I understand your dismay, Bowser....but if I may:

With obesity, the addiction is in one's face for the whole world to see...THAT is the ONLY difference. If, for every drink you took, or for every quarter spent on a slot machine, or every snort of blow, every needle injected of heroin, every day, night and weekend spent working feverishly at the office were a pound of flesh we would ALL be morbidly obese.

I have had eating issues all my life....and even today, although my weight is 'under control'....I am petrified to take that first bite of something sweet....I am a recovering over-eater.

I never got as big as those poor people, but that is moot....and in many ways, I am grateful for the opportunity to have gone through the struggle. I understand the mindset...and therefore I have compassion. Trust me...even if the jolly fat man at the party says he is happy the way he is and looks...he is lying...to HIMSELF.

I have ALWAYS maintained that DENIAL will kill us all....no matter the arena of our self imposed delusion/prison.

I joke, BUT.....society would rather see me thin and smoking cigarettes than fat and not smoking...I have traded one for another....and my struggle will probably hasten my demise....but then...my answers are for me alone to figure out...and I am a better person for each step I take...even if it is 2 steps backward.