ProTourist

I'm 58 but I don't know what it means! 😢

Right, Jennifer is sort of a middle-aged female version of Sean; except that instead of babied by her mother, she was babied by her daughter (begrudgingly).

Good evening, pounders. My eating habit so far today has been a croissant with vegetable cream cheese and a fish sandwich. There is a cobb salad 😇 waiting on deck if I'm hungry later tonight.

Just wondering if a new topic will be created for this evening's new Where Are They Now? episode for Jennifer & Marissa and Liz? I'm looking forward especially to find out how Liz is doing with her walking.

Sean's supersized episode should be tomorrow (Thursday) night. Tonight we have a new episode, follow-up for Liz and the mother/daughter team of Jennifer and Marissa. 😀 Thanks for recording Sean's supersize, Auntjess -- would appreciate knowing any additional tidbits on his story. ❤️

I'm feeling that it's about time to let go of Sean and let him rest in peace. The one item that still nags at me is why Dr. Now would keep sending him back home, when Sean was candid with him that he had no impulse control with food; and it was obvious that his depression kept him from bathing, dressing, and exercising. When you send someone home alone with addiction and depression, how can you reasonably expect improvement? I don't think you can. With all the help and tools that Dr. Now gave him, there was nothing to help with the depression, addiction, and loneliness. Yes, Sean couldn't stay in hospital or rehab facility long-term, but sending someone like him back to his apartment really was a death sentence. It's hard to believe there was nothing in between rehab and his apartment, no other option at all. <sigh>

Here are a couple of caps of LB Bonner high school football player. I think there is some resemblance with Sean:

Yes, I posted the pricing of the Cobb salad (high price) vs. cheeseburger deluxe (low price). 😇 The good thing about the Cobb salad is that it is very low carb, especially if you choose a dressing like vinaigrette. The bad thing about the cheeseburger deluxe is that, between the bun and the side of french fries, it is very high carb. The Cobb can definitely fit into a low calorie low carb diet, especially if you eat two meals as day as I do. But merits of the Cobb salad aside 😉 any other salad from the diner's menu that might be lower in fat and calories than the Cobb, is still several dollars more than the unhealthy cheeseburger deluxe (the deluxe includes french fries, lettuce, tomato, cole slaw, and pickle). I was just trying to illustrate that eating healthy does cost more if you have deliveries and do not cook yourself. But as someone pointed out, if you eat two or three cheeseburger deluxes, that will certainly cost more than the one salad. 😄

I think that was his mother's doing, but I agree with the rest of what you are saying. But I do think he had serious mental health issues beyond addiction, be they clinical depression, autism, or other.

Well, I don't know what options are available for younger adults, but with older adults Adult Protective Services will do a lot, as I learned in the case of my aunt. Someone reported erratic behavior on her part to APS, who then sent someone to her apartment to interview her. Based on that interview, and that she had no family nearby to take care of her, there was a court hearing to make her a ward of the state. She had a guardian assigned to her, who took over all the business of her day-to-day life, including assigning a home health aid to her who came to her apartment every day to cook, clean, do laundry, and help her with personal care. Whenever she needed a hospitalization or rehab stay, he made sure she got it. It all worked out very well. Eventually when she was not well enough to remain at home, he got her placed into a good nursing facility where she lived out her final years, and he took care of breaking up her apartment and the disposition of her possessions, finding a home for her cat, etc. I think if Sean had had a state-appointed guardian -- which I really think he needed between his horrendous addiction and incompetence to take care of himself -- he might have either received more and better home care, or else placement in some kind of facility or group home where he would have been able to live with some purpose and not destroy himself. If Dr. Now could report James King to APS (who did not intervene in his case) why not report Sean? I'm sure it would have been shown if he had. Someone posted in one of the discussions here not too long ago, that if you want to kill an addict, give him a lot of money. That's just what was done to Sean, posthumously by his mother. I guess that was her way of getting him to follow along after her.

Nope, not Sean Milliken. The only reference I can find to a poundticipant who played high school football is Chad Dean. You might be remembering Chad, who has been very successful in his weight loss.

Would just like to take a moment to correct the misconception that Sean's injury was caused by playing football in high school. Football was not mentioned in Sean's voice-over in the first episode, so there is no reason to believe he ever played, unless there is another source. Here are Sean's words:

I've watched the episode now. My biggest take-away is that Dr. Now's program was never going to work for Sean because Sean couldn't control himself with food when he was at home alone -- especially not once he came into some money. It was impossible for him. Dr. Now should have realized this and should not have kept sending Sean back home to be alone and do the right thing, because everyone knows that he cannot. It's true that Dr. Now could not keep him in rehab indefinitely, but there had to be another solution -- you just can't send a self-destructive addict home alone, even with periodic visits from care assistants. Was there no city, county, or state agency that could have taken over to prevent Sean from destroying himself? Adult Protective Services perhaps? Anything at all, other than to let it happen? I still think, as was discussed in the live chat, that Dr. Now should have had a psych evalulation done for Sean, which I think should have put Sean into a mental health facility. Suicide must be illegal in Texas, and when someone is on track to kill himself due to addiction, the law should be able to step in. As Wanda wrote in the live chat: And as Julyolo wrote in the live chat: I agree with both of them. I appreciate that Dr. Now did not give up on Sean, but what is that expression when you keep doing to same thing time after time but you expect it to have a different outcome? The time Sean was sent home and gained 188 pounds in two months was the beginning of the end -- he needed an entirely different type of treatment by then.

Sean has had four episodes actually, as have the Assanti brothers. There are some others who have had three episodes.

But there are lots of people who are committed involuntarily, such as after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. They don't all get better, but some do, in part due to the use of medications along with the intensive therapy. I'm not saying that Sean should have been committed; he could have signed himself in voluntarily.

The point of placement in a psychiatric facility would not have been controlled diet, but for him to receive the intensive psychiatric care that he needed, if he were going to have a chance to turn his life around. And I think that care would likely have started with meds for his depression. Once they started to work, he probably would not have had so much craving for food.

But there are psych medications to help turn that around, to treat the depression chemically. That would likely have been one of the first steps.

Bingo! We have a winner! Thank you.

I think depressed people tend to do that.

From the live chat: If one were going to cook/prepare meals at home, then yes I would agree. But if one cannot or is unwilling to cook and is doing deliveries, then healthy meals definitely cost more, at least where I live. Here is a typical example from a modest diner in my neighborhood: Cobb Salad: $19.25 Cheeseburger deluxe: $12.50

Agree completely, thank you.

I don't think a death wish can be corrected with an attitude adjustment. Neither can addiction. IMO Sean needed a very good in-patient psychiatric facility, where he could have received the kind of intensive mental health care -- with or without meds -- that would have given him a real chance at recovery. Sean really did need a care facility; he just didn't realize about the 'mental' part.

Yes -- this!

I agree as well. It's that type of intensive psychiatric care that Sean needed and did not receive. Dr. Now should have realized by this point that his program wasn't working for Sean, couldn't work for him, and requested a psych eval when Sean was in the hospital. If he had received treatment in a psychiatric facility, that could have been the one thing that might have saved him.