I watched a very depressing documentary (I love documentaries) last night. Not only was it depressing for me, it’d also bring down anyone that has compassion for the last category of people that are ‘allowed’ to be picked on. The MORBIDLY obese.

I Eat 33,000 Calories A Day  was the name of the documentary, although the four people profiled typically imbibed 14,000 to 15,000. 14,000+ calories a DAY! I think–at most–I’ve had 3000 in one day. These people spend hundreds of dollars on food in a week.

They eat because it makes them feel good to eat. They eat for comfort. They eat to relax enough to fall asleep. It’s quite sad, actually, to see people use food as a substitute for love and human companionship, or as a way to cope with reality. They really can’t stop themselves from compulsively over-eating. I felt frustrated. I wanted to tell them that they are abusing their health in favor of a few Twinkies.

What angers me is the people who look after them….they are enabling these people to kill themselves with food. Believe me, that’s a long, painful way out of this world.  As a caretaker said, “He’d just order fatty food anyway, so we just fix up what he wants to eat.” (The question was: Why do you just let him eat?)

Wrong answer, buddy. The right answer would be to take away the phone, make the guy get UP to eat and arrange to have psychatric help available for his food addiction–and not cater to his mental illness. Would any one allow a druggie access to drugs? No! Of course not. Everyone needs to start treating food addiction like drug addiction–with therapy and understanding and a good wake up call when necessary.

Sometimes, you have to be strong for a person until they can be strong for themselves. And I stress that it is necessary to retain love and respect for the individual being cared for. Try to understand their suffering and give them hope so that they can beat their addiction.

I hope I don’t sound unsympathic, but people like these need real help and being an enabler isn’t helping—it’s hurting the food addicts.