The comments in this thread remind me of debates I’ve seen regarding depression. Most people have never experienced clinical depression, assume it is comparable to their own sad and blue moments, and impute a variety of moral failings to depressed people who won’t just “snap out of it.” The reality is that serious depression, aka Major Depressive Disorder, plunges the victim into a hell of emotional agony that resembles normal sadness about as much as multiple compound fractures resemble a scratch from a rose thorn.
Most can indeed “snap out of” normal life disappointments. People with mild to moderate depression can, in a significant number of cases, recover with the help of serious psychotherapeutic techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. People with very serious depression generally require powerful antidepressant medication to function, and even then, not all recover.
So to those who believe that self-control, exercise, and healthy eating can solve all cases of overweight, lighten up. Just as for depression, there is a range of weight issues from mild to severe, for which a range of strategies ranging from healthy living to medication, or surgery, is appropriate. If you are fortunate enough to be able to maintain a good weight without the more serious interventions, count your blessings–and don’t equate your experience of food cravings to that experienced by an 800 pound woman who can eat a gallon of ice cream and still be starving.
