Half-ton Teen/Half-ton Mom

Deeper on my journey of TLC’s “ton” offerings this season, I stumbled across two similar, yet separate, stories of the super-obese. “Half-ton Teen” and “Half-ton Mom” - both were pathetic and disturbing at the same time, and had the same sense of sadness about them.

Enter half-ton mom, Renee Williams, age 29, who weighed in at 900 lbs. She convinced doctors to perform gastric bypass on her, even though she was the largest person at the time to have gastric bypass performed. Typically they ask you to lose weight first to make the operation and recovery odds better. Ms. Williams felt her situation was too dire to wait so she proceeded w/the operation. She had a heart attack and died 12 days later, leaving two children behind.

What is most shocking about this story is that Ms. Williams was just your average mom not that long ago. She had a car accident in 2003 that crushed her leg, making it impossible for her to work. She got depressed, began to eat, and 900 lbs. later, there she was. That is both sad and yet you can relate at the same time. Isn’t that why we watch all these shows in the first place? Because on some level we can relate to what they are going through? For any person that’s ever been injured or eats out of emotional depression, etc. I can totally see this happening to a person without ever thinking you may reach the massive weight of 900 lbs.

Now enter half-ton teen, Billy Robbins, who lives with his mother who is definitely the enabler, if not promoter, in this relationship. Billy’s family experienced a loss of his brother (they don’t get into specifics on the show) and from that point on, Billy’s mom shoveled food into him to the tune of 8,000 calories a day. I think the most disturbing part of this is the mother/son relationship. To stuff your child to the point they don’t want to leave the house? He chose to be home-schooled because the kids were making fun of his weight so bad. An update on Billy is that he has lost half his weight and plans to move away from his mother as he has finally realized the relationship is unhealthy, um, ya think!?!

I am really glad he made this decision, food can be an expression of love, but not in those quantities. While I’ve no doubt that Billy’s mom loves him, I think she has her own set of issues that got in the way of her being a proper parent to him during his emotional time of losing his brother. I wish them both the best.


Source: schmoozins.com