It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives. These things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous, “The Doctor’s Opinion”

Call me what you want to! I can take it.
Maladjusted to life? I told you my life
was unmanageable, powerless over food.
In full flight from reality? You mean convinced
I could control everyone else’s life
though my own was unmanageable?
Guilty. That the very next diet would fix it
when a few hundred before hadn’t…
for fifty years of trying. Guilty.
Outright mental defectives? Well, duh!
What was that about fifty years of dieting,
about weighing three hundred pounds?
About not being able to stay on a plan
or get there through hypnosis, pins in ears,
promised rewards…anything???
But you want me to say my body’s not normal?
That if I just developed the willpower, the guts,
the determination I could still not do it?
You want me to think I have an incurable disease
of compulsive overeating? Are you really that crazy?
Or am I an outright mental defective not to believe it?