When you admit, you commit

Hello, My name is Echi*, and I am a compulsive overeater.

It took me some time to get to this realization. I knew the way I approached food was abnormal. Perhaps for the past three to four years, I have been overweight, according to my BMI calculations. There are some who refuse to believe that I am overweight. Just this past weekend, I have been told that I have a great shape - twice - by a man and a woman. My body image is not really a problem - at this moment for me. It is the amount I eat, my relationship with food, and the damage I am slowly inflicting on my body on a daily basis.

I have a strong family history of diabetes. Not the type of family history where you talk of grandfathers and great-grandmothers. Both my parents have had diabetes for several years, most of their siblings have diabetes, and both of my grandmothers had diabetes before they passed. I attend gatherings and meetings and eat meals in public, and then retreat to my room to eat the amount and type of food that I really want to consume. I can go into details, but I find that sometimes, in recounting these details, I indulge in some form of food p+rn.  Also, at this point, I find no need to provide details. Because being slightly larger than the confines of BMI is seen as perfectly alright in my culture, I found it hard to admit that I did have a problem.

*In the spirit of anonymity, my name has been significantly altered.