The effectiveness of Compassion- Focused Therapy on Psychological Distress, Self-Concept, and Social Support for People with Binge Eating Disorder

Eating disorders are a group of disorders characterized by persistent eating disorders and related behaviors that cause changes in food intake or absorption and are also significantly associated with physical or psychological health damage. The aim of this study was the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on psychological distress, self-esteem and perceived social support in people with binge eating disorder.

The method of the present study was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow-up with control group. The statistical population of this study includes all people with overeating disorder who referred to counseling centers (Avaye Kherad, Sahar, Avaye Zandegi, Rahnemood and Nedaye Baran) in Sari city during the call in 2019 (N = 300). Then, among the 300 applicants who registered in this call, first the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (Stice et al., 2001) was conducted and the diagnostic interview was conducted based on DMS-5, then according to the entry and exit criteria, 30 of them The final sample title was selected. These numbers were selected based on the opinion of researchers (Gall, Gall and Borg (2003) and Delavar (2020)) who in experimental research identified 15 people suitable for each group. To collect data, the Diagnostic Scale of Eating Disorders, Psychological Distress Questionnaire, Self-Imagination Questionnaire and Perceived Social Support Questionnaire were used. The data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance using SPSS-23.

The results of the analysis showed that compassion-based therapy significantly and with high statistical power significantly reduced psychological distress (p <0.001) in the experimental group, while self-perception (p <0.001) and Increased the perception of social support (p <0.001) in them, which was stable until the follow-up stage.

Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that compassion-based treatment can be effective in reducing depression, anxiety and stress in people with overeating. Compassion-based therapy also increased self-esteem and perceptions of social support. It seems that one of the most important reasons for overeating is anxiety, lack of self-image and lack of understanding of social support, which in turn causes depression and overeating; therefore, by teaching compassion to oneself, it is possible to prevent overeating of these people to a large extent. Given that the critical time of overeating and obesity is adolescence and school, it is recommended that workshops be conducted in schools to prevent obesity and its problems, and in schools the skills of self-friendship, emotion, self-confidence, non-self-humiliation and Teach mutual understanding so that we can take effective steps to prevent these problems in adulthood.