Eating disorders have many variations and have already reached 400,000 cases in Spain. Compulsive overeaters are one of the least visible groups, despite being just as dangerous as other types of eating disorders.
People are unable to stop eating due to this disorder. They are prone to impulses and cannot avoid eating food: no matter how much they eat, they are not satisfied, so they keep on going.
compulsive overeater
Quique knew she had a food problem because her own family had seen it. He suffered from depression, weighed over one hundred kilos, had problems with walking, and in his daily life faced problems unusual to others, such as not being able to get out of the car after parking.
She’s just one of the people who go to Purisima Concepcion parish in Sabadell every Wednesday to do group therapy with people who suffer from the same problem: they’re compulsive eaters.
Using a method similar to Alcoholics Anonymous, they report back on their progress and how they’re doing. There they find company and in their therapy partners a mirror in which they can see themselves. Therefore, the only rule governing the members of the group is the following: no one enters who does not suffer from said problem.
importance of family environment
Carmen—a fictitious name—is only twenty years old and knows she has a problem. She is the youngest of the group and affirms that she does not know people of her age who suffer from this problem and who also go for treatment. For that, the family environment you find yourself in is very important to avoid eating compulsively. Even after undergoing treatment for three years, he has not lost weight, but he is very strong mentally.
Only those who are suffering from food addiction can go for therapy
All are directed under the baton of Maria – also a fictitious name -. It was through television that she learned about the existence of ‘Compulsive Overeaters Anonymous,’ but fear did not give her the courage to go into therapy. Six years later, his health was more critical and he had put on another thirty kilos.
Fate offered him these meetings again and he began to attend them. In that moment, she began to recognize that she was a compulsive eater: “I used to leave home to go to work and during the half-hour journey I would stop three times for breakfast, even though I had breakfast at home. She didn’t “binge,” but she didn’t stop eating all day.
Years later, she has lost the weight and feels empowered to help others who share her problem and struggle to live with it. At meetings of compulsive eaters – and regardless of the fact that they are held in one parish – any race, ideology or sex has a place. All they need to share is a food addiction and a desire to get out of that pit.
personal support
According to psychologist Constanza Fernandez, “With this picture of compulsive binge eating disorder, they solve a lot of their discomfort with these places.” In which people suffering from this disease follow 12 steps to deal with impulses and addictions to food. These groups help them and in them they feel more supported and supported than in other environments, because they can talk about their addiction with complete freedom.
That if, as defended by psychologists, individual support is a good option for managing the disease. “Having a personal space is a push, a focus of the origin of the problem. When you have psychotherapy, what you’re going to achieve is complement the group space, work on skills and a sobriety and a Evolve survival won’t let you have the anxiety that triggers the binge. It’s not controlling the binge, but the binge isn’t required.
