Woo is certainly able to answer for herself, but I'm going to add my two cents. Psychologically, it's sort of the "in for a penny, in for a pound" syndrome, if you'll excuse the pun. Let's suppose you are already overweight, and taking abuse for it. You might try to slim down, but when that fails, just figure, "F--- it. I can't slim down, they won't stop harrassing me, I might as well eat." You are made to feel like a freak, and as is so often the case in such situations, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. You find yourself excluded from activities and so on -- food becomes a reliable "friend" in such circumstances. I know for a fact that as a child I was never as fat as I was made to feel, but I think at some point I lost the ability to think of myself as anything else but fat, which in turn, influenced my decision not to try to lose weight earlier than did. We are complex beings, Scott, and a large part of who we are and become is predicted on how other people see us and treat us, like it or not. I'm sure that the "personal responsibility" crowd will soon be making a chest beating appearance, talking about how "You've just got to... (do what I do)" and that certainly sounds nice and all, and it's even true to an extent -- but it doesn't change the reality of human nature, and how people relate to their environment. The environment for a fat person is a toxic one, and such things seldom lead to healthy people.

What's the old saw? Tell a dog it's bad often enough, and it will believe you?