Superiority in restriction

In line with the culture of "thinness", we often congratulate each other on weight loss and restrictive dietary habits. In this way, weight loss and restrictive eating gain significance. We begin to feel that our incredible ability for self-control (during periods of restriction) makes us superior to others and we pity them for their lack of control that prevents them from losing weight. When inevitably, sooner or later, we fail in our attempts to control, we place ourselves in the same group that we looked down on and direct the reproach towards ourselves. ⁣

It is as if control becomes a desperate attempt to create a conditionally good image of ourselves. As soon as the condition is not met, the image turns into its ugly opposite. How, then, can we give it up, when it seems to us that control is the only thing that separates us from complete ruin? ⁣

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For each individual, this answer is different and concerns the therapeutic process during which: ⁣

- we discover what control means to us

- what we are afraid will happen if we give up control⁣

- what needs we are trying to satisfy through control⁣

- we find alternative ways of satisfying needs that imply a more functional relationship with ourselves, others and, of course, food⁣

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