Eurobesitas

​an association of patients suffering from obesity that is here to help you

Eating and extra pounds are a source of hopelessness and frustration. You’ve had enough of fad diets, which only lead to weight loss rebound, the “yoyo effect”, and you don’t know what to do anymore. You feel lonely and misunderstood, and you’ve already experienced stigma. We are here for you, to answer your questions and support you with respect and confidentiality. Our emotional experiences in the fight against obesity doesn’t only give us rich experiences to share, but also make us true experts in the field.

Join us at Eurobesitas, we will take your needs into account.

Since 1994, the Association has been fighting against the stigma that patients who suffer from obesity endure, even in the medical field, to improve the management of obesity and its reimbursement by health insurance funds. But first and foremost, it’s about regaining our well-being, our self-esteem, our self-confidence and our health, well beyond the extra pounds.

“The body must be considered as a collaborator in healing, not as an obstacle to well-being” as L. Gamba says.

World Obesity Day will be held on March 4. The WHO has declared that obesity has been a disease for many years, yet in the minds of a large part of the population and even in the minds of healthcare workers, a person who suffers from obesity is always “a fat guy who is gluttonous and who doesn’t move enough. For these people, he is responsible for his condition and that is why he is stigmatized in all situations of everyday life. However, this is completely false. Many studies have shown that there are more than a hundred factors that influence weight, genetic, epigenetic, environmental, biological, physiological, psychological and many more. However, by dint of hearing negative stereotypes, and experiencing discrimination, the person who suffers from obesity will internalize this stigma. The trap closes when the stigmatized person finds it normal to be discriminated against, and when he considers it legitimate to be so, he then goes from victim to culprit, he feels responsible for his situation.

Internalized stigma leads to psychological complications, a collapse of self-esteem, depression, suicidal thoughts and sometimes even suicides among others. It is the cause of enormous suffering in children and adolescents. It also has physical repercussions and aggravates the degree of obesity as well as the associated cardio-metabolic complications. Eurobesitas has developed workshops (Sobal method) to combat the dramatic psychological consequences of stigmatization on people who experience it. This video describes this method.