Patients' Experience of Attending a Binge Eating Group Program - Qualitative Evaluation of a Pilot Study

Experiences of living with binge eating disorder and facilitators of recovery processes: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most prevalent eating disorder worldwide. BED is often associated with low quality of life and mental health problems. Given the complexity of the disorder, recovery may be challenging. Since BED was only recently specified as a diagnostic category by the World Health Organization (2021), little is known about how patients experience living with BED in everyday life. This study aimed to explore how patients experience living with BED and to investigate factors perceived as facilitating recovery.

METHOD

Individual interviews were conducted with six patients in a rehabilitation programme for recovery from BED. Interviews were conducted digitally and verbally transcribed between December 2020 and January 2021. The analysis was based on Malterud's systematic text condensation.

RESULTS

Being diagnosed with BED could be experienced as a relief. The participants perceived living with BED as a challenging addiction. They struggled with a low self-image and experienced a lack of understanding from others, resulting in shame. Self-compassion and social support from friends and family and through participation in a rehabilitation programme were important facilitators of recovery.

CONCLUSION

Participants perceived living with BED as a challenging addiction. They struggled with low self-esteem and experienced a lack of understanding from others, resulting in shame. Being diagnosed with BED was perceived as a relief. They appreciated that issues related to mental health were addressed during rehabilitation to better understand the complexity of BED. Knowledge about BED, as well as the difficulties of living with BED among family members and friends might help patients with BED feel less ashamed of their disorder and could thus contribute to increased self-compassion.

Therapeutic writing in a programme for binge eating disorder-A tool to come closer to clarifying feelings

INTRODUCTION

Therapeutic writing involving affect consciousness (AC) can be used to put difficult topics into words. In this study, we investigated how patients with binge eating disorder (BED) experienced therapeutic writing and AC in the context of cognitive behavioural therapy. The elements were included in an existing cognitive behavioural therapy group programme and the participants' experiences investigated qualitatively.

AIM

To investigate therapeutic writing as experienced by patients in the context of a BED group programme focusing on AC.

METHOD

A phenomenological, hermeneutic design with semi-structured interviews was employed. Eight participants were recruited after completing the BED programme at a Community Mental Health Centre on the West Coast of Norway.

FINDINGS

Four sub-themes emerged: Struggling to achieve a flow in the writing process, Deeper understanding of eating patterns through writing, Moving specific feelings towards the surface by writing and Greater insight into oneself as a human being by shared writing. Based on the sub-themes, one main theme was developed: Therapeutic writing in a binge eating disorder programme means focusing on oneself as a human being by becoming closer to one's feelings.

CONCLUSION

Therapeutic writing offered in treatment for BED involves individual movements at different levels, including processes of awareness of feelings, cognitions and oneself as a human being.