I’M TRAPPED IN MY HOME
TOO fat to work Steve Beer says he has become a prisoner in his “horrible” home after hitting his heaviest weight – 35 stone.
Steve, 46, has regained eight stone he lost last year and added another three.
Now the benefits dependant, slated after a Channel 5 documentary last year revealed his bulk stops him getting a job, is breathless after just a few steps.
“I am trapped in my own body,” said dad-of-six Steve. “I haven’t left home for weeks. Even the thought of getting in the car is too much for me.
“I have given up and am waiting to die because I don’t know what to do.”
Late last year he was talked down off a bridge after contemplating suicide.
Even if he could make it down the few steps from the tiny Plymouth flat he shares with 19st sixth wife Michelle, he fears abuse from cruel strangers.
“People call me a fat b******, they tell me to stop eating all the pies and get another job,” he said. “It makes me scared to leave the flat.
“Getting bigger is my fault because I’m the one eating all the food. But getting so many insults makes me eat even more.
“There’s always a story behind a weight problem, you don’t know what people like me are going through.”
Steve has previously toyed with having a gastric band, even though he doesn’t believe in them, but now admits: “It might be time.”
Losing eight stone last year meant 5ft 5in Steve could make love to Michelle, 44 – who had lost 4st at boot camp – for the first since they married in 2014.
“But our sex life is dead again now I’ve regained the weight,” said Steve
“Now when I try to walk for a little bit I have to stop and rest for 15 minutes.
“I’m in pain the minute I try to get out my front door, my heart beats faster and I get out of breath. I feel shattered, so leaving the flat isn’t an option.”
He has had three strokes and takes medication for his heart. Two carers come in daily to wash and dress him.
“Also, being so overweight makes it difficult to sleep,” he said. “I’m too scared to shut my eyes because I worry I won’t wake up because of my size.
“I have to shake my head from side to side to get me off to sleep, to try and get rid of the problems inside my head. Then I wake up and I’m shattered. I just put my legs up on the sofa and watch telly all day.”
He is also on anti-depressants and frequently breaks down in tears.
Michelle buys him junk food to keep him happy. He will have a steak pasty for breakfast, a sandwich and crisps for lunch and a takeaway for dinner. In between, he guzzles litre bottles of Pepsi.
She said: “I find it hard to say no when he asks for food because he nags and nags until I get it. I only go down to the shop for him for a quiet life.” He said being snubbed for jobs and facing eviction are behind his comfort eating.
“I’ve been rejected for so many jobs because I’m overweight. It makes me feel terrible and eat even more,” he said. “And we’ve been given an eviction notice because I reported my landlord to the council for repairs to be done.
“My will to stop eating has gone out of the window and I just eat, eat, eat. I feel death is around the corner. I desperately need help. Please help me.”
Dr Ian Campbell who runs the private Overweight Clinic, in Nottingham, said problems like Steve’s should be dealt with by tackling “the relationship with food, the childhood experiences, the depression, the anxiety disorders that underlie the problem”.