Sometime ago, Ms. Beautiful visited with her fair complexion, straight nose 36-inch bust, 24-inch waist and 38-inch hips. She was extremely popular. She used her power and charm and soon women everywhere got to paying huge bills for plastic surgeons, chicken pills, diet drugs, gyms and psychiatrists. Ms. Beautiful decided to stay a little bit longer.TLC's 1999 song 'Unpretty' encouraged women everywhere to accept themselves for what they were, whether you were ugly or pretty, had a straight nose or flat and whether you were fat or slim. The song has more or less been forgotten.
Ms. Beautiful has a whole new trend going - the slim craze, be as slim as possible she's telling overweight women, do everything possible to lose weight. Tricia listened to Ms. Beautiful.
Tricia's story
For Tricia, the diet aid Dexatrim has become a way of life. As far back as 1993, Tricia and Dexatrim have been fast friends as it has helped her to melt the pounds away.
But now Tricia has learnt that her old friend can kill her. Recently, the United States Food and Drug Administration declared that an ingredient in it and cough and cold medicines can cause bleeding in the brain, especially in women.
But this does not frighten her, because fat, she said, would be the last straw in the number of misfortunes that has struck her down.
The 25-year-old with a suitcase of diplomas and certificates behind her is unemployed and battles depression daily. Today she sees herself as worthless and a failure.
When Youth Link spoke to her, exhaustion permeated her voice because she does not sleep at nights.
"Life isn't going the way I planned," she said. "I must have really high expectations, unfortunately I am way below what I should have achieved, I am performing less than I should have." She blames this on a 'toxic environment and toxic people'.
The 'toxic environment' has been a failed early marriage, friends who have done nothing but 'use her' and continued unemployment.
Consumed with disappointment, Tricia said she tried alcohol and cigarettes to forget. These have become an addiction.
"They say that you are your own worse enemy but I am saying that if you had 'A' going for you, you could forget 'C', but at this point when nothing is going quite the way you expect you need a drink or whatever to keep you going and to stop you from killing yourself."
Tricia has already attempted suicide.
"Drinking and smoking takes away that edge off the worthlessness that you feel, temporarily of course," she said. "But as soon as it wears off the feelings come back."
She is trying to kick the smoking habit but has thought about replacing cigarettes with other drugs such as ganja or cocaine.
"I tried ganja when I was 19, and I have thought about trying cocaine," she said. "I want to change my life but you know, certain things have to be in place first."
Tricia's family and herself have sought help for her problems but the treatment centres cannot help, she claims, and if the underlying problem like obesity continues, she doesn't want to stop.
"They say try this, try that but you need to be ready or they can't help you," she said. "It's hard to find positive things to do everyday when you are fat, yes you laugh, talk to people but you realise that nothing will work unless you have a change within you."
-Trudy Simpson
fatfacts
The World Watch Institute in Washington reports that there are now 1.2 billion adults worldwide who are too fat. Even in poor countries like Brazil and Colombia, far too many people are overweight. Fifty per cent of the population in Britain are regarded as overweight.
Although official statistics are not available for Jamaica, Dr. Anthony Vendryes said recently that almost half of adult Jamaicans are overweight. These are the diabetics, stroke victims, heart attack sufferers and cancer patients of tomorrow, he said.
In the United Kingdom today, and seeping into the Caribbean, there seems to be an obsession with losing weight using aids like diet drugs, leading to illnesses such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa.
Misuse of diet pills can elevate the heart rate making one more prone to heart attacks and also cause nausea, nervousness and behavioural changes.
