Free Republic

Amelia had been intent on losing weight most of her life — but this concern had never caused the 35-year-old to consider ending her life. Last summer, the Canadian woman was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and prescribed the wildly popular “miracle” drug Ozempic (semaglutide) by her doctor, who presented the drug as an easy way for Amelia to shed a few pounds and manage her blood sugar. Amelia, who asked that her last name be withheld for privacy reasons, avoided filling the prescription for three months since she “didn’t want to focus on the number on the scale.” However,...

This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. Allison is an actress. When we meet up for coffee — she has an almond-milk cortado — in midtown, something’s different about her, but I’m not sure what. She looks like an Instagram version of herself but in real life. It turns out she’s down about ten pounds and happy about it. “Somebody once told me I had a size-zero personality, and they assumed that I was thinner than I was,” she tells me. “We don’t talk about it, but...