Insulting the Overweight

Apparently some of the judgemental persons here have no clue about what goes on with the body and blood sugar when an anti-convulsant or antipsychotic is taken for psychiatric reasons. These drugs actually cause metabolic disturbances. The incidence of diabetes is very high and this is why periodic blood and urine tests are done. I have seen emaciated patients balloon in weight in just 3 months. This is not because of their eating habits! I am a former aide at a private psychiatric hospital where they had a structured eating environment. These patients regained sanity but had to battle another issue.

It is sad that the bigger battle is not sanity or overweight, but now absolute prejudice and ignorance! Oh, it is fine to be stable and sane, but be damned if you're heavy.

There are people out there who truly are concerned about the effect it's having on my overall health ... I understand and appreciate that ... I like to give those folks the benefit of the doubt.

But, when it's obvious someone isn't being nice, I don't mind insulting them back with my favorite zinger:

I'd rather be fat than stupid ...

By they time they figure out they've been called stupid, I'm long gone.

Well then count me out as a normal woman. Even though my weight is restored ya I am about the size of a 12 year old girl. No chest, no hips despite having three children.

With such a huge amount of women getting breast and butt implants, makes you wonder ..what is a "normal" woman? Probably any person born with the qualifying chromosones I'd guess.

Normal...who wants that, anyway? To be honest, I don't think there is a normal. There are healthy folks who are skinny and healthy folks who are heavy. There are unhealthy folks who are skinny and unhealthy folks who are heavy. There are medians and means and standard deviations, but let's face it - putting the whole of human population into a bell curve doesn't exactly find us a "normal" any easier.

Eh, I'm not fully concerned with the weight I'm at, as long as I feel good. Oh, and my butt. I gotta keep my butt.

Ehh there is no normal, people are just people. I was not really offeneded, thing is it's so easy to judge people. There has been plenty insults for the thin in this thread. Considering this thread is about insulting people for weight, and it has already been pointed out yet continues on. Not even the op mentioned it, the comments about thin people were actually more judgemental than that which some people felt were bully replies. Some of which were just the way the conversation veered but not really judgemental.

Often people complain about being insulted and respond with the same attitude towards others. How are people supposed to find acceptance like this?

I understand what you are saying, I don't see it much different. I think I even got slapped with the being insulting in this thread for saying that not wanting meds because of weight is not exactly always a psych issue..yet I never said anything about overweight people, I know what it is like. There is a theme here.

That meds make people fat remains a huge (no pun intended) concern. Accepting the bodyshape of everyone does not mean that the current situation in which people need to choose sanity or lesser weight should be accepted as well.

Btw it has been always obvious to me that morbidly obese people have at least one health condition because it is not possible to eat that much more. So either a genetic condition or a medication or diabetes but not the calories.

people have to love people for just bein people

I remember when my pdoc decided he needed to take me off all my antidepressants, since I was getting manic. He also decided to take me off a couple of other things, too. He said I was "overmedicated!" Well, whose fault was that? I thought he knew what he was doing.

At any rate, as I went off all these drugs I could literally feel the weight coming off. I belonged to a ladies' group and hadn't been for a few months. By the time I returned to it, I had lost a lot of weight. One of the ladies came up to me and asked, "Have you been sick?" Ha!

People take these meds because they are worse off without them. Anybody who has had bad bouts with certain of these disorders is willing to take the chance that they will gain weight. Not everyone does. But I have fibro and have lots of pain. At least three doctors have tried to put me on Lyrica. But I don't want to risk gaining more weight.

The sad part about drug-induced weight gain is that it happens very rapidly, but getting it off takes a long time.

So true. Easy on, hard off, if at all.

This thread is depressing me.

"Life is too short for fussing and fighting my friends". The Beatles.

Peace & hugs,

Thickntired of this thread lol

hence why I said that it's not exactly negative thing people don't want to take meds cause of possibility gaining weight. And yet that is judged as vanity issue.

I said this before... I think if SOMETHING upsets you metabolism this much, one should think not twice, but at least ten times over and throughly if it's good choice of 'em. Hence why I disagree with "fat and happy/stable". Too many end up fat and unhappy and it's their screwed up metabolism adding to their not being stable. Not some vanity issue. Not society making them feel bad... people with rapid gain on some meds are feeling crappy not because society made them feel so... too often their own bodies make them feel so (exhaustion gets to the brain too).

What bothers me about this thread is: a) "let's insult skinny people" and b) calling it a vanity issues when people don't wanna take meds that would make them gain too many pounds (of course many freaking doctors think this, so who can blame the patients).

