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Paul Mason    

Former "World's Fattest Man", Reaching Out to Those Struggling With Obesity and Emotional Addiction to Food

Paul grew up in the town of Ipswich about 100 miles northeast of London with his parents and two sisters. He started putting on weight in his 20's after he began to use food as a way of avoiding dealing with emotional issues that began in his childhood. Paul had suffered with emotional and physical abuse from his father as well as sexual abuse from an aunt when he was just 6 years old. He was unable to speak to anyone about these issues but rather turned to food to bury his emotions.

After his father passed away, Paul moved in with his aging mother to care for her as she suffered from severe arthritis and and other health issues. Caring for his mother was a struggle, but he refused to ask anyone for help and as time when on, Paul continued to overeat and gain weight. In 1991 after suffering from pain in one of his legs for years, Paul finally went to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a blood clot. Once treated, he returned home, but due to his weight and leg pain, walked very little and continued to overeat, packing on more weight.

More health issues followed as a result of his obesity and lack of mobility including severe cellulitis in both legs and a hernia which required surgery. The only way to get him out of his flat at that point was for firefighters to knock out a wall to get him onto a truck.

During these years of binge eating, Paul knew there were reasons for his emotional addiction to food, but did not know how to come to grips with his desire to constantly eat, until one day he asked his doctor if he could speak to someone about all the thoughts going around in his mind, memories of his past traumas that he decided he was ready to talk about.

It took Paul several years to connect with a counselor he felt he could trust, and once he did he began the road to understanding why he consumed so much food. Being able to open up to someone about what he had been through as a child, the bullying at school for being abnormally tall for his age, the lack of love from his parents and verbal abuse from his father, and the sexual abuse from his aunt, was like having a weight lifted off him. He realized that bottling up his feelings about these events was killing him and if he was going to have a future, he had to change his relationship with food by unpacking all the feelings he kept bottled up in his past.

Several years earlier he had applied to the NHS (National Health Service) for gastric bypass surgery, to help him get his weight down. Paul applied several times and in the end waited 10 years before he was approved for surgery. In 2010, two years after beginning counseling, Paul finally had the surgery he desperately needed and wanted.

Since then Paul has lost over 600 pounds and today weighs 350 pounds. He still has a long road ahead of him as he still has 75-100 pounds of excess skin that must be removed surgically in order for him to gain his mobility, be able to exercise, and lose more weight.

Paul is reaching out to those who are struggling with obesity and emotional addiction to food. He wants to spread awareness that for some people, being overweight is not a simple issue with a simple solution. Overcoming the psychological desire to eat is a bigger hurtle than many can overcome, but with the proper understanding and with a desire to change, anyone can turn their life around.

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