I would have to agree that people use diagnosis(plural?) as something which is no longer in their control. Especially mental disorders. It is a big business afterall (everyone is crazy, no one is looking for solutions, just a name for how they're crazy. ) The problem is, once some people get stamped, they decide that their fate is inescapable and either form drug dependancies or just generally decline. There's no easy answer for this problem either, because many of the problems are actually phisical problems (and not just figmants of the imagination). In most cases, including most normal fat problems, there is a compensation to create a balance which should create a better state of being. Although, once you're at a half ton, any solution would be drastic and there is very little you might be capable of doing by yourself. In mental cases, things like schizophrenia and psychosis are probably pretty difficult to treat without meds. Bi-Polar, Manic Depression, ADHD (or what ever they call it these days) can usually be compensated without meds, if a person was inclined to have the motivation to do so. However, its really practical to say, "I'd work on my depression, but...Im too depressed and don't feel like it." That's not quite laziness, but well...depressing. Excuses and pills do not inherently fix problems, but they will usually give a push in either direction.

skullaria wrote:
] There's something wrong with someone that weighs that much.
] Its not just behavior, and its not just genetics, not just
] environment, and surely its not just psychology, but a fine
] dance of causative factors.
]
] No one would want to be like that, live like that. I would
] like to know if this man ever asked for medical help with his
] weight.
]
] There are medical ways to deal with weight - medical,
] surgical, pharmaceutical and behavioral.
]
] Morbid obesity IS a disease.
]
] What is it that one person can 'shove twinkies in their face'
] all day long and not gain much weight, and someone else can
] eat one a few times a week and gain a pound?
]
] I'm all for an insistence on personal responsibility, but not
] when there is meanness and lack of compassion behind it.
]
]
]
]
] ] "Until recently, I wasn't able to see any light at the
] ] end of the tunnel," he said Monday from his hospital bed.
] ]
] ] Deuel, who has battled weight problems all his life and
] ] blames his condition in part on genetics
]
] Really? Genetics huh? Because I blame you.
]
] I hate these people who blame their behavior on Genetics."oh
] Genetics is against me! Its not my fault!" Fuck you, It is
] your fault. What about the people who lose their legs in car
] accidents? Every other day I'm hearing about these peoples'
] strength and courage to learn to live a new life in a wheel
] chair or push themselves through hours of physical therapy so
] they can use artifically legs. They have lost half their damn
] body, and overcome it. Yet you sit around shoving twinkies
] down your throat bitching that its all genetic. Its not
] genetic, its laziness.
]
] Its the same thing at a theatre I'm involved with. Everyone
] there are emotional wrecks. They get drunk and bitch about how
] much their lives suck. But it's not the fact that they are
] lazy, don't work hard, fuck around, drink heavily and skip
] class. No its because they have bi-polar disorder. They are
] manic depressive. Statistically, its inpossible for all those
] people to have all the disorders they claim. Most (if not all)
] are lying to get attention and to excuse their complete
] failures in love and life.
]
] Fuck these people that blame genetics or some mental disorder
] for how sorry their lives are. Fuck them because they cheapen
] the struggle of people who really have to combat these
] problems on a daily basis.

RE: Half-ton man: It was genetics