Hello donors,
My name is ShannonI am 30 years old and live in the Twente region, municipality of Hellendoorn.
From an early age I have always struggled with being overweight. My very first appointment with a dietitian was at the age of 10.
I never felt full and sought refuge in food in every emotion. I was bullied a lot in my childhood and youth, and violence was not avoided because of my excess weight. To put a possible stop to this, I switched primary schools in the meantime and chose a secondary school outside my living area where I didn’t know anyone, unfortunately this did not produce the desired result and the bullying continued. This further created a bond between me and food, making it a safe haven to escape to and find solace in.
Things didn’t go smoothly in the home environment either, I grew up in a dysfunctional family and that’s why I have… chronic C-PTSD Type 2 (complex post-traumatic stress disorder). This, together with the daily bullying at school, has given me a disturbed bond with food. It ensured that I could express every feeling, from big to small, from sad to happy, with food. But when the feelings were often intense, they even became binges that were unstoppable. Where I lost myself in a short time and ate until I was sick. This allowed me to forget my problems and events for a while and give them a safe place. This went from bad to worse year after year. I soon discovered at the age of 20 that I have a genetic disorder that causes insulin and leptin resistance. As a result, I gain belly fat much faster and I am never satiated after a meal. This explained a lot to me. For example, I always kept eating until I developed complaints and carried most of the weight on my stomach. I have followed therapies for years for the psychological problems that had arisen. This started when I was 8 years old, before problems at school and at home. Unfortunately, this never had the desired effect. I stopped providing this care when I was 25, because all therapies and trauma treatments had not achieved the desired effect.
Years of depression, burnouts and panic attacks followed, causing me to continue to gain weight. Until I turned 29 and thought: “Okay, I feel completely unhappy, I would like a future with children and good health, but is that possible with this body and this psyche?” A conversation with my new GP gave me the opportunity to participate in the THE (combined lifestyle intervention). A 2-year program in which you are guided to a healthier life. The THE is offered by Fysiotherapie practice ZorgSaam. I let this sink in for a few more weeks. I had tried so many things and put in years of effort to take this one step further, but I failed again and again. Ultimately, I scheduled the introduction with the Lifestyle coach and that really pleased me. The Twente down-to-earth, warmth and a sense of equality felt so nice! For years I felt like a number in healthcare. I often felt a businesslike distance from the practitioner, but here I really felt seen and embraced. The conversations from that moment until now are of such enormous value that I continue to develop and grow in healthy coping skills. I learn to discover who I am more. This is quite a challenge for me with many obstacles, but I have always and still can count on my support Lifestyle coach.
17 feb 2022 The time had come, the dreaded scales had to appear, and wow, I was so shocked! 171kg clean on the hook… it was as if the ground fell away under me, it felt like I already had one foot in my grave, I never saw this coming! From now on things must be different, this cannot and should not have been the intention. I noticed that the kilos came off with very small steps. However, I soon ran into my emotions, which could no longer be expressed and find a place in my head. After all, I was of course always used to eating that way. That is why I sought help for my eating disorder. Today, I still faithfully follow my treatments.
I also experienced that my trauma treatments never got off the ground, because I always covered and protected the load with food. These were quite difficult times, because now everything was being expressed and coming to life. I learned that by feeling them, entering into them and breaking through them, peace came into my head, without having to overeat. This still remains a daily struggle, although fortunately I already have a lot of tools to deal with it.
Ultimately, all this resulted in a weight loss of 85kg! Under your own power, without medical help 💪🏻a great result of course, but unfortunately such a huge loss is also accompanied by excess skin over the entire body. This is easy for me to accept, because with such a weight loss you cannot expect to get out of shape. However, I have so much excess skin on my stomach that it limits my mobility and causes enormous pain. As a result, I suffer from tearing of the skin, inflammation, blemish spots and a disturbed balance due to diastasis (torn abdominal muscles). I have been referred to the surgeon at the hospital for this, and she also indicates that surgery is necessary to correct this. Unfortunately, applications have already been submitted by the surgeon to the health insurance company, but they are always rejected.
However, the surgeon/GP believes that it should be necessary to operate anyway, unfortunately I do not have the ability to finance this myself. Hopefully, with the help of you and many others, I can achieve this procedure. This would then concern the so-called ‘lower body lift’.
Every euro counts as 1 and is therefore very welcome☆
I already really like you grateful for your possible gift ♡
You can also donate anonymously if you prefer not to be named *
-Some photos of before and after losing weight have been added below, and the above-mentioned operation has also been added with information and a price quote-
Greetings,
Shannon Borkent ♡
2023-10-21 09:31:35
#Assistance #medical #intervention #Doneeractie.nl
