Enablers...The Worst of the Worst

Last night I happened upon TLC (The Learning Channel) and caught a few episodes of some rather disturbing TV. The first was called Half Ton Mom, followed, of course, by Half Ton Dad and then, why not, Half Ton Teen. (The three were not related, thank goodness). I sat for a few hours just aghast. But, disturbed as I was by these three people that weighed around 1,000 pounds each, what bothered me the most might surprise you.
 

Of course the physical condition the subjects were in at the time of the shows’ recordings was, to put it mildly, unsettling. Watching people being cut out of their homes, maneuvered around by seven or eight emergency officials rolling them onto tarps like Beluga whales and then wheeled into ambulances with chains and pulleys, humiliated me for them. I felt like I was invading their privacy in the worst way.
 

After I had run through a few different emotions, the one that boiled up harder and hotter, was complete and utter disgust. Not at the grotesque shape of these people’s bodies, but at those standing beside these “super morbidly obese” people. The so-called friends and family members who just stood and watched, just like they’d stood by and watched these people turn into creatures that almost did not appear to be human.

Oh sure, some called themselves caregivers, as if the person being wheeled out had cancer and was going through chemotherapy. But in my opinion, these were enablers of the worst kind. I would put these people in the same category as those who give alcohol and drugs to addicts. They are no better. These people stood by delivering cheeseburgers, meatball subs, pizza, you name it, to these people who in two of the cases had not even walked in more than three years.
 

Of course, these obese people started down the path on their own and must shoulder most of the blame, but these enablers just led them further and further to the point of no return. Death was their only certain future. Love? I think not. Care? Not even close. These people were fulfilling some void in their own empty lives and practically killing others to save themselves from feeling their own pain. At one point, my husband said,” they are just nice prison wardens if you ask me.” Don’t get these people help and they’ll need you forever, right? What better way to mask your own issues than by adding to the problems of someone who is visibly unstable.
There is most definitely a health crisis in our country in regards to obesity. But even more frightening is the mental health crisis hiding behind the obese.