Fan of Don Lapre
bob@brooklynresponds.com
http://www.brooklynresponds.com

Greetings:

Regarding the story “Beautiful Madness” appearing on your website from the February 2006 issue, #119, of your publication:

I find the article’s unspoken premise, that Nia’s beauty was somehow more valuable than her sanity, to be obnoxious in the extreme. What, health professionals would rather have this young lady be totally disabled by psychosis but still slim? No wonder the diet industry continues to make millions off of similar young women, encouraging them to risk health and their very lives, let alone their sanity, in order to be unrealistically model-skinny. In fact, I can make a case for the declaration of insanity of our whole culture and the medical profession within it, just based on this insane emphasis on very limited standards of physical attractiveness ahead of anything and everything else, including true health and happiness. Leave poor Nia out of these deluded ideals of beauty and let the poor girl live a nice happy, sane–and fat–life already, okay?

Regards,
Ellen T. Brenner

“…’ A man can have sex with any woman, but not a good chocolate cake.’” I am not sure I’d want to argue with that.” (Hilarious.)

This is probably not too unlike the weight gain described in the article — not as dramatic, but the poundage is in the same ballpark. If she started out “willowy” and gained 42 pounds, she probably did not wind up particularly obese, at least in terms of the BMI, unless she is very short. She probably wound up a bit plump. Particularly if weight gain slows, and I have read that this particular side effect does slow dramatically for this particular drug in most patients, I do not see this as a big deal — certainly not one in any way comparable to psychosis. Which is not to say that it is not a big deal for some people, only that that it is not required to be a big deal.

So, that was a couple of years ago. And while I have been a bit surprised at how much less pleasant some people can be to 160-lb Cam than 120-lb Cam, I personally have not felt it to be a big huge honking deal. Sure, losing the fat would be nice — I do not like to be reminded of that horrible time on Depo, for one thing — but its priority for me is well below that of gaining strength, joint stabilization, balance, proprioception, flexibility, fascial health, and stamina.

Perhaps this is because I’m old and tough; perhaps it’s because the fat gain is really just an annoyance, not a tragedy; perhaps it’s because I have a chronic illness, and therefore relate to my body differently than I would if I were fully able-bodied. Who knows? People have different reasons, at any age, for deciding what’s important. I submit that a teenage kid who’s been tortured by hallucinations is likely going to have a different idea of what’s important than someone who’s been spared that experience. (It would have been nice, in this article, to have a clearer idea of where Nia was coming from. But instead the reader is stuck with trying to read between the lines of the self-indulgent Cary Tennis-ism of the author.)

And with that, I’m off to Pilates.

For example, in a normal world, if you’re this girl’s doctor, you can actually sit down and ask, “Say, this drug seems to be working to control your schizophrenia, but I’m concerned about your incredibly rapid weight gain. What do you want to do about this?”

At which point the girl herself can weigh in on the crazy vs. fat & diabetic debate.

The doctor seems concerned that her indifference to weight gain is a sign the drug isn’t working as well as it appears to — that’s actually a legitimate concern, since, it isn’t at all normal for a modern teenager to be unconcerned about weight gain. It really isn’t. But this article makes it seem like he never even talked to her about it — he just started monkeying with her medication again.

But combining this article with Ben’s experience makes me think that psychiatrists just like to make people do stuff. You aren’t concerned that this drug makes you gain weight? That will never do! Have a different drug. You ARE concerned that this drug makes you gain weight? That doesn’t matter! You must keep taking it!

Jesus. A fair number of people would consider her more attractive that way. She’s probably still a single-digit size, anyway.

And yet… I can’t help but be reminded of my experience on remerol last April… In march I was as depressed as I have ever been, and my doctor put me on a drug that caused me to eat compulsively and gain weight like it was going out of style. The depression got better, but ultimately I decided that I would rather be a danger to myself than continue down the road I was heading down. My doctor wanted to keep me on the drug.

I guess it also sucks that psychiatrists often have different priorities than the patients…