Q: What is “How to satisfy bulimia” and why did you decide to carry out this project?

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A: I am How To satisfy Bulimia. This is my project. It all started when I decided to write my book; I was admitted to an eating disorder center and every night I would write a diary to express my feelings, my fears and concerns; at the end of my hospitalisation I had hundreds of pages written down and I would make jokes that one day those notes would become a book.

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I noticed that writing this dairy daily and let go off all the emotions of the day was actually helping me dealing with those emotions so I kept doing it also after leaving the center. In December 2017 though I had a very bad relapse, I was feeling extremely depressed so I decided to start therapy again which was helpful to the extent of understanding why I had developed an eating disorder but, soon I realised that they weren’t giving me any instrument to move on and get rid off the disorder.

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 I started doing researches on Google or scroll the social media in search for a different approach to use toward EDs and I started analysing the symptoms and when and how they would manifest. I began to follow courses from Doctor Ongaro, who is an health and performance coach, specialised in helping people with behavioural eating disorders and that’s when I understood I had to work on myself, not only by training or having a healthy diet, but also by validating my emotions.

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During one of our meetings Ongaro asked me if I had a secret dream and I immediately thought of those papers I started writing when I was hospitalised in Rome. I said I wish one day those pages would become a book and he promptly asked what I was waiting for. I needed someone to shake me and make me realise that only my fear  and low self-esteem were blocking me and in that moment I decided I wouldn’t wait more so I started transcribing everything on my laptop. My book was finally published in December 2018.

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At that point something I would have never imagined happened and people I didn’t know started contacting me asking for advice or help. At the beginning I was scared because I felt I wasn’t able to give them the support they needed and I still hadn’t fully recovered yet. I was so focused on trying to help those people that I got distracted from my own disorder and that is when I thought for the first time that maybe my mission is to help people in my same situation.

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My book soon became a Facebook page accessible to everyone, I called a business coach because I wanted this project to be concrete and she was excited to work on this with me, she immediately believed in the potential of this project. Having someone who believes in you from the very beginning is priceless and that is how I want people to feel when they ask for my help. When women share their story with me I see their potential and inner strength even when they can’t. It is like having a layer of dead skin, when you manage to wash it away there is a new layer of new skin and that represents the rebirth, getting rid off the past and begin a new life.

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After the project was born we started working “How to satisfy bulimia Life” which is a transformational path divided in 10 modules. Each module has a one month duration and we work on four main aspect of life: self-esteem and the perception that people have of themselves, 4 principles of health (nutrition, integration, training and inner work), relationship with yourself and the others and self-realisation. Thanks to this path people affected by EDs can work on their self-imposed limits like perfectionism, low self-esteem, fear of judgement, fear of confrontation.

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This therapy is available for women only because I have always worked with women only and I believe you achieve better results in this field, if you are in an environment with people of the same gender. The greatest satisfaction is to see a woman in rebirth, for every woman in rebirth I feel reborn a little more too.

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This is the end of our interview with Imma. In this hour that we got to spent together I could read in her eyes the determination and strength of who knows how hard life can be and in her smile the satisfaction and awareness of who knows they did it. I am sure that her project will be a success and many women, thanks to her help, will find the light at the end of the tunnel.

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Click on the links below to go back to Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview with Imma.

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Interview with Imma - Part 1

Interview with Imma - Part 2

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