AZ mother's goal to be fattest person ever

[turbo]

And what does she get for her reckless "tenacity"? A 10-minute spot on Dr. Phil? Dr. Phil's production crew would have to travel to her home in AZ, since there is no way that she could travel, except perhaps by flat-bed trailer. The woman is mentally ill, IMO and anybody who is providing medical care to her ought to be stripped of their licenses. Child protective services ought to be visiting frequently, at a minimum, and preparing some kind of exit-strategy for her boys for when she croaks.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I don't think she's mentally ill at all, an idiot yes but I see no evidence of her having a condition.

 

[FlexGunship]

I don't think she's mentally ill at all, an idiot yes but I see no evidence of her having a condition.

Seriously? She's clearly lost her mind. She's willingly adopted a purely self-destructive path to the detriment of herself, her children, and the tax-paying public.

If her goal was to be the most externally self-mutilated individual, would you feel differently? Instead of deforming and destroying her body from the inside as a premeditated act, what if she did it from the outside?

It's fun to have a laugh at her, and enjoy the little shock of cognitive dissonance that this brings. We can make jokes about how "fat" American is, and draw parallels to trends. But, without a doubt, the woman is mentally ill. She is consciously taking action that will prematurely end her life at the expense of her family, specifically her children.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Self-destruction is not a sign of mental illness, she also displays rational (albiet foolish) thinking by determining that she does not care for her health and wants to make the choice to do this. It's easy to call someone mentally ill from across the internet because they are doing something idiotic or dangerous but the reality is that these people are just bizzare, misguided or make the choice to do this with their lives. I'll repeat my statement that I see no evidence of mental illness, especially as no specific illnesses have been proposed here. Instead her bad choice (from our perspective because we value health and not sponging off of others) is being conflated with a medical condition.

NOTE: I'm not absolutely refuting that she isn't mentally ill or that she's got some psychological issues but until there is any evidence for that I'm not going to sit here and nod as someone's behaviour (freakish as it is) is written off as the product of a sick person.

 

[Proton Soup]

i'm telling you, there are dudes on the internet that get off on this and encourage people like her to get as big as possible. she's doing it for the same reason that women get breast implants.

 

[FlexGunship]

Self-destruction is not a sign of mental illness, she also displays rational (albiet foolish) thinking by determining that she does not care for her health and wants to make the choice to do this. It's easy to call someone mentally ill from across the internet because they are doing something idiotic or dangerous but the reality is that these people are just bizzare, misguided or make the choice to do this with their lives. I'll repeat my statement that I see no evidence of mental illness, especially as no specific illnesses have been proposed here. Instead her bad choice (from our perspective because we value health and not sponging off of others) is being conflated with a medical condition.

If she were doing precisely the opposite, would you feel the same way? Anorexia nervosa is a recognized mental illness. So is bulimia nervosa. Lesch–Nyhan syndrome has a strong correlation with self-mutilation. I believe it's also been connected to binge-eating. Granted, the connection here isn't perfect, but is it impossible to imagine something similar?

i'm telling you, there are dudes on the internet that get off on this and encourage people like her to get as big as possible. she's doing it for the same reason that women get breast implants.

Significant difference; she isn't targeting some ideal form, she's trying to become as large as possible. Women who get breast implants don't continually get them until they are as large as possible. In fact, I don't think that behavior has EVER been seen.

If it were as simple as someone encouraging her or a sub-society applying the pressures of some non-canonical anatomical image of beauty, then there would be MANY women vying to be as fat as possible just as we see MANY women getting breast implants. This is so rare that it warrants a news story (well, maybe not "warrants" but it certainly "got" a news story).

 

[flyingpig]

inb4heartattack

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

If Anorexia nervosa is a recognized mental illness. So is bulimia nervosa. Lesch–Nyhan syndrome has a strong correlation with self-mutilation. I believe it's also been connected to binge-eating. Granted, the connection here isn't perfect, but is it impossible to imagine something similar?

No, not impossible, but extremely difficult. She isn't suffering from the irresistable urge to eat, but rather has made a conscious decision to eat more than hunger would dictate.

 

[FlexGunship]

No, not impossible, but extremely difficult. She isn't suffering from the irresistable urge to eat, but rather has made a conscious decision to eat more than hunger would dictate.

Have you ever seen someone do something by accident and then play it off as though it was done on purpose to protect their ego? Maybe there was a time in her life where she was trying to control her weight but couldn't do it, and rather than accept failure (or place more strict limitations on her diet), she declared she wanted to be fat.

