The disease that affects over 22% of Romanians, but “because of shame, many do not act.” Cristina's case, the woman who now helps others

“It is very difficult to fight alone,” Cristina Fedorovici about the struggle with obesity. She also suffered from this disease, which affects over four million Romanians. However, Cristina has found ways to succeed in passing through the disease. Now, it coordinates a support group for bariatric patients, which count around 15,000 members.

• The article is part of the PULSE project, an international journalistic consortium in which Hotnews is a part and providing the public documented and diverse perspectives, with information from several countries, about issues of great public interest. The article was written by Alina Neagu (Hotnews – Romania), along with Andrea Muñoz and Franchez Becerril (El Confidential – Spain), Magdalena Pötsch and Pia Kruckenhauser (Der Standard – Austria) and Iev Kniukštienė (Delphi – Lithuania).

Since adolescence, Cristina used to keep diet every spring, because of the extra pounds. He also remembers “hallucinating diets”, when he ate, one day, only a grapefruit or cabbage soup. Every spring, until summer, he managed to lose 10-15 kilograms. In the fall and winter, however, the kilograms were returning.

With a few kilograms bonus, “after each starvation cure”. “I only heard:” If you had the will, you would not get fat. “” Cristina recalls.

In reality, Cristina did not lack the will, but suffered from a complex disease, which requires multidic -tickened treatment – obesity.

“Although we were children, we were blamed every morning.”

Cristina has fought almost all her life against extra pounds. At the age of 15, she was admitted to the Institute of Endocrinology “CI Parhon”, where she remembers that “diets were very drastic, and unfortunately, health specialists had a stigmatizing attitude for patients with such disorder at that time.”

“Although we were children, some teenagers, we were blamed every morning when the assistant lady weighed us and found that we didn't lose weight that day,” she recalls, in a hotnews dialogue.

17 years ago, Cristina became a bariatric patient-she went through an operation to reduce the stomach.

It was also the moment when he made a change at 180 degrees in his career: before the operation, Cristina worked in the field of human resources. After the bariatric intervention, he began to support other patients who were going to operate. At first, “simply from empathy for other people who had passed where I had passed.”

Then he chose to attend the courses of the Faculty of Psychology and to become a psychotherapist specialized in the treatment of obesity.

Now, at the age of 50, Cristina coordinates a support group for bariatric patients, who have around 15,000 members. “And I organize all kinds of obesity support groups, food behavior disorders and bariatric patients.”

It regrets that psychological therapy for patients suffering from obesity is not settled in Romania. In developed countries, it is recognized as part of the treatment.

“It's hard when you are told that because of yourself you have arrived.”

Cristina says she chose to counsel other patients because “it is very difficult to fight with obesity alone.”

“More than that, it is even harder when you are blamed and you are told that because of you you have come there, that you are the only guilty and, if you have ambition and you would care a bit of you, you managed to treat yourself. That things are very easy to do, you just have to not eat and your problem is solved,” she adds.

Cristina managed to keep her weight under control only after the stomach reduction surgery. Now, there are other methods. But the treatment does not end only when you get rid of kilograms.

In the 17 years since he counseled other patients, Cristina has seen “a lot of guilt and very shame” in people who face this diagnosis.

“A life treatment”

“Shame is the only emotion that paralyzes us. It makes us not act. When we feel ashamed, we only want to hide. Let's make ourselves as little as possible, not to be seen. Let us not be again looking with your finger, not to be blamed, not to receive disapproving,” she says.

Cristina also says that people affected by obesity do not need advice on how to eat less, but a lot of understanding and empathy: “Obesity is a very complex disease. The treatment of obesity is a very complex, multidisciplinary and often a life treatment. To think that only the advice given to a patient is not enough.”

In addition, the stigmatization of patients who face obesity can cause them to reach as complex as obesity, besides obesity: nervous bulimia, anorexia, very low self -esteem, “which attracts many others.”

“Obesity is not treated simply, and patients who face it, from my point of view, are people who have a lot of will. It takes a lot of empathy, understanding, support. It requires social reintegration – because many such people are socially isolated, precisely because of this blam,” says Cristina.

In addition, “as many support groups as possible, because psychotherapy works, but group therapy works. These things give the patient the feeling of belonging, inclusion, understanding, empathy. He understands that he is not alone in this story and that there are others who have passed there, for which weakening is a fight.”

“What do we do with people with obesity who cannot afford private medical services?”

Considered for many years a direct consequence of lifestyle, obesity is recognized, shortly, in Romania, as a chronic disease. But the measures taken to combat it leaves to be desired, considers Dr. Daciana Toma, a family doctor in Bucharest.

She confesses that, in the public health system in Romania, she has nowhere to send these patients.

“What do we do with people with obesity who cannot afford private medical services? As a family doctor, I have nowhere to send them,” confessed Dr. Daciana Toma, in the debate “Let's talk about obesity as a chronic disease”, recently organized by the association together against obesity.

And Spain is experiencing more and more obese people. What measures did he find

In Spain, 55.8% of the population is overweight, and 18.7% is obese, according to data from a study by the Carlos III Institute and the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition.

“Both the rate of obesity and projections for 2050 are increasing. If the obesity phenomenon continues to increase, it will lead to a major public health problem, because associated conditions, such as diabetes or different types of cancer, will become more frequent. This will represent a burden that the national health system will be struggling,” The president of the General Council of Dietitian and Nutritionist Colleges in Spain.

If Romania has no nutritionists in public hospitals at all, Spain has an insufficient number of specialists in the nutrition of obesity patients.

Luis J. Morán Fagúndez talks about “a cost saving measure” and shows the finger at the lack of political will. Although, he emphasizes, “there is overwhelming evidence of the benefits that the work of these specialists offers.”

Except for a few regions, such as Galicia-who integrated 94 professionals in his primary health care system in 2022, or Catalonia, who made progress in this chapter, dietitians are practically absent from many Spanish public hospitals.

“As there are no dietary doctors in the public health system, if a patient needs these services, they must pay them privately. For people with lower incomes – who have the highest obesity rates in adults and children – this is impossible. It is a vicious circle,” says the president of the General Council of Dietitian Colleges and Nutritionists.

The PULSE project is a European initiative to promote cross-border journalistic partnerships, co-financed by the European Commission (DG Connect) within Multimedia actions by Grant Agreement LC-0272862. HotNews.ro collaborates in the project with other prestigious publications in Europe: Delfi (Lithuania), Deník Referndum (Czech Republic), the largest Austrian newspaper Der Standard (Austria), some of the largest publications in Greece – Efsyn, El Confidential, Spain, the largest Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, the oldest analytical and information site. MediaPool, one of the largest HUVG HUVG and Italian newspaper with economic profile for 24 hours, one of the oldest and most powerful publications in the peninsula.

Three renowned transnational media organizations-OBCT (Italy), N-OST (Germany) and Voxerop (France) will coordinate the project activities.