Fat Shaming

mathepac said:

I am amazed at the way otherwise, smart, educated people buy into the tabloid stories like "I'm an addict because - my parents didn't love me, we lived beside a pub, I didn't finish school, I never had the correct brand of runners as a kid, etc."

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Likewise our judicial system.

mathepac said:

Completely untrue and without a scintilla of scientific fact to back it up.

Unless an individual has a psychological or physiological predisposition, nothing can "make" them an addict. Studies after the Vietnam war established that US soldiers who abused heroin during their tours of service, gave up the drug easily upon returning home. They suffered some mild physiological (dirrhoea, sweating, a sleepless night or two maybe) withdrawal effects but not the horrors seen on film and TV.

I am amazed at the way otherwise, smart, educated people buy into the tabloid stories like "I'm an addict because - my parents didn't love me, we lived beside a pub, I didn't finish school, I never had the correct brand of runners as a kid, etc."

Addiction (chemical dependency) is not a secondary illness brought on by some other condition or illness, it stands as a primary illness. Unlike cancer for example which can result from environmental factors as well as "spontaneously" within the body, addiction is not a consequence of something else and is not caused by the substance(s) consumed and certainly not by peer or family pressures.

I see the nonsense of "hard drugs" has entered the conversation too. The other bad news is that there is no such thing as a hard or indeed a soft drug. Every addict has his or her drug(s) (or behaviours) of choice and that drug or combination of drugs is what floats his/her boat, bringing about their preferred altered state or preventing withdrawals.

There is, based on recent research, a "defective" gene that causes some obese people to eat to excess. This gene is supposed to trigger the "I'm full" message to stop eating, but for some people it doesn't fire. Despite repeated announcements of magic drugs and other treatments to cure addiction and genetic engineering initiatives to switch off chemical dependency, nothing so far has worked.

Like the poor, as long as we have humans, addiction and other primary and indeed secondary illness will most likely be always with us.

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According to the Harvard Medical School it’s about 50/50 between genes and environment. Of course even with a genetic predisposition you still need environmental exposure to get addicted to anything. If you have the A118G variant of the OPRM1 gene which increases the pleasure reaction to both alcohol and heroine you are more likely to end up an addict but we are rational beings so we can, with hard work and support, overcome addiction. It is much harder to do so if we are in an environment in which drugs are ubiquitous and socially acceptable.
Drug Addiction, like obesity and Alcoholism, can be overcome with the right mindset and support. When it comes to drug addiction if you happen to have enough money to buy that support and live in a rich area then it will be easier. Let’s not pretend that every fat person is a victim of their genetics though, usually they are a victim of their own lifestyle choices.

I've never suggested that every fat person is a victim of their genetics but research has identified those who are.

The single biggest difficulty for those who have the A118G variant of the OPRM1 gene, is the likelihood that they will need extended analgesic opioid treatment postoperatively than otherwise. No research body that I can identify has made the 50/50 claim between predisposition and the environment. No one makes the claim that chemical dependency can be overcome; addicts learn to live with their condition a day at a time with appropriate treatment, much like diabetics do.

Access to money and middle-class surroundings may in fact make recovery for the chemically dependent very difficult. There are cognitive and behavioural signs and symptoms associated with chemical dependency that can identify those people most at risk in advance of them ever engaging in mind or mood altering chemicals or behaviours.

Us skinny people suffer due to fatties also… It may not be as bad as second hand smoke but we suffer too…

About 10 years ago I flew from London to San Francisco. Sitting at the departure gate waiting on the flight to be announced I noticed the ground trembling and wondered what was happening. Around the corner came the fattest woman I ever saw. She was at least 30 stone. I gave a snigger (I know, I know) and the wife gave me a kick. Queuing up to board I could smell her even though she was about 10 people behind me. A strange smell of coffee, McDonalds, stale tobacco and sweat.
The seats on the plane were laid out with 4 in the middle and three seats in the row on the left and the right.
While I am not a nervous flyer I once read that if a plane crashed those at the back have the greatest chance of survival (not that this probably matters on a trans-Atlantic flight) but I booked the middle two seats at the very back of the plane in the middle row of 4 seats.

I sat down, belt on and getting myself comfortable for the how ever many hour flight, when the plane started shuddering. 10 Tonne Tessie was walking down the aisle and I knew, I just bloody knew she was going to sit next to me. And so she did.
I put down the arm rest fast but it was to no avail as her side blubber enveloped the arm rest and she over flowed onto me. I would have gotten up to complain but I couldn’t. She was pushing me against the armrest on the wife’s side.

The safety instructions started but she interrupted the stewardess for a buckle extension.. The buckle extension did not fit around her middle so she had to get a larger one…
After we were airborne and the trolley service started the fun really began… This was BA and not Ryanair so full meals were being rolled out to hungry flyers. She had starter/main/dessert… and then she had another starter/main/dessert… and then she had another starter/main/dessert until the stewardess got fed up of her… Now, she was so big the fold down table on the seat in front of her couldn’t fold down… At least not at a 90 degree angle to the seat in front… Maybe 60 degrees, but between her girth and her elbows she somehow managed to balance the food.

Then the coffee came around and she wasn’t so good at balancing that, so much so that she left if fall onto my left leg, soaking my pants from the knee down. She called the stewardess, I assumed for a cloth to clean up the mess but if was for a refill… She did put the tray back up on the seat in front and put her cup under it to catch the drops flowing between the tray and the seat… and then she drank it before the stewardess arrived with more coffee.
I asked to get past her to go and try and clean myself up but it was like I was asking her for a spare kidney, saying she only planned on getting up once or twice on the flight so I needed to time my toilet breaks around that. I obviously pointed out that it was to clean her mess off my pants but she accused me of nudging her elbow. That was probably true as she was taking over about 60% of my seat, despite the armrest being down.
Spoke to the stewardess but the flight was fully booked so couldn’t move seat and besides the wife was next to me and she wouldn’t have thanked me if I left her alone with Mama Cass. Getting back into my seat was an ordeal in itself as elephant woman hummed and hawed about having to get up to let me in. When she finally managed to stand up the plane shook a little and the captain apologised as he said the plane appeared to enter some unforeseen turbulence.

Arriving in San Francisco 12 hours later I was covered from my ear to my ankle on my left hand side in her sweat when I stood up.
Needless to say it was karma for my snigger at the departure gate but it was a long long 12 hours !

should overweight people have to buy a second seat on a flight or is that fat shaming?

The_Banker said:

should overweight people have to buy a second seat on a flight or is that fat shaming?

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Being fat is subjective so why not weigh everyone like baggage and apply a surcharge if they're over a certain weight

ATC110 said:

Being fat is subjective so why not weigh everyone like baggage and apply a surcharge if they're over a certain weight

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Weigh everyone and their baggage. I'm over 200lbs, why should someone who is 120lbs get charged extra for a 30lb bag when I'm still way heavier than them with no bag?

At the very least if you cannot fit in the seat you should have to book two seats.

Thanks. This thread has descended into crudity.