[-jimi-]

Possible trigger:

I stopped being friends with someone since I can't stand the very slow perishing of him. I cannot but wonder WHY psychotic, suicidal and severely anorexic people sometimes go in involuntarily while my "friend" can do his thing without no one reacting. I know I touched this earlier, but I really feel like I still cannot grasp it.

He is a legal drug abuser with a doctor that is a pusher, he is prescribed medication that in combination can kill and he thinks that is OK, he does not take care of himself in any shape or form, he makes his illnesses worse like you'd think on purpose, he sleeps as much as possible because no pain in sleep yanno, and his diet is so incredibly bad it is hard to understand even.

He is extremely overweight (I'm not talking chubby but almost immobilized), has diabetes and only eats junk food. He seems to deprive himself nutritious food on purpose, like it accidentally could make him healthier, everything he eats is fatty, sugary and overly processed.

Of course this lead to heart problems and other severe health issues, still no one is reacting. I can't do much, there is an ocean between us, but encouraging him in getting help I cannot do anymore since he is hellbent on destruction. So I had to give up not to be pulled into the dark with him.

But he has doctors around him that see him every week, has a family he lives with, and everyone thinks this is OK. I think we must live in a sick world when we decide just some people deserve involuntary and life saving intervention.

I guess some eating disorders are seen as more urgent (that I can understand!), but also they have a higher status (which annoys me!). Drugging yourself to death legally and eating yourself to death while at the same time starving, that you can do in front of everyone and it is seen as your choice. I cannot even start to fathom how anyone thinks that is a CHOICE. That is just an act of illness and desperation.

Sometimes I hate this world.

Well put. I don't understand it either. Sounds like he is as dangerous to himself as one who has SI or self-harms. I mean, the behavior you describe seems to be just that. I agree that he is in danger and incapable of making a choice or commitment to help himself. I have thought those were the criteria for involuntary hospitalization. I have another thought though. Many hospitals are not equipped to manage a person of size. I wonder then if this is an issue. Could it be that an entire healthcare team has taken his needs into consideration and decided home might be a better place for him?

Aggrivating on all counts.

[Ceara1010]

You raise a very good point. They will involuntarily hospitalize anorexics/bulimics who are at the point where they are close to starving to death. But they don't do anything for the morbidly obese. They don't even hospitalize overweight people whose weight has nothing to do with over-eating, but because of something biological that's causing the weight gain. (And I can attest that it's possible to have severe, even rapid weight gain, and not be over-eating as it's been happening to me. )

It may be because of the stigma attached to being very overweight. Being thin is viewed as a sign of self-control, beauty, mental stability, desirability, self-respect, etc. Obesity, no matter what the cause, is viewed as a sign of gluttony, greed, laziness, lack of self-respect, etc.

I think maybe because of this, anorexics/bulimics are looked-upon favorably and with sympathy, while extremely overweight people are looked upon with disgust. Anorexia is viewed as a disease, while obese people are viewed as just having bad habits that they are too weak to change.

--Ceara1010

[-jimi-]

*Nods....*