Yes, I do think there is discrimination, and I feel this way because I have been both thin and fat.

Most of my life I have been slender and active. I am blonde and busty so I know that I have recieved special treatment by people especially male bosses due to my looks.

However, about five years ago I was treated for depression and placed on a mutlitude of anti-depressants that caused me to gain - 60 POUNDS! I went from a size 4 to a size 16, and it happened quite quickly.

I will never forget the reaction of and the treatment by people who knew me, and those who didn't. I had some unbelievably mean and cruel comments and nasty jokes made toward me. At first everyone thought I was pregnant, and the embarrasment for both them and myself when I had to tell them I wasn't - was horrible. My family was perhaps the worst. Overall though, I was accused of horrible crimes due to my weight. This was difficult for me, because I was accustom to receiving certain advantages when I was thin, people were kind, and helpful. As a thin woman, there was always a stranger, usually a man ready to help me carry a heavy bag, as a fat woman, they ignored me. I was also used to having men try to buy me drinks in bars, and when I was a size 16, I found myself sitting alone at a bar stool, while my thin girlfriends chatted up men, and didn't include me in the conversations. And of course, I got the you are so pretty comments - you'd be a knock out if you lost some weight!

When I stopped taking the medications, I quickly returned to a size 4. And all of a sudden, people wanted to be around me again, strangers smiled, I had an easier time hailing a cab. I learned that to be overweight, is a very lonely thing.

I am now about 15-20 pounds overweight again, but I hide it well, because it mostly in my stomach and middle, which can be disguised by the right clothing. I refuse to let my weight get heavier than that because I could never stand to return to the lonely and painful existence I had when I was severely overweight and that is why I am here and doing Atkins.

My heart really goes out to those for whom a weight problem has been a long time problem, because people can be so cruel and judgemental. And I briefly worked in retail when I was laid off, and I witnessed that qualified overweight women were always denied jobs which were given to unqualified thin and pretty girls.