A sad (horrifying) view from our table tonight...

[Spiky Bugger]

Yeah...we went out again. As usual. A local sports bar/brewery kind of place.

There was a table set for ten. They started coming in. One young lady who was "chunky," let's call her overweight. And, eventually, nine obese people. Maybe three of the obese were "just" obese. There were two who appeared to be MO. The remaining four were SUPER morbidly obese. REALLY, REALLY big people.

I told Mr. Sue that it was sad. I wondered how many of the already had diabetes and sleep apnea. I wondered if any more than maybe three out of ten would live anywhere near a normal life expectancy. I wondered how many would be wheelchair-dependent in a short time.

Of course, I said nothing to them...or to anyone else. But it was so sad to see all the (probably) wasted opportunity at that one table...opportunity that won't be achieved because of intervening health issues. I hope someone who has "standing" with that group knows about the DS. They soooooo needed to know that.

 

[more2adore]

But at the same time...maybe they're happy, Sue, and it's really up to them when or IF they want to do something to change themselves. I'm sure more than one person thought as you did when I was out with a group of my SSBBW/BBW friends. We were all happy and enjoying ourselves and loving just living our lives and getting to hang out with other people who really "got" what it was like to be that size. If we had been told anyone around us was thinking what you were we would have just rolled our eyes and been angry. People have to get to where they're ready. No amount of education or intervention will help unless or until people reach a breaking point on their own.

 

[DianaCox]

Those two viewpoints are both valid, simultaneously. Ignorance is bliss. People fear change. They spin their story to experience the problems they are unable/unwilling to change as "sweet lemons." The dichotomy many of us "on the other side" experience, which we can sum up as "I wish I had done this sooner," often rewrites history - while we were dealing with the difficulties of being MO, we dismissed many, viewed some as not problems, and embraced others - there is nothing wrong with that, and it's even a positive adaptation to a difficult situation. In retrospect, we feel like we were given a gift, and we want to share it with others. And of course, we can't.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

But at the same time...maybe they're happy, Sue, and it's really up to them when or IF they want to do something to change themselves. I'm sure more than one person thought as you did when I was out with a group of my SSBBW/BBW friends. We were all happy and enjoying ourselves and loving just living our lives and getting to hang out with other people who really "got" what it was like to be that size. If we had been told anyone around us was thinking what you were we would have just rolled our eyes and been angry. People have to get to where they're ready. No amount of education or intervention will help unless or until people reach a breaking point on their own.

I believe they probably felt happy...but only as happy as one can feel while sick or dying and unaware, or unable to remember, of what healthy feels like. You know...as happy as Ann Frank COULD feel while imprisoned in that attic. But no where near as happy as she might have felt had she been free.

And they appeared to mostly be couples, not a large generic group, but four couples and two unattached.

 

[JackieOnLine]

would y'all stop posting interesting stuff while I'm supposed to be packing? ! the truck will be here tomorrow at 8 AM and I have the kitchen and bathroom left to do. and odds and ends. hours worth of odds & ends!!

and Fritz is being high maintenance and has learned to hit me with his cone.

 

[JackieOnLine]

to get back on topic - just takes ONE high profile person to get a DS, I'm thinking Oprah. and then instead of almost nobody having heard of it, almost everyone will have. and the stupid anti-WLS stigma can go away.

our whole culture needs to change re food anyhow. carbs are killing us!