There's something more at work here than the desire to commit suicide by taco.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Have you ever seen someone do something by accident and then play it off as though it was done on purpose to protect their ego? Maybe there was a time in her life where she was trying to control her weight but couldn't do it, and rather than accept failure (or place more strict limitations on her diet), she declared she wanted to be fat.

There's something more at work here than the desire to commit suicide by taco.

I don't see how you can make that judgement with the evidence at hand. I see plenty of people on TV all the time doing things that I think are ridiculous. It doesn't surprise me that out of all the people on the planet there's one who wants to eat her way to being the biggest woman.

 

[Evo]

Significant difference; she isn't targeting some ideal form, she's trying to become as large as possible. Women who get breast implants don't continually get them until they are as large as possible. In fact, I don't think that behavior has EVER been seen.

It happens a lot, women keep getting bigger and bigger implants, some have died from repeated operations.

Here is one that survived.

She may feel like a boob now, but Sheyla Hershey, the Texas mom with the world's largest breasts, wasn't laughing when doctors told her that her 38KKK implants were killing her.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20016194-10391704.html

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Have you ever seen someone do something by accident and then play it off as though it was done on purpose to protect their ego?

Do you think that this is a possibility, or a probability?

 

[FlexGunship]

I don't see how you can make that judgement with the evidence at hand. I see plenty of people on TV all the time doing things that I think are ridiculous. It doesn't surprise me that out of all the people on the planet there's one who wants to eat her way to being the biggest woman.

Fair enough, I guess. It just seems so much worse. It's a guaranteed death sentence and she has kids. On the multi-dimensional array of human behaviors, whenever you get to a far extreme, where a certain variable is maximized, we usually find the mentally ill.

There is a difference between sky-diving for an adrenaline rush, and provoking wild tiger attacks for an adrenaline rush.

It happens a lot, women keep getting bigger and bigger implants, some have died from repeated operations.

Here is one that survived.

Interesting. I guess I didn't realize that.

Do you think that this is a possibility, or a probability?

Certainly not a probability. I'm making circumstantial arguments to explain a ridiculously extreme behavior. I stand by the idea that there's something more at work here than striving for a place in the record books. If she's doing it to mirror some unorthodox image of beauty, and the process is marked by her inability to assess her own health then it's an analogue of anorexia.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Fair enough, I guess. It just seems so much worse. It's a guaranteed death sentence and she has kids. On the multi-dimensional array of human behaviors, whenever you get to a far extreme, where a certain variable is maximized, we usually find the mentally ill.

There is a difference between sky-diving for an adrenaline rush, and provoking wild tiger attacks for an adrenaline rush.

I was thinking more along the lines of smoking 20 a day, drinking a bottle of vodka a night, refusing medical treatment etc. Many people are misguided and/or stupid without being mentally ill. In fact it's depressingly common.

 

[FlexGunship]

I was thinking more along the lines of smoking 20 a day, drinking a bottle of vodka a night, refusing medical treatment etc. Many people are misguided and/or stupid without being mentally ill. In fact it's depressingly common.

Well, addiction (the driving force your two examples above) generally walks hand-in-hand with mental illness.

Mental illnesses can increase the risk for alcoholism or drug abuse

(Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com/addiction/mental-illness-and-addiction.aspx)​

Addiction of all types -- to nicotine, alcohol and drugs -- is often found in people with a wide variety of mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders, unipolar and bipolar depression, schizophrenia, and borderline and other personality disorders.

(Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071203090143.htm)​

I don't think it's impossible that she suffers from a legitimate mental illness and covers it up with false pride in her condition. Charlie Sheen comes to mind.

 

[HeLiXe]

It happens a lot, women keep getting bigger and bigger implants, some have died from repeated operations.

Here is one that survived.



http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20016194-10391704.html

staph infections :yuck:

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Here is one that survived.

I was in bed all day, couldn't get up," Hershey said in July.

I'm not surprised. Her hobby is trying to walk without falling over.

 

[Kindayr]

Addiction of all types -- to nicotine, alcohol and drugs -- is often found in people with a wide variety of mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders, unipolar and bipolar depression, schizophrenia, and borderline and other personality disorders.

This only tells us that if you have a mental illness, then it is likely that it can be manifested as an addiction. However, this does not tell us that if you have addictive behaviour, that it is a manifestation of mental illness.

The same goes for your other quote. There is a big difference.

 

[206PiruBlood]

Perhaps this gives some insight into her rationale...

Susanne's bizarre mission began after she couldn't stop gaining weight naturally.
'Two years ago I hit 35 stone because I was losing my battle against weight gain,’ she said.
‘I noticed I actually started attracting more men, and it made me feel good.’

