The reason I bring this up is a fat woman that rides the bus I do seems to expect handicap privileges. She is not the fattest person I’ve ever seen, nor does she carry a cane, but she asks for the chair lift in order to get on the bus rather than walk up the 2 steps. And when people see this, someone always gives up their seat in the handicap preferred section, which she takes without any acknowledgment. She isn’t even old.

Now here’s my point. Why can’t drunks get the same treatment? My mom is an alcoholic. Her situation is caused by a physical problem. It has nothing to do with willpower or self control. Some people just have a harder time refusing a drink than others and it shows. Isn’t that pretty much the same case for this lady?

Is she afraid she’ll blow out a knee climbing the steps? I’ve been shit-faced enough in my life to have the same concern. But somehow I don’t think the world would react the same way. And if they did, I hope I would say thanks now and then.

Tomorrow, I’m not getting up.

the only handicap i see her having is severe "stupid lazy fat bitch" syndrome.

It's not a "handicap," it's "evolution." If this nation rewards and encourages laziness, sloth, and poor eating habits, then isn't this woman just a natural outcome of adaption to her surroundings? When you live in a nation where everyone else increasingly has to accomidate your own girth, the only real motivations for losing weight are self image, the desire to not be made fun of, and the desire to improve your health... and my own life experience has taught me that those motivators by themselves can sometimes be rather weak. More often than not, they just end up crushing you. Speaking personally, it took a big shock to snap me out of my own self-pity and complacency to the point that I actually lost weight conciously. The first time was luck and happenstance. This time it's a concious effort.

Matt Groening seems to know the answer to Spankling's first question.

According to the Simpsons, being too obese can qualify you for disability. They devoted a whole episode to it.

My mom was an alcoholic, and one day she took her life.
Yeah, I'd say that alcoholism is pretty much a disability as much as any.

I'd say it's more an affliction than a disability.

alcoholism runs in my family and is considered a disease now these days. i guess it can be found on genes and isolated or whatever. i dont know how you privelage alcoholics though...give them beer money or something.

Has alcohol been proven to cause a chemical dependancy in the brain? You know how like heroin and nicotine are addictive, while E is technically just habit-forming. I'm fairly sure alcohol would be lumped in with the latter otherwise everyone would be hooked after just one drink.

I'm both an alcoholic and a former substance abuse counselor (at the Master's level, not PhD), and here's what I understand about booze:

Alcohol is physically addictive, if that term has any meaning at all. The two hallmarks are tolerance and physical withdrawal symptoms.

Whether alcoholism is best viewed as a disease is controversial (though you wouldn't know it if you live in the US). The physiological basis for it is poorly understood. The genetic basis is far from firmly established. The medical model closely resembles the "demon rum" rhetoric of the Temperance movement (only scientized), and it has difficulty explaining certain things, such as why alcoholics are overwhelmingly likelier than non-alcoholics to be addicted to cigarettes and caffeine, which bear no chemical resemblance to alcohol. Social learning theory provides an alternative view to the disease model.

Still, we see that alcoholism tends to run in families, and the research is getting better. Scientists say that 40-60% of the risk for alcoholism is genetic. My personal experience is that my relationship with alcohol has always been different from that of my non-alcoholic friends-- and my family tree is chock full of drunks.

I think I used alcohol to self-medicate for depression and anxiety; other problem drinkers might use it for something else. So alcoholism(s) may not be one "disease."

On a side note: E is very, very bad for you. Just a tad too much can fuck up your serotonin levels, sometimes for good. MJ, acid, hell even cocaine doesn't do that. I'd stay away from E.

So it would either:

a) Make you fearless and foolish.
b) Make you incredibly anxious.

At least that's what I understand serotonin to do.

Surely alcoholism running in families is also a sociological thing?

quote:

---

So it would either:

a) Make you fearless and foolish.
b) Make you incredibly anxious.

At least that's what I understand serotonin to do.

---

quote:

---

Surely alcoholism running in families is also a sociological thing?

---

I'm doubtful of the extent of the biological effect; only due to the fact that if it "runs in families" then you could say many social problems do too, e.g if the parents are poor, the child tends to be too.

On serotonin: E causes massive release of serotonin, temporarily heightening empathy and awareness of emotion. The subsequent depletion of serotonin causes anxiety, paranoia, and depression. Some say it's just a mid-week "mood dip" after weekend E use; others say that E causes serotonin neurotoxic injury resulting in long-term or even permanent aftereffects.

quote:

---

I'm doubtful of the extent of the biological effect; only due to the fact that if it "runs in families" then you could say many social problems do too, e.g if the parents are poor, the child tends to be too.

---

/me is a dumbass

No.

OH! You mean the type where one child is put in a rich family, and another is in a poor family?

