Synobun
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2006
- Messages
- 24,884
Breaking a severe food addiction is probably one of the most difficult things to do because it comes with the side effect of being a human requirement. Switching your diet, while effective in theory, isn't effective in practice primarily because there's a certain satisfaction to be had with a poor, gluttonous diet that cannot be replicated with a healthy lifestyle.
Recovering from addiction often results in an individual never touching the substance again, but what can you do when the source of addiction is something you have to partake in? Every day will be a shadow of the pleasure you know you can receive. You'll always look to the burgers, the chicken, the pizza, and the other culinary masterpieces of the greasy diet when you're eating because, simply put, it tastes better, makes you feel good (in the short term), and has more of an allure than a garden salad and a low-sodium casserole. Dietary habits over the long-term can also give you psychological predispositions that are either very difficult to break or outright impossible to change after enough time.
Every day becomes a question of how much trust you have in your restraint, a concept that becomes infinitely more difficult if you have no real support structure. There isn't a doctor that will help you and most friends, if you even have any, won't know what to do. Most people probably subtly encourage the habit without knowing it. True support and assistance in turning around from a serious food addiction is extremely rare. There is no cold turkey, there is no abstinence, and there is no official system in place to help those who suffer.
I'd say this situation does well in highlighting this issue. A normal hospital setting cannot give him the help he needs (and discharging after repeated breaches of a medical plan is both understandable and necessary), but can a mental health facility give it to him? I doubt it. What choice does that leave someone who suffers but doesn't possess the right set of circumstances to pull themselves out of the river?
I think that's an important question to answer. It's a shame that most people opt to vilify a single party in this situation or to outright discredit his worth as a human being as a result of what can only be described as an exceptionally sad life. Where one might see a sub-human fatty who deserves to have his rights mercilessly ripped out from under him, you could also realistically see someone who has slowly suffered more and more with each passing year until their very perspective on the world has warped to the point that they are incapable of seeing the dangers of their lifestyle and are incapable of challenging it (and winning).
People jump at the opportunity of reducing another person's worth which is a dangerous precedent to set. Conditional empathy and rights are not indicators of a moral or otherwise positive society.
