3.5 "Learning to Cope Without Binging" with Marisabelle Bonicci

35-year old pharmacist Marisabelle Bonicci hails from Malta. Academically and professionally, she was always a high achiever. She lived in Paris and Groningen, and the Netherlands where she worked and studied. Marisabelle was also the president of the European pharmacy students association between 2008 and 2009. She represented 35,000 students at the time. She also owned a pharmacy between Jan 2013 - Dec 2018. Her biggest struggle was her weight and self-esteem. As a child, she was severely bullied at school as she was always bigger and taller than other girls. She had girls take her to the bathroom and make her throw up so that she would lose weight. She never managed to throw up but the frustration made her binge. As she grew older, this issue kept increasing as she dealt with stress by binge eating. In 2017, she hit 150kg (330 lbs). She had a client come into the pharmacy and tried his blood pressure and sugar. She gave him advice on a healthy lifestyle but did not say anything. She remembers the look in his eyes which said - "you are helping me but you are not helping yourself?" Marisabelle went home and vowed she would change her life. She went on a diet and lost 18kg in 3 months but something happened again. She got triggered and binged again. Then she realized that she needed to figure this out. She knew what was happening was not about the food, but her relationship with food. She used it as a coping mechanism and no diet was ever going to change that. Later on, she sold her pharmacy, worked with a coach who helped her, and now started studying eating disorders and helping others.