"I've always been big-boned, although I did eat loads of cakes, crisps and biscuits."

It's quite an interesting article. It seems to spin on her being "too fat to work" but it has an underlining story that she wants to get back to work, which you have to admire. The only real issue here is - should the tax payer pay for her to be operated on to become healthy and able enough to work? With her weight she probably will have to be operated on to lose a lot of excess weight if she did lose some of it by moderating what she consumes and exercising - if it is possible to do that at all! It's hard to suggest what she can do, because it argues whether it is fair for the tax payer to pay for someone who put themselves in that situation, either directly (not properly looking after herself and seeking help) or indirectly (friends, family and medical professionals not intervening or noticing sooner). It's quite a dilemma, becuase you can't really say she should pay, unless she is willing to pay monthly or over time for the help she received - you cannot really force it upon her.

You don't have to feel sorry for her because I am very used to the mentally ill being ignored by the general population. It is clear that this woman has something wrong psychologically. Like someone already said, overeating, 'comfort' eating or binge eating are just as real an eating disorder as something like bulimia nervosa is. I know what an addiction to food feels like - it is insatiable. The difference between this woman and I is that I would purge it and this woman does not. The taxpayers shouldn't be funding her gastric bypass surgery - I don't see that helping, anyways. It might make her drop weight temporarily but she will put it back on because the problem - the psychological problem - is not fixed by some stomach procedure. She needs to see a psychiatrist and I shame any doctor who she saw that didn't recognise what was going on early enough to send her off to one.

Don't get me wrong - this article probably made most of us laugh with lines about her falling through her council flat floor, but there is a real problem here. She needs psychiatric therapy, perhaps medication and plenty of positive attention. Not everyone is born with the strong mind that most people tout themselves as having. There are two choices here - a responsible doctor and psychiatric team can help this woman become healthy or we can laugh at her for being a sow and watch her die down the road from complications of her disorder, whether it be directly from obesity or indirectly through something like suicide. She is in my thoughts.

"I got pregnant the first time I had sex. I was happy, because I'd always wanted to be a mum." is another thing of what's so wrong with society today. Not thinking about it and just doing that. This woman is just too mentally lazy and is trying to take the easy way out.

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Originally Posted by jasey

You don't have to feel sorry for her because I am very used to the mentally ill being ignored by the general population. It is clear that this woman has something wrong psychologically. Like someone already said, overeating, 'comfort' eating or binge eating are just as real an eating disorder as something like bulimia nervosa is. I know what an addiction to food feels like - it is insatiable. The difference between this woman and I is that I would purge it and this woman does not. The taxpayers shouldn't be funding her gastric bypass surgery - I don't see that helping, anyways. It might make her drop weight temporarily but she will put it back on because the problem - the psychological problem - is not fixed by some stomach procedure. She needs to see a psychiatrist and I shame any doctor who she saw that didn't recognise what was going on early enough to send her off to one.

Don't get me wrong - this article probably made most of us laugh with lines about her falling through her council flat floor, but there is a real problem here. She needs psychiatric therapy, perhaps medication and plenty of positive attention. Not everyone is born with the strong mind that most people tout themselves as having. There are two choices here - a responsible doctor and psychiatric team can help this woman become healthy or we can laugh at her for being a sow and watch her die down the road from complications of her disorder, whether it be directly from obesity or indirectly through something like suicide. She is in my thoughts.

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To be frank, I would have agreed with this if she didn't quit working to be on benefits instead.

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Originally Posted by dbgtz

To be frank, I would have agreed with this if she didn't quit working to be on benefits instead.

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Oh, yeah. I totally agree with you there - I am not British and certainly don't understand how the social welfare system works there but I think that quitting just because it is 'easier' to collect taxpayer money is very wrong. That is water under the bridge, now, though. Her story is out there and I beg that someone makes it clear to her that something is wrong in her brain if she doesn't already realise this and subsequently helps her mentally or leads her to help. I assume her husband is just as messed up if he let her be like this. You don't let people you care about ignore all the wake-up calls she had and continue to slowly kill themselves.

I don't want to make judgements on the severity of her case (no matter how severe this article makes it out to be) because I have never met her nor am I a psychiatrist. That being said, I don't think she should be on benefits. She should probably be in an inpatient mental health centre!

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Originally Posted by jasey

Oh, yeah. I totally agree with you there - I am not British and certainly don't understand how the social welfare system works there but I think that quitting just because it is 'easier' to collect taxpayer money is very wrong. That is water under the bridge, now, though. Her story is out there and I beg that someone makes it clear to her that something is wrong in her brain if she doesn't already realise this and subsequently helps her mentally or leads her to help. I assume her husband is just as messed up if he let her be like this. You don't let people you care about ignore all the wake-up calls she had and continue to slowly kill themselves.

