Whats with all the violence?

Battling the bulge, fighting fat, kicking the sugar habit, Destroying ourselves at the gym, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

What the heck is up with all of the violence against obesity references out there? Is anger at our expanding waistlines the only tool left to try to motivate us to move our asses and quit stuffing our faces to numb the emotional turmoil we're not able to deal with on a daily basis?

I was listening to loveline last night as I dozed off to sleep (yes, I admit I listen to loveline every now and then... its amusing to say the least) when Adam Corolla went of on one of his rants about how we've decided that smoking is such a huge evil (which it is) that we have to indoctrinate and brainwash our kids into thinking that it is the worst thing in the world to do right now (his words, I don't use the term brainwash lightly) and yet we still have depressed overweight 21 year old non-smoking men killing themselves at epidemic rates because no one told them that its ok to seek help for their basic mental health issues and that if they got their brains healthy they might be able to find the motivation to get their bodies healthy too. They had been speaking to a 21 year old girl (and I say girl because her voice was locked in somewhere around 7-8 years old due to the molestation that happened to her as a girl) who was living with a 35 year old adict who wouldn't have sex with her (probably physically couldn't due to the drugs he's using) and wanted to know how to get him to have sex with her. The guys told her to get therapy for her past abuse and she'd realize that she didn't need to put up with the addicted ass-hole and move on... but she didn't get it... she believed it was somthing wrong with her that made him not want her... F'ed up shit right there.

So we can successfully promote a non-smoking message that is so pervasive that kids 4 and 5 years old are sucessfully laying guilt trips on their parents and getting them to quit smoking (YAY!) but we have to make people ANGRY to get them to do somthing about their obesity and we have no idea how to tell people that if they're depressed they should get help before they kill themselves? Its seems to me that BASIC health and nutrition and BASIC mental health are a tiny bit more important than a secondary habit (addiction) like cigarette smoking... but maybe I'm wrong. So how about the idea of a huge ad campaign that promotes getting your emotional and mental life healthy and how that will affect every other aspect of your life including your secondary addictions to food or tobacco, and your motivation to get your body as healthy as your mind now is? How about that?

I say if you've had a fucked up life, or if you think your life right now is fucked up, or you're depressed or can't figure out how to get past what's holding you back, or you feel unworthy of love, or you just need someone to talk to who doesn't have their own agenda in regards to your life: GET HELP, there is no shame in therapy... therapy changed my life... period, end of story... I am a MUCH healthier, more stable, happier person because of therapy. Once your brain/heart are healthy I bet it'll be easier to get your other priorities in line and get your body and soul healthy too.

Ok... enough preaching from this soap-box... I need to go drink more water... oh, and pedialite since I discovered the Gatorade is a complete waste of my time (thanks Suz!).

Posted by Lexy at March 9, 2004 09:58 AM