Re people like those detailed in “My 600 lb Life”(I have not watched the show) is there limit to how large super obese people can get without feeders? Doesn’t getting obese to the point of near immobility almost by definition almost always require a “feeder” to be enabling the eater? How else would a largely immobile person get food other wise?
Even if you lived off delivered pizzas you would still have to come to the door and go to the bathroom by yourself if you did not have a a “helper”? Is there always a feeder in the background in these situations? Can a person become obese to the point of immobliity by themselves?
Yes, it requires an enabler. Having watched a ton (Ha!) of these programs, depending upon the height, usually between 500-700 pounds, the person becomes bed(or other)ridden. There have been cases where a person’s tissue grew into the carpet on the floor, the fabric of the couch, a recliner, etc., which made for some messy extractions.
I suppose with Peapod or one of those other grocery and supply delivery companies being available, you could manage it if you sat next to a window that opened up by the front porch so you could take delivery of disposable toddler diapers and food, and dropped your garbage back out the window into a garbage can that was close enough to the road or you shared with a neighbor so they hauled it to the curb on garbage day. You would have to use the diapers instead of a bathroom, and wash up around the edges with bottled water and baby wipes.
Just eew … but I think if you had lots of money and were willing, it might just barely be able to be done. :eek:
This documentary has been shown several times on the Starz channel. The mothers of the two boys, in addition to being in HUGE denial about their kids’ intellect, are both well on their way to exactly this.
Honestly, the boys are both retarded, one of them profoundly so. The girl is not, and in fact is very intelligent and the update says she’s in college with personal care aides.
I see enablers as people who personally cook the food and wipe the arse of the person trying for a new size record. People that deliver and remove commercially are not enablers. If I am a delivery person for Peapod, all I do is respond to my boss telling me there is an order for delivery. I did not decide to buy the food nor whom to deliver it to. As such, the garbage person is also not an enabler, he is hired to do a route picking up the garbage of the accounts on his route. You might as well cite the farmer who grew the popcorn as an enabler. You are, by your definition an enable to Honey Boo Boo’s mom letting her shove some not particularly talented clone of herself onto TV even if you have never done anything more than watch 5 minutes of her show.
This occurred to me long ago, with (IIRC) one of the first cases Dick Gregory involved himself in and made a public issue of. The young man weighed nearly 1,000 pounds and was bedridden nearly all of the time. He had not been able to fit through the doors of the apartment in years so never left. The grossest detail was that, about once a week, his family had to help him to the adjacent bathroom, where he perched over the bathtub to do all his business. This was within a shout of 1980, IIRC.
My very first thought was: why do they keep feeding him enough food to make him visible from space? He can have his next gallon of ice cream when he can go get it himself!
It isn’t just feeding. I like watching that show and I don’t think any of the people are able to support themselves financially.
For whatever reason the men seem to be more mobile and able to get around than the women at 600+ pounds (as a WAG, because men’s bodies are more muscular by nature). Several of the men were more or less able to walk around, drive and do whatever they wanted. But none of them is able to live alone.’’
An issue that comes up on that show is that the enablers enjoy having someone who depends on them. The husbands like knowing their wife is dependent and can’t get another man, the parents enjoy knowing their kids need them. So its a codependency dynamic. That is a big part of why the enablers don’t stop feeding the person.
I recently watched a show on YouTube about Billy Robbins, the half-ton teenager. His mother definitely enabled him. She’d lost a child years ago and had never dealt with the grief.
It was so painful to watch. He was 19 years old, but she talked to him like he was an infant. The guy would piss and crap the bed because of mobility problems, and she’d clean up after him like it was nothing. Whether because of depression or personality or what, the guy was always crying and whining, just like a baby.
His father just sat on the sidelines and watched the madness. So in a way, he enabled the enabler by not putting is foot down.
Granted… This is just a matter of how you define an “enabler” and who counts as one.
I was almost going to add something like that to my post. At some level, are we all extensively enabled by enablers? Every time I take a bite to eat, I am “enabled” by . . .
[ul]
[li] The farmer(s) that grew whatever I ate.[/li][li] The whole supply chain from the farmer to my table and all the people working there.[/li][li] The whole automotive and petroleum industry that gave me my car and fuel to go shopping.[/li][li] The whole industry and its workers who gave me my stove and oven.[/li][li] Etc., ad infinitum[/li][li] Well, you get the idea.[/li][/ul]
Here’s a “thought experiment” that I actually carried out in real life once:
To what extent can most of us truly become a hermit, totally or partially independent of all dependence on everyone? What happens when you need to see a doctor? Who will cut your hair for you?
When I wanted to become a complete and total hermit, I thought about it for several years and settled upon becoming a semi-hermit, living in a rural area, but within driving distance of a small town where I could do whatever business I needed. It became relevant to me, that I began to understand the whole network of supporting businesses and their employees as “enablers” in a sense.
(ETA: For various reasons, I’m not living like that any more, but like Cthulhu, I sleep, dreaming.)
Expandio ad absurdum, IMO. Because a truck brings boxes of Kraft Mac’n’Cheese to your local grocery cannot be construed as “enabling” you to gorge on it to morbid obesity.
The next-door neighbor who buys it and whips you up a 3-box batch for lunch is. I see a huge difference, there.
The likely answer is “Not for long.” I imagine that it would be rather self-limiting in that if you became so big that you couldn’t get food easily, you’d either die from dehydration, or you’d lose weight to a level where you’d be barely mobile enough to get the food you want.
After a brief perusal of the link, I couldn’t find anything to do with the topic of the OP. The kids have CP, and looking at the pics gives no indication of weight issues at all.
Oh god, watching that was awful (we stumbled upon it on YouTube, too). His mother had so effectively infantilized him. No one had ever taught him how to grow up and be an independently functioning person. During their required therapy sessions, they both (somewhat) acknowledged these problems, but went right back to old patterns after his surgery when he went home. This kid will never get better as long as mom is in his life, sadly. Even worse, when mom is no longer around, he WILL NOT have the skills or emotional aptitude to survive on his own. What a train wreck.
Does this person want to become immobile, or does it happen by accident?
If its really your goal, its not hard to rig up a radio control car to bring you pizza from the door…and I’m pretty sure some sort of toileting could be sorted out if that was your goal…
I didn’t see that episode, but Robbins is supposedly only about 400 pounds now. So he should be mobile and able to take care of himself at that weight.