Today I will talk about obesity and associationism. Due to the stigma that is present in many areas of society, from the media to the general population, obesity is often not yet recognized in a tangible way as a pathology, as a medical condition, and people feel compelled to join groups to respect their rights. Associationism, on the other hand, has many positive effects as patients who rely on the association as a point of strength experience a positive condition and develop greater awareness and can thus increase their self-efficacy of the problem they are experiencing, make groups, share experiences with other patients and rely on the association.
In this case, the association I am part of, the Italian Committee on the Rights of People with Obesity, has been working since 2007 to represent people who live in a condition of obesity. It does this by trying to get closer to the institutions to represent their rights to access to treatment and to fight against the stigma and discrimination that occurs in various social areas, such as work, media, and transportation. So, as regards everyday life, trying to avoid the most stigmatizing and harmful situations for people living in a condition of obesity.
The important thing is that the CIDO, as an association, welcomes patients with obesity and food disorders regardless of their path of treatment. In fact, bariatric surgery, or the rehabilitation path, nutritional therapy, or any other path that the patient takes, absolutely do not violate what must be the respect for personal dignity as human beings. For more contents and photos feel free to check out our website WWW.DRIVEEXPERIENCE.IT
