Quote Originally Posted by Purple Banana
If you're raised a certain way, particularly with parents who feed you so much at such a young age (it's not possible to have started feeding her even at age 5 to gain THAT much weight) your body and brain, especially at a critical state for brain development, recognize these massive amounts of food as a norm. Many recent studies have shown that in a neurochemical sense, obesity is held akin to heroin addiction, that's how powerful these kind of things are.

It's not the food she's addicted to (that is, assuming genetic, metabolic, hormonal, or gastrointestinal disorders have all been ruled out) but the release of chemicals in her brain triggered by the taste and chemical components of the food she's eating. The more she eats, the more food it takes for that same satisfying chemical release- as you can see, VERY akin to drug addiction.

Although I am in NO WAY saying that drug or food addiction is in no way the addict's fault, that's absurd. Simply stated, see her situation and addiction fueled by her parents, and replace food with drugs. It's essentially the exact same type of addiction.

I don't see fat people as fat people, I see them as food addicts- the fat being a secondary characteristic of all of the food they've ingested. Much like the classic secondary symptoms of meth heads, it's all a result of the addiction process. They need to be treated like addicts, not just "fatties."
Thank you PB. What a compassionate and well reasoned post.