More on Crazy Penny

[Susanfnp13 61]

I wonder if Penny wants to be the star of the show, after all we all know who she is if you have ever watched the show. I want to climb through the TV to strangle her!

[LumpySpacePrincess 594]

When the episode originally aired, I was just a few months out of WLS. I was yelling at the tv. I was so f-ing angry at her. I know so many people who were turned down for WLS after multiple appeals and who really truly needed the surgery and would have been excellent candidates, and I feel like she pissed her opportunity away.

The episode stuck with me for awhile, though, and slowly I started to realize that could have been me. She has an eating disorder, no questions about it, but so do I. What's the difference, though? Well, I feel I am fortunate enough to be a psychology student (now in graduate school for counseling psych), so I had access to so much more information than a lot of people did on assessments, abnormal psychology, etc that through my training I was able to recognize my own eating disorder and seek help. For years (my therapist and I place the start of my disorder around the age of 3) I honestly didn't know that I was any different than anyone else. I thought everyone ate the way I did, I was just unfortunate enough to get fat.

She is wife and mother to her disorder, not her family members. She is so deep into it that I honestly think only inpatient care would help at this point. I don't think she wants to be the way she is, and I think she probably senses something is wrong, but for some of us having a food attachment that strong can be the same as someone trying to get off heroin or narcotics. Your disorder will convince you of all kinds of things, mainly that you don't need help. Its incredibly difficult to live with.

I fully empathize with her, not for her choices but her lack of ability to make good choices due to her disorder. It must be hell living inside her head.

[ladycook9713 442]

They recently did a "Where are they now" episode and caught up with a few of the patients to see how they had been doing. Penny was one of them. She moved back home, still on oxygen, still bed ridden, and hasn't lost any weight. It's so sad.

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

I think of her often when I find it hard to get out of bed (for some of us after a certain age no matter how much we weigh it can hurt when we first get out of bed) while I am pushing through the aches and pains. I always feel better once I am moving.

Something tells me she never manages to push past those initial twinges and just gives up.

For me its a great illustration about how many of our physical limitations can be more psychological than physical.

[missheidi47 127]

I still have a week until surgery, but I watch the show for inspiration and to remind me that it's really easy to slip back into old patterns. I don't want to be that person. I have been in denial in the past, but no more. I'm doing my pre-op diet right now, and it's not easy, but I have not cheated. I'm taking that as a sign that I can heal my relationship with food.

I can empathize with how difficult food addiction is, but Penny still makes me angry sometimes.

[CowgirlJane 14,260]

@LumpySpacePrincess@LumpySpacePrincess that is an eloquent and empathetic view- thank you. I don't watch tv much and avoid "trainwreck reality" shows like the plague so haven't seen this but your response reasonated. My dad was a mean, volatile alcoholic, but I am quite sure he didn't want that life. I am quite sure"Penny" would love to have a normal full life but she doesn't even know what that looks like.

It doesn't excuse or enable the behavior but empathy allows us to care about the human while hating the behavior.

[Swampdoggie 477]

I watch because I find most of them inspiring. People coming back from the brink, people rediscovering a value in themselves, being able to live a life that has meaning for them. I often think there but for the grace of God... I could never imagine going over 200 lbs, and then over 250 and then as I approached 300 I realized there may be no end unless I had an intervention. I love seeing the changes some of these folks are able to bring about for themselves.

I feel sad for Penny and her family but I do understand the grip of that addiction and feeling food is her only solace. Alcoholism runs in my family. My grand father died for it, and I've watched several cousins lose everything- spouse, children, job, houses, and one sweet shy beautiful lost cousin her life to it at 37 - and who want so much to change but cannot. My one cousin knew she was dying and was leaving young children; she cried every day that last summer, and still could not stop, even when she was at deaths very door, found ways somehow to sneak it in. The food addiction is similar in many ways. Any addiction that strong is heartbreaking.

[cejiogu 182]

I hate her too! Because she whines and she is in control of her life. She can't try for herself her son or her husband. Even if she lost half the weight she would have my empathy. Her it's the doctors fault pisses me off. But all the guilt she puts on her husband and son is what I hate. Her husband may never leave her but her son will get really mad when he gets older. He will say wasn't i enough reason to want to life? I love the girl Zysann I think is her name. She had the husband who was stupid and told her she was nothing without the weight. She finally left him and got into therapy. Her and her daughter are doing great. I was hoping her husband would come around. But since he didn't she needed to leave him not just for herself but her daughter. He was toxic in the way he treated her.

[AmyFromCincy 56]

He was absolutely awful

[gal friday 176]

Penny Really needs counseling

Oh she does. I used to be a therapist before my MS got bad, and watching her makes therapy techniques dance through my head.