I don't want to make judgements on the severity of her case (no matter how severe this article makes it out to be) because I have never met her nor am I a psychiatrist. That being said, I don't think she should be on benefits. She should probably be in an inpatient mental health centre!

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I don't think you got what I was referring to. The fact that she quit work shows how lazy she is. The fact that she still drank during pregnancy shows a lack of care, I don't even think the most mental of mothers would do this personally. The fact that she knew pregnancy gave her cravings and had 6 six children, then blaming it all on pregnancy could show lack of care, laziness (child benefits = no work) and her avoiding the fact it is all her fault. She knows full well it is but wants to make up excuses, theres no mental illness about it. Then her going and feeding her children the same crap is also stupid, if she knows how horrible being that obese is why would she put the problem onto her children aswell? And then there's the fact she wants taxpayers to fund an operation which would supposedly make her reduce weight (which I imagine it would, just not sure how much) of which this whole time she has been scrounging off the taxpayer and is now getting worried that she may not be better off due to the benefit cap, therefore she needs to get a job to get more money, therefore she would need to lose weight to get that job.

Actually I'm just re-reading this whole thing properly and I take back what I said, this all sounds like a very lazy woman.

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I know it's my fault I'm fat, but my pregnancy cravings meant I couldn't stop eating.

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What a complete contradiction. The only way she would lose weight is if she finally realised she's the one eating the massively excessive crap, not pregnancy, not addiction, not any other reason, just her will.

R U TALKIN BOUT ADELE ??????

Edited by Chris (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not make pointless posts!

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Originally Posted by dbgtz

She knows full well it is but wants to make up excuses, theres no mental illness about it.

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I don't mean to sound haughty at all, but you don't understand the way this type of mental illness works on the brain if that is what you believe. I agree with you - she does make a lot of excuses. So did I - no one wants to admit they have an eating disorder or mental disturbance. There is a huge stigma about it. I thought it was hard to say "Hi, I'm Jason and I have bulimia nervosa," to people but to think of being over thirty stone and saying "Hi, I'm Jason and I binge eat and overeat," is even more scary. Saying you are underweight with a disorder that causes this and having the ravaged, skeletal frame to match usually evokes sympathy or a wish for 'getting better' from the general population. Because so many people are overweight, you wouldn't get the same response from a sample of citizens. You will get people calling you lazy, fat and careless about taxpayers.

I do not support her getting a stomach surgery at the cost of the taxpaying citizens. This will not help her - it is akin to taking a car that has been in a nasty wreck and giving it a new coat of paint and new body so people will think it is fine. There is still damage to the motor and other parts inside and that will lead to the car getting in the same trouble it was in before. She will lose weight at first but, because there is a deeply-rooted mental issue in this woman's brain, it is certain she will not maintain health even if it becomes harder for her to eat a lot.

What you see as 'lazy' is really 'broken' - a very damaged woman. The only way she can become healthy is if she checks in to some psychiatric care (which I hope this news story will ensure). She probably needs medication for the time being to control her impulses just like someone with Borderline Personality Disorder may take medication to control their self-destructive impulses (reckless sexual behaviour, self injury and so on). It comes from the same part of the brain. I am not a psychiatrist, again, but I have been through all of this and I implore you to really think critically about this case. She has made a damned lot of mistakes and is not acting like a sane human at all. Do you really think that can be tossed up to laziness or do you believe that this woman probably has a mental illness that affects, as you call it, her 'will'.

This is a cry for help.

If you want an expensive National Health Service where you have collective responsibility for other people, in other words enslavement to everybody else, then you cannot complain about the likes of this woman along with the millions of others like her who do not take care of themselves and expect others to pick up the tab when something goes wrong. The same applies to the vast majority of those who are sexually promiscuous, and, who as a result of their foolish behaviour require very expensive drugs for the rest of their lives which the rest of us have to pay for despite being responsible ourselves.

The principle is whether you think people have a right to the money of others (healthcare), if you do then you ask for cases such as this to arise because of the absence of personal responsiblity in our society.

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Originally Posted by dbgtz

What a complete contradiction. The only way she would lose weight is if she finally realised she's the one eating the massively excessive crap, not pregnancy, not addiction, not any other reason, just her will.

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Technically it isn't because it was her pregnancy and not anyone elses :P She still recognises it was down to her excessive amount of eating possibly brought on by her pregnancy. She still recognises she needed more self-control before, during and after. The gastric band is completely pointless if she cannot handle self-control, which is something we may possibly agree on.