is needed. Maybe for her she will have to suffer a heart attack before she actually realizes she HAS to change or she WILL die.

[S and S 12]

But this just goes back to what I said before - you can't expect someone with a mental health problem to behave rationally, they don't and that's the crux of the problem. You have to get beyond bad self-esteem, feelings of loss or whatever is the cause of the damaged psychology. Unfortunately its a lot easier to say to someone "just get over it" than it is to actually do it.

I understand what you are saying. I wouldn't say "get over it". I would say that there are priorities. The odds of our tax paying dollars successfully curing people with cancer and other diseases is much higher than with the people in drug treatment programs or obesity or any other pyschological disorder. Those types of diseases need family support more than anything. They need the local community to come together and help that person. There are other programs out there designed to show people what path they are heading down if they continue their behavior and it works for some people. I've seen kids who thought they had it bad until they went on a church mission to another country and saw how bad the people had it there. Then they were more appreciative of what they had and changed their way of thinking.

I don't see why we have to pay for every single person's issues. When I was a kid I had no health insurance. I literally had to be dying and then my father would take me to the emergency room. It sucked. I think first and foremost we have to look at regular health issues before we start paying for all the psychological issues that a decent family could take care of.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Addiction isn't that simple. You weren't addicted to cigarettes if you gave them up that easily, not in the sense that these extreme examples illustrate in terms of compulsive addictive behaviour. This girl probably will die before she's thirty and that will be that. Another lazy fat person off the planet eh?

That's not quite true....you can do most things if you put your mind to it...recognizing the problem is half the battle with addiction...

If indeed the addiction is the sole problem at work here... I wouldn't be very surprised if she had some deep-seated self-esteem issues too (the article mentions school bullies). Once you get into a cycle of depression its not easy get out on your own.

Exactly.

Moreover once you get into depression you no longer just have an addictive behaviour to deal with, but a situation where your depression feeds and reinforces the addictive behaviour.

[S and S 12]

Natural selection, survival of the fittest, whatever you want to call it. If its one of my family members or close friends then I try to help (regardless of what their problem or addiction is). If its a stranger, I don't want to waste my time and resources on you. I would rather send that money to children with cancer who have no choice. I am not sympathetic to anerexic or bolimic or cutters or drugies. I don't think obesity is somehow less of an addiction than any of the others. The thing is that more and more people are doing this to themselves while other people starve around the world. Maybe we should send the obese people there for awhile, maybe then they will learn how to eat less food. Same with the drug addicts. There are children in this world suffering in war zones, watching their family and friends die, not getting enough food, missing school because it is too dangerous, etc. I think I will put my sympathy with their mental anguish before someone who has had one or two things tramatic in their life. People need to be tought what they should be thankful for. No matter how bad it is, you can always find someone who has it worse. Maybe (if it is related to depression or psyhcological stress) we need to point out how good they have it.

this post disgusts me in more ways than one.

It disgusts me that you think small children with cancer should not get care because we are so busy fixing the addicts of this world. There isn't enough money for everyone who has illnesses.

did she say that??

Indeed. Oh how I love people putting words in my mouth.

Seeing as a good friend of mine is currently watching her 10 year old son battling leukemia, I find your analogy particularly offensive.

There should be money to help everyone with illnesses. Call me an incurable optimist.

Oh and if you got on the wagon early enough and helped people before things got too out of hand, they wouldn't need extreme medical care and save a whole lot of money.

Perhaps before you throw insults at people you should have them elaborate on the parts you don't like. Maybe then you will not have words put in your mouth.