SimplyDeVonte

Well, I wasn't always overweight I was a skinny kid,I was a former baseball and football player I excelled in both but I just didn't like them at the time because my father forced me to play them because he was a football and baseball player. My childhood was a little rough. My mother, brother and I lived in the Projects for a while, it wasn't too bad due to my brother being very liked and respected in the projects so nobody messed with me. My father was abusive so I spent a lot of time at my grandmother's house in Piscataway where she would feed me a lot of fatty foods and brought me a dreamcast so I wasn't going out as much. That's when I started to put on the pounds..


When my grandmother died who I was very close with; practically best friends. I went into depression to the point of wanting to kill myself and I gained a lot of weight to where I was now Obese. During that time period which is middle and high school I was undiagnosed with depression I kept all of my feelings to myself and I really didn't have anyone to talk too, since my grandmother was the only one that really listened to me. So I'm dealing with depression while dealing with puberty and the stress of high school, not your typical high school stress like finding a prom date or finals(not downplaying them), I mean this school you had to walk through a metal detector everyday, numerous brawls, weapons and drugs everywhere and not mention all of the friends that died during my high school career.

My depression worsen in high school, suicidal thoughts are returning and not having anything or anyone to live for at the time. Eventually me and my mother's relationship got better and I was finally diagnosed with depression and received the proper medication to combat it. While I'm taking my medication I gained a lot of weight due to it's side effects, so I got to about 300 pounds and being home schooled didn't help, I wasn't doing good academically It was hard for me to stay in school and I was going to drop out, so instead I was home schooled because of my depression.


Now I'm so out of shape I can't even play basketball which is my love besides my family, so i slip back into depression while I'm taking the depression medicine I become suicidal again,So I had to stop taking the meds,and my depression was alleviated but I gained more weight to the point where I'm at now at 385 and with serve back pain, (my highest being 397,I just recently lost 10 pounds). I wrestled with the thought of bariatric surgery I like many others thought it was "cheating" or "taking the easy way out", I know now that this isn't the easy way out, it's a helping hand, the surgery isn't going to work if you don't. knowing those facts now I feel much better about getting my surgery and I'm looking forward to getting rid of this king kong size gorilla off my back and stomach lol.



Now it's time for me to go back to school and I'm determined for school to be a different experience for me. Not having to battle anxiety and depression is going to make that happen, and I need to lose weight for that. I also more than anything want to lose weight to get into basketball shape, I've missed out on so much playing high school and aau ball, I'm watching my friends get Division 1 scholarships knowing I have just as much talent as they do, coaches wanted to me play for them but I can't due to my weight. This is just some of the story I really came a long way and the only thing that's holding me back from true happiness is this weight.