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Les toxicos de la bouffe
W hile I was bulimic, I realized that it was pointless to avoid having bulimic episodes. It didn’t resolve the obsession. On the contrary, every time I felt in control, I could think of nothing but eating—to such an extent that I would dream about it and wake up in the morning terrified of having binged.
During my own therapeutic journey—psychoanalysis first, then new kinds of therapies (especially Gestalt therapy in groups), and then Ericksonian hypnosis—I discovered that in never talking about eating behaviors, in forcing myself only to become my true self, in learning to find where I stand in relation to others, my bulimia completely and definitively disappeared of its own accord. Strengthened by this discovery, having become a psychologist, I decided to adapt Gestalt therapy for addictive personalities. This made me a more directive therapist with psychopedagogic adjustments. I impose rules: don’t cheat, don’t play a role, don’t be aggressive (one can say whatever they want, but kindly), don’t intellectualize (what’s important is how one feels, not what one thinks), don’t talk about food, don’t search the past for explanations, even if the past plays a role in present difficulties. ntensive (each session lasts a weekend or a few days in a row) and confrontational (but nevertheless warm), this treatment protocol aims to make people with eating disorders confront their emotions and their beliefs by working on them in the present through inter-group relationships and not by just talking about them (as is the case in other therapies). My hypothesis was right. For my patients, like myself before them, it appeared that in becoming themselves, in respecting their wants, their rhythm, their choices, their imperfections, their moments of “craziness”, in affirming themselves while still respecting the differences of others, the obsession with food and the bulimia disappeared. As illustrated by my own testimony and the testimonies of my patients, “Les Toxicos de la Bouffe” develops the idea that in order to get rid of an addiction, it is more important to identify one’s emotions and learn to manage them than to desperately try to stop one’s addictive behaviors. |