From Evo's original article.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Generally speaking the term "mental illness" starts to be relevant when a person's behavior, whatever it is, makes them dysfunctional. Most would agree keeping a tidy place is a good thing, for example, but when the need to line up your soup cans according to height starts making you late for work, then you probably have Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder and are on the verge of becoming dysfunctional.

Though it's hard to plug this woman into a pre-existing diagnosis with the info we have, there's no doubt she's dysfunctional.

 

[FlexGunship]

Though it's hard to plug this woman into a pre-existing diagnosis with the info we have, there's no doubt she's dysfunctional.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders loosely defines an eating disorder as:

[...] a group of conditions defined by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual's physical and mental health.

It doesn't say whether it has to be involuntary or not.

 

[zoobyshoe]

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders loosely defines an eating disorder as:


It doesn't say whether it has to be involuntary or not.

C'mon. Obviously if a person can shut it off it's not a disorder.

But, I'm not sure this woman has an eating disorder, per se.

There's a chance she has Munchausen Syndrome, where people fake illness for attention. This half fits, because I think this woman is all about the attention, but since her obesity is so admittedly deliberate, Munchhausen's doesn't really fit. We'd expect someone with Munchhausen's to claim it was beyond their control.

She might, alternately, have Histrionic Personality Disorder, which is all about the need to be the center of attention.

Symptoms of Histrionic Personality Disorder

A pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

Is uncomfortable in situations in which he or she is not the center of attention

Interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior

Displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions

Consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to themself

Has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail

Shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion

Is highly suggestible, i.e., easily influenced by others or circumstances

Considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are

http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sx17.htm


The one: "Consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to themself", could well explain what this woman is about, half using her fat to get everyone's attention and half catering to guys with that specific fetish. As for the rest of the list, there's not enough info to say.

The one guy I know who admitted to having been diagnosed with HPD did not display any "seductive behavior" I'm aware of, but he did go around in an eccentric clothing combo of his own design, which I'm sure was meant to attract attention. This included a clip on necktie that was made of wood. He wore that every day for years.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Generally speaking the term "mental illness" starts to be relevant when a person's behavior, whatever it is, makes them dysfunctional. Most would agree keeping a tidy place is a good thing, for example, but when the need to line up your soup cans according to height starts making you late for work, then you probably have Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder and are on the verge of becoming dysfunctional.

Though it's hard to plug this woman into a pre-existing diagnosis with the info we have, there's no doubt she's dysfunctional.

But then we get into the sticky situation of defining "dysfunctional" and it's a bit of a leap to imagine that if an adult rationally decides to do something that they know will damage their health they are dysfunctional. The majority of adults tend to do that at some point (and a hefty number of the minority do it excessively: smoking, drinking, over-eating etc)

 

[zoobyshoe]

But then we get into the sticky situation of defining "dysfunctional"...

There's certainly a continuum, and you might have a hard time deciding in some cases when someone has crossed the line, but this woman does not strike me as borderline.

...and it's a bit of a leap to imagine that if an adult rationally decides to do something that they know will damage their health they are dysfunctional. The majority of adults tend to do that at some point (and a hefty number of the minority do it excessively: smoking, drinking, over-eating etc)

I don't have a DSM with me but IIRC it's explained what they consider dysfunctional. The term comes into play in separating the merely eccentric and idiosyncratic from those whose behaviors severely disrupt their own lives and/or the lives of those around them.

It pretty much goes without saying that self destructive over-indulgence is never embarked upon "rationally". You could say, in this woman's case anyway, it was a conscious decision, but I don't think you could accurately assert it was rational.

 

[DoggerDan]

And it has made her feel sexier.

Goodness, yes! She undoubtedly has fans from every major fast-food restaurant around the world.

I hope this doesn't start to pose a health concern.

"Start?" I'm more concerned about her mental health than her physical health. This is just slow suicide, and that's not healthy.

 

[jeebs]

if she can afford to support such a ridiculous lifestyle then fair enough, let her do what she wants.

 

[Evo]

if she can afford to support such a ridiculous lifestyle then fair enough, let her do what she wants.

She can't, she's unemployed.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

She can't, she's unemployed.

Except now I'm sure she's got loads of money from selling her story. Ironically people are paying for her to do this.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Let me get this right she is unemployed and gets social security disability ($2000 per month) because of her weight. I am unemployed and normal weight so I get nothing ($0 per month) from the government.

I wonder how much she spends on food. At 21,962 calories a day that $2000 a month starts to shrink very quickly. I figure to eat around 3500 a day and likely spend $400-$500 on food a month.