Nip/Tuck did an episode where a morbidly obese woman’s skin, after having spent several years on her couch, had fused with the couch.
Well, so are most males that I know, then. He may have put it indelicately, but acknowledging that there’s an overwhelming bias (in Western culture) against fat women as sex objects is not at all the same as saying that bias is good or fair.
Is starving them the only other option?
I saw a documentary on this one time and the administrator of this hospital said that they were a hospital, not a jail, and as such their patients were free to make the choices they wanted.
I feel that this is ridiculous. They are wasting a valuable resource in this hospital by continuing to eat. Surely the hospital can make rules…
Freakin’ time-outs prevented me from making the edit window, but here’s a more detailed article. It says that authorities were looking into neglect charges, but I couldn’t find any follow-up articles that say whether or not any were ever filed.
I would really like to know the answer to this as well. I’ve seen all the shows on TLC/Discovery over the past few years and not ONE ever addresses this issue. Parick Deuel, John whateverhisnamewas, etc. Their wives bought and fed them upwards of 20,000 calories a day (think the equivalent of 40 Big Macs). And they were bedridden. I can’t even begin to imagine the volume of feces expelled every day. And yeah, exactly how was that cleaned up? And how did the obese person rationalize forcing someone else to do that for them?
Colostomy bag? It’s slightly less gross than a bedpan, diapers, or shudder nothing.
People can rationalize anything.
It should be noted that the feeder phenomenon isn’t quite as much of an innocent (if you’ll forgive that term in this context) fetish as it seems at first. There are a lot of control issues involved and a lot of feeders tend to be controlling personalities. And there is a difference between “chubby chasers” and “feeders”, though there is some overlap. There really are men who are just more attracted to larger women than to thinner women (and men, too…there is a chubby/chaser subset in the gay community as well (and also feeders, for that matter)).
Uh, colostomy bags CAN be a medical necessity not related to obesity. (My uncle, for one, after having colon cancer, is by no means obese-he’s not even remotely chubby)
What I want to know is-how can you get yourself into such a severe state? How do you build that up, even slowly? I can’t imagine being able to consume even a fraction of what these people eat on a daily basis.
I realize it’s some sort of mental illness-how can it NOT be? :eek:
…does everything you eat turn to fat? I saw one guy-he was up to 700 pounds-and was still demanding double cheeseburgers! I can’t imagine life like that-what do you do all day? I’d go crazy!
Another question: Food can be fairly expensive, especially fast food. Where do they get all the money for that? I eat once, maybe twice a day, and I still think I’m spending too much money.
You mean to tell me they’re not eating fresh veggies and a balanced diet??
I agree with the money angle as well- on one of those documentaires it said one of the patients was eating 33 thousand calories a day- thats a lot of money per day.
Maybe nto stave them but it does seem like a good option when a person is so fat that they crush there own lunges from there weight when they are sleeping and kill them selfs!
While on the topic of fatties check this out
xpock.com he lost 168 Kg, got pictures of his progress!
I can only imagine BUT . . .
. . . while any account or documentary will tend to portray the morbidly obese person as helpless and pathetic I suspect that when the cameras are off they are miserable people to be around. They are probably crying, whining, demanding, assertive individuals that will use any method possible to get an enabler to satisfy their needs. Once this person has found an enabler they will use that person to satisfy their desire for eating. They probably use any method they can to get they enabler to comply. “You hate me, you are an evil person, if you cared about me at all you would bring some food, etc.” I would imagine that being around this person is pure Hell but enablers look for that Hell.
They are no different than a drug addict the will steal, whore or manipulate in order to satisy their addiction.
I’m suspicious of the 800 lb. person who can’t move. That person’s life may appear to be Hell but that person was probably making the enabler’s life Hell.
It’s like the spineless parent that can’t say “no” to their child. They end up raising a total loser. Who’s to blame?
Someone else must have watched the thing on TLC the other night. I’ve seen most of the shows on that channel about the super-sized obese people. As someone who is overweight myself, I have a morbid (pardon the pun) curiosity about super-morbid obesity.
The same questions come to mind every time: how do you handle urination/defecation? Why in heaven’s name do their family keep bringing them such massive amounts of high-calorie food? It’s not an 800 pound bedridden man is going to hop up and chase you into the kitchen until you start cooking.
I guess the person relying on family to feed them could be manipulative, or just plain mean enough to find a way to get the food they want. (I imagine throwing feces at my husband if he didn’t bring me a pizza might…
Nope. It would get me abandoned in my bed, and it would serve me right.)
I’ve also seen some episodes about Brookhaven; it seems quite ridiculous. Most episodes feature super-obese patients cheating, avoiding exercise/diet, and not making any progress. WTF?
Uh, I think people know that, but merely mention it as a hypothetical solution to the logistical problem. You don’t have to chime in demanding respect for the colostomised.
–Mal, who by reason of his mother’s last illness wots whereof he speaks.
Another aspect, from the POV of the person/people who feed the SMO (Super Morbidly Obese) is this: the SMO is, in effect, physically paralyzed. Eating is one of the very few pleasurable things still available to them. What else do they have? They can’t go for a walk in the park, swimming, have sex, go dancing, go to amusement parks, go out for drinks with their friends; essentially, they are bed-ridden. Food is readily available entertainment.
I’m not saying this is a good reason to feed them, only that it may very well be a factor, and is almost definitely a factor in the manipulation that the SMO uses (“I don’t have anything left in my life except my Hostess cupcakes; are you going to be the one to deny me them??”)
Sure, the care-giver realizes the SMO would be better off with a turkey sandwich and cup of soup than a box of Little Debbie’s. But past a certain weight, the idea of losing enough weight to be functional again seems akin to climbing Mount Everest. So the care-giver may be thinking “Well, no significant weight loss is likely to happen anyway; so I may as well at least provide them with what pleasure I can”.
Interesting thread. I recently saw two of the TLC documentaries. Neither one went near the question of enabling. Yeah, who does bring the food? I’d be interested in seeing some of the manipulative conversations. Also I’d love to hear from those crew members who got sucked into this.