This. It's just not good. There needs to be a shared understanding of each other's point of view, not insults because we disagree.

Also, endorsing ignoring posters that disagree? How is that helping? It's withdrawing into one's own position and closing off.

We are all humans here.

I have wrestled with an eating disorder and weight issues all my life ... As I went through therapy I was put on meds that made it blossom even more.

Since coming off meds I've lost close to 100 lbs. (50 more to go!) ... Not all of that was the meds though ... Being honest about that ... They only contributed about 30% - 50% to it.

The rest of it is my own doing ... I'll own it .... Sure there's the eating disorder as well as being starved to the point of eating dog food as a child, then having food used as a system of reward and punishment, etc.

Nevertheless, and regardless of what's happened up to this point in time, it is now my job to create a healthier me, and that is exactly what I'm working on.

I'm also working on self acceptance because nobody else has had my journey and they don't know me and my struggles ... So how they see me isn't nearly as important as how I see myself.

I've seen more people wince with empathy and compassion when I've let some self-deprecating remark about my size slip from my mouth ... So perhaps it isn't them who's my worst judge ... My worst critic and judge has always been me, myself and I.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS: How we view ourselves is way more important than how others view us ... If we aren't happy with who we are, whether we can change it or not, it's up to us to treat ourselves with the empathy, compassion and kindness we deserve because, let's face it if we look for that kind of acceptance only from outside sources, we're bound to be disappointed and hurt time and time again.

,
Pfrog!

No one's story is more important or valid than anyone else's.

There is nothing wrong with vanity either. I know that when I lose vanity altogether, that means I am deeply depressed. I do not have that much vanity to begin with, but when I. Lose even that, it is a bad sign.

Vanity is neither bad nor unhealthy.

I think the one person had a point about our trying to ignore what other people think about us--whether we are too fat or too skinny or whatever. I agree that there are folks who insult the overweight--and also might even make remarks about thin people.

The main factor, the bottom line, is that we do need to try to be mindful of our health--and being too heavy or too slender can possibly cause health risks.

My wish is that these drug companies can come up with a way to treat disorders without their drugs causing weight problems. I have tried going without drugs and it didn't work out. I wish it could.

I don't perceive myself as vain. I just want to be able to wear the size clothes I used to wear before I ended up on this bipolar rollercoaster.

Let's try to be kind on these forums and understanding. There's no good purpose served in trying to hurt others, whether the hurt was intended or not. If I have said anything offensive, then I apologize.

We are all hurting here at Psych Central. None of us asked to be mentally ill and it's a tough row to hoe. We don't need to make things worse by turning on ourselves.

I, too, am moving along from this thread. I think the point has been made that many overweight people have been insulted--and it hurts.

I love people regardless of their size. You folks take care. It's been a good topic to discuss. Thanks, Permanent Pajamas.

I'm tired of other people deciding what is wrong with me when they don't even know me.

I'm bowing out of the thread I started, which was a mistake in the first place. I deluded myself when I started it thinking that people would refrain from the old rancid.

Sadly, that's human nature. Quite honestly, I'm not sure if we as a society would be able to make any of the strides we make without the ability to "perceive" what we believe about others. Yes, this means good and bad - but if we weren't able to decide what we thought about someone within the so many seconds of meeting others, we would be mired in uncertainty.

Is this fair? Probably not. After all, you can't exactly give someone a fair shot just from looking at them and interacting with them for under a minute. But if we were forced to interact with others until we actually got a good sense of who they were all the time, we wouldn't have time for all the other stuff...like interacting with people who actually mattered.

I try my hardest not to judge people based upon their appearance - be that weight or whatever else it happens to be - but I'm human. And things don't always happen the way I want them to go. I've spoken before I've thought. I'm insulted people when I shouldn't have. And it's happened to me too. We're all works in progress. And maybe I should say "screw you all, I'm leaving my body the way it is"...but maybe I can also really ask myself if I'm happy that way.

I learned very quickly that thick skin can only take you so far - eventually someone will say something that cuts much deeper than you are prepared for. So what you need to ask yourself is whether you can live with that or not. And if you can, then be who you are and eff everyone else. If you can't...well...that's your decision what to do from that point.

/tangent

Now back to your regularly scheduled discussion on where else I can spread controversy.

thinking of how you will feel after a certain meal is a good way to go too. I did that with drinking beer alcohol ect... just thinking of the migraine the next day would deter me from even picking up a glass with alcohol. I would get terrible migrains after the next day which would sometimes last 3 days

Even from beer and white wine? The usual culprit is red wine.