They're allowed to do that? What about ethical issues?

Or am I thinking of the plotline for a particularly shitty Disney film?

that's no disney plot, but now that you've mentioned it, i guess i'll be writing disney and telling them idea thus stealing it from you and getting a sweet, sweet cash cow.

There IS a Disney movie where twins were separated at birth because their parents split up, and then they're reunited by a twist of Hollywood magic and they scheme to put their parents back together again. I forget the name of the movie. They made a remix of it though.

Disney!?!?!? DISNEY????

"The Prince and the Pauper." is one example that predates the "Olson Twins Blow Guys in Different Social Classes" movie or whatever Disney may have done to fuck up the concept.

My favorite rip off of this idea is "Puddin Head Wilson."

It was called "The Parent Trap" and was out in the 60s, starring Hayley Mills.

quote:

---

My mom was an alcoholic, and one day she took her life.

---

Thanks man.

quote:

---

That's what I think: There's some of the psychological, some of the sociological, and some of the biological at work here. The shrinks call it "biopsychosocial." That's the kind of information you can only get by going to grad school, I tell ya.

---

I hate socks... I mean I really hate socks... The way they look, the way they smell... Even my clean socks crunch when I stretch them...

Oh yeah, make fun of the fat woman, do it until she cries, don't even stop then. If your throat gets sore it is acceptable to start poking her, but with a stick, don't use your hands you don't know where she's been. Then we'll see who ate the biscuit! I told you Mother! It was the dog!!!

As far as being obese being a disability, yes it can be, but only for related afflictions due to it. I know this for a fact because I know someone in this description. Being so big you can barely walk or have leg problems, back problems from the weight, issues with diabetes(and there for circulation problems), digestive problems, renal problems that cause pain... they can all be associated and not something you can just pick out from someone getting on the bus. And just to argue, why can't she use the lift? I believe it would be illegal for the bus driver to say, "Fuck you, just climb up the stairs, lady", because he really doesn't know her disability and it is DEFINITELY illegal to ask someone what it is. The lift is there for people to use, so that wouldn't so much bother me. As far as the people moving for her..did she ask them to? If not, then that's just them being polite because they are catering to her using the lift/being a little bit bigger. Pretty much anyone can sit anywhere on a bus, I don't think you have to flash a handicap badge to sit in the special spot. And if she didn't ask, then why should she have to say thanks? She's obviously rude, on a route regulars ride, and not going to change. If it's you, don't move for her. Maybe YOU have some strange disability no one can see to the naked eye. It's really none of their damn business. Maybe she needs a kidney or some shit, who knows.

I'm not going to touch the alcoholism topic on here, not even with Wirthling's penis and 10 feet of concrete between us. That's a private issue to me and I'd gladly discuss it over an IM instead of having 100+ viewers watch me argue.

In a round-about way, I'm just asking here to say thanks for the seat when she can walk.

It's amazing how it's decided where to lay the boundary as to what constitutes a disability and what doesn't. My father is a parapalegic(sp) and heavily medicated, which prevents him from working much. Yet he has to fight to get disability. No one kisses his ass over anything. However, the post office my mother works at will bend over backwards to keep an alcoholic (who never shows up to work, literally) employed and recieving paychecks.

Now, all I have to say about that is: What the bloody assfuck?!

And I do know alcoholism sucks. I just don't think asses should be kissed over any diseases/ailment/handicap.

That's a bureaucracy problem.

quote:

---

That's a bureaucracy problem.

---

Maybe, but if enough people get together and bitch and bitch and bitch and bitch until the bureaucracy has little choice but to change it's rules to favour common sense and people who are NOT fuckups, that's called democracy. It's not just a good idea, it's out form of government.

Our, not out.

What, screw democracy! I say despotism all the way!

I got dibs on being the despot!

Fat people piss me off... sometimes.

FU
www.AngerMisManagement.com

Know what pisses me off? People who constantly spam their own site.

quote:

---

Now here’s my point. Why can’t drunks get the same treatment? My mom is an alcoholic. Her situation is caused by a physical problem. It has nothing to do with willpower or self control. Some people just have a harder time refusing a drink than others and it shows. Isn’t that pretty much the same case for this lady?

---

quote:

---

quote:

---

Now here’s my point. Why can’t drunks get the same treatment? My mom is an alcoholic. Her situation is caused by a physical problem. It has nothing to do with willpower or self control. Some people just have a harder time refusing a drink than others and it shows. Isn’t that pretty much the same case for this lady?

---

Did your mom's drinking 'problem' coincide with your birth by any chance?!

---

I posted it as soon as i saw the thread.

That was several months ago, of course. But the poor fella types at like 0.0026 wpm, so you know...