Eating to overcome the pain. My 600-lb Life‘s Wednesday, February 1, episode focuses on a survivor of abuse who began binge-eating to deal with the trauma and now sees gastric-bypass surgery as his only option.
The TLC docuseries‘ preview clip, exclusive to Us Weekly, introduces Doug Armstrong, who weighs more than 660 pounds. His size has made it difficult for him to assist his wife, Ashley, in raising their three children. Ashley, who herself underwent the weight-loss procedure, is demanding that her husband make a change to salvage their marriage.
The footage shows Doug opening up about his tumultuous past, including his mother abandoning Doug, his older brother and the boys’ father when Doug was 6 years old.
“My dad did the best he could — he was in the military, though, so he was away a lot of the time,” Doug tells the camera. “We had a lot of nannies — I don’t know how many of those were actually nannies and how many were friends of my dad.”
“And when I was 8, a nanny’s son who was older decided to have an inappropriate relationship with me,” he continues. “So I dealt with the trauma of being abused by eating, and I started to gain weight.”
Doug’s aunt says in a testimonial, “It seemed every time we’d seen him that he would be bigger because he just ate all the time. He would get sick, he would eat so much. “
Watch the emotional clip above. My 600-lb Life airs on TLC Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
