So, NICE approves stomach stapling for obese teenagers.

More of the insanity. On the same news bulletin, a feature on the shortages of mental health facilities for teenagers, with the example of a 17 year old anorexic placed on an adult ward in a psychiatric hospital, causing her considerable fear and anxiety.

So, let me get this straight. Anorexia is now being treated as a life-threatening psychiatric condition. Obesity is being treated as a life-threatening medical condition, requiring surgery and not pschiatric intervention. Conclusion - it is sane to eat yourself to death, but lacking in sanity to starve oneself.

NICE - who have refused to approve treatments for both Alzheimers and MS, approve stomach stapling for obese teenagers in a world where there are demands to ban thin role models. Can I really be the only person who thinks that this is utterly demented, not to mention a disgrace?

The reason that anorexics are being referred for psychiatric treatment is because this is a complicated illness, raising many issues including those of perfectionism, pressure, control and anxiety. There are comparatively few anorexics when compared to the vast and ever-growing numbers of the obese, thus the expense of sending anorexics for psychiatric treatment can presumably be borne by society. However, those at the other end of the spectrum - for this is surely what obesity is - are now to be funnelled down the surgical route,(which is cheap in comparison to therapy), with no treatment whatsoever for the emotional and psychiatric issues that led them to eat themselves almost to death.

The justification given by NICE was that this was to be used when all else fails. Well, forgive me for being too stupid to comprehend how someone who cannot discipline themselves to reduce their food intake for the comparatively short length of time necessary to get their weight under control can possibly see it as preferable to eat a virtually liquid and abnormally-tiny diet for the rest of their lives as a result of their stomach being stapled. Could it be that the 'experts' simply cannot spare the time to look at the deeper issues underlying obesity but, faced with a government panicking about the lardiness of the nation and its economic consequences, have just jumped for the cheapest quick fix? Or is is that parents of obese children cannot face their part in this rapidly-growing national scandal? I despair of the number of times I see TV documentaries on family life where there is an entire cupboard dedicated to sweets, chocolate and crisps, (to which the children have access) coupled with a large TV in every room and a Playstation - but no bikes or sports equipment.

I suspect that obesity (like anorexia) involves not only issues of self-esteem but also of self-discipline, control and power, not to mention love and/or the lack of it, aside from the obvious issues around living habits derived from parental behaviour and values. There is also a less well-known link between illness and attention-seeking, in that many people who are chronically-ill do find it a struggle to recover (when it is possible to do so) because often their illness has brought them the support and attention that they previously lacked. Maybe if some support, love and attention could be brought to the lives of these teenagers before they head out on the path of self-destruction, whether by self-starvation or by eating themselves to death, it might cease to matter what the shape of people in the public eye is perceived to be..........but that would, of course, involve all of us in taking responsibility, not just for our own lives but also those of our kids, which would demolish the highly-developed victim culture we now have in this country. No, no doubt we'll just send these fat kids off for major surgery and continue to blame thin celebrities for all the pressures that teenagers face and their sense of utter powerlessness in the society we have created.