The My 600 Lb Life Lashanta episode presents a logistical problem the show has never had to this extent before. New cast member Lashanta weighs well over 600 pounds, suffers from lymphedema, and would love to start working with Dr. Now — but she can’t make the trip on her own, and she can’t find anyone to help her. With time running out, Lashanta doesn’t know where — or to whom — to turn.
My 600 Lb Life viewers are certainly familiar with the problem of a cast member in need of a chaperone. Just last week, Angela Gutierrez struggled to find someone to go from Ohio to Houston with her, eventually settling on an ex-lover when she’d exhausted every other option. But that door has closed for Lashanta, since we discover, in the first clip from her episode, that her current boyfriend has just abandoned her.
According to TLC’s synopsis, Lashanta has plenty of family members around. But it sounds like they might be too young to come to her aid:
A mother of four, bed-bound for two years, Lashanta relies on her kids to keep her cleaned and fed. Her last chance to break the cycle of food addiction that’s killing her is to join…
Monsters and Critics’ early preview offers a few more details. Lashanta is “almost 40” and has a “life plagued by a pattern of unhealthy relationships.” Lashanta’s mother helps care for her, but is not available to travel to Houston. And, as we learn in the clip below, Lashanta’s boyfriend JT up and left when he felt he would no longer be attracted to her if she lost weight. (Devotées of the show will find echoes of Renee Biran and Pauline Potter in Lashanta’s story.)
“The last couple of weeks,” Lashanta begins, “things have been really bad, because JT and me broke up. I know he has been worried about me losing too much weight, but I thought I still had his support to do this. And he just said if I lost the weight, he wouldn’t be attracted to me no more. So I don’t know what to do right now. Without JT, I don’t have anyone to help me no more.
“So I’m really depressed about all this,” Lashanta continues. “Because it feels like every time I try to turn my life around, and get my head above water, something tries to trip me up, and bring me back down.”
The My 600 Lb Life Lashanta episode is available for early streaming on the show’s official site, via TLC.
(Photo credits: My 600 Lb Life Lashanta via Starcasm)
John Sharp is Starcasm’s chief editorial correspondent-at-large. Tips: E-mail john@starcasm.net or Twitter @john_starcasm.
