Acacia
Like many, I 've battled obesity nearly my whole life. I began gaining weight at about age six, most likely because of familial unrest. From there on out, I progressively gained more and more weight until I finally broke a hundred pounds in the third grade. Trying to be supportive, my mom attempted to put me on a diet several times. Being constantly devalued by my classmates because of my weight was an encouraging mechanism to convince me to follow these diets; however, I don't remember ever losing much weight. When I did, I gained it back although I was a very active child. As the years passed, I grew a bit taller and around the 8th grade, I thought I was finally going to break free of my cocoon and blossom into a butterfly because, without trying, I lost about fifty pounds and started thinning out. Again, however, without doing anything I was conscious of, I began gaining again. I continued to diet and exercise to the point of complete obsession and found that I would lose around 20-40 lbs. and then gain it right back, plus some more. Right now, I'm 22 years old and weigh nearly 300 pounds. A number I never thought I would see, considering how hard I've worked to prevent it. After a year long stint with a rather degrading personal trainer, I found myself desperate to find something that would work. Out of curiosity, I began looking up bariatric surgery and started out completely terrified because of all the horror stories out there. Now, I have my heart set on surgery because I feel it's the only way to overcome my body's resistance to losing weight. I'm having trouble coming up with a way to pay for surgery because I'm not employed full-time as a student and have been repeatedly rejected by insurers for having a BMI of 46. I may have found a way out--a state funded insurance that covers the "uninsurable." But, I have to wait six months to use the insurance for "pre-existing conditions" since I have been unable to acquire health insurance for so long. Wish me luck!
