  Oh man.  I really did have too many drinks last night.  Ooof,  bit of a hangover. but I had a blast so I'll take it.  Now it's time for a serious post.
 Below is a post on my favourite urlLink lapband board and my response.  MO =  morbidly obese.  Bright said:  " My sister is anorexic/
bullemic and weighs less than 100lbs -  she looks scary,  and we worry so much about her -  when I went to France to " interview"  my surgeon who eventually performed the wls,
 he was asking about my family history -  I told him about my sister,  and he said " you are both exactly the same -  it is the same illness,  establishing itself in different ways.
 I was watching some old video the other day of me about 2 years ago,  at my top weight of 330lbs,  and I was shocked at how awful I looked,  not just vanity wise,  but all puffed up with a sheen of sweat on my face.  straining to walk around Disney World.
 I was really angry watching that from the perspective of 80lbs lighter -  where the hell were my family/ friends at that time?  Nobody ever took me aside and said " hey,  you are going to die young here -
 can I help you fight this?  Everyone rallied around my sister and begged her to get help,  literally moved mountains to help her -  I never thought anything of this other than,  she has a serious problem and I'm just stupid and fat.  It is way more politically correct to be anorexic/
bullemic than MO,  if you know what I mean.  I talk a lot about being MO these days -  talking to family/ friends about the reasons I got so overweight,  and they all kind of turn away,
 and find the subject a litte distasteful,  as if I was sharing too much intimate information.  Fat is definitely the last taboo.  ________________________________________________________________ I said:  " Wow,
 Bright.  You know,  I've realised for a long time that being morbidly obese and being anorexic are two sides of the same coin.  I'd started to understand that I have a disease that I can't just fix by having more willpower or exercising more or eating a strict diet.  but I never gave any thought to the " help/
intervention"  issue until your post.  You are so right.  I mean,  how many after school specials and health classes have been dedicated to anorexia and bulimia?  It's been drilled into our heads constantly.
 It's always on tv,  it's always in the news,  it's constantly talked about and rallied against.  Where's the coverage of MO?  How about an afterschool special about a girl who's so obese her joints ache and she can barely breathe and she's slowly killing herself because of her co- morbidities?
 I want to see that show.  I want kids to learn about that in health class.  If my best friend was anorexic,  you can bet your ass there'd be one hell of an intervention.  But if she was morbidly obese it just wouldn't be the done thing to bring it up.  I can remember when I was younger (
overweight but not terribly so)  when I would see an extremely heavy person on a talk show or in the street,  saying to my best friend,  " just shoot me if I ever get that big!  Well,
 I may not need a crane to lift me out of the house,  but pre- surgery I was big enough that my weight was keeping me from living my life the way I wanted to.  Where was the person who was supposed to keep me from that?  Would I have even listened?  It's so taboo to bring up obesity;
 I know I wouldn't have listened had a loved one tried to tell me I was literally killing myself.  But really,  is it any different than the way an anorexic person would react to such concerns?  I doubt that an anorexic would be particularly open to " help"  from a loved one.
 But does that mean that you just let her waste away?  HELL NO.  You risk pissing her off if it means she might get healthy.  You get her help,  come hell or high water.  And even if she hates you for the rest of her life,
 if she gets healthy as a result,  it's worth it.  I don't really know where I'm going with this.  I just want awareness for morbid obesity.  I want widespread knowlege to replace stupidity and ignorance.  I want to know what I can do to start things moving in that direction.
 I have so much to say on this issue I can't even sort it in my head.  That frigging mantra,  " weightloss really just amounts to burning more calories than you take in.  is such a FUCKING JOKE.  It's a god damned DISEASE,
 whether the general public wants to admit it or not.  Hi,  my name is Shana,  and I suffer from binge eating disorder.  There,  are you happy now?
 Does calling it by its name make it seem more legit?  No matter how much I tried to exercise more and eat less,  it didn't work.  The extra weight is just the symptom of something larger.  I think having an actual,  physical restraint on my stomach is possibly the only thing I could have done to drag myself out of that mindset.
 And I am so glad I did it.  I never knew before how much I relied on food.  I had some really nasty depression after the surgery when suddenly my best friend ( food)  turned its back on me.  Oh,
 swiss cake roll,  you'll never leave me. what?  I can't eat you anymore because you make me feel kinda sick?  Screw you swiss cake roll!  I never really liked you that much in the first place!
 I'm going to go chill with salad and then we'll see who's leaving who!  I definitely still have food issues.  It's a daily battle.  But I'm slowly starting to put food in its place,  and it's the biggest accomplishment of my life.
