ИСТИНА

The implication of emotional experience on eating behaviour is widely discussed among professionals in the field. Shame is especially important due to cultural and micro social influences on the development of eating disorders and due to an invalidating effect of the environment. The aim of this study was to reveal an impact of shame on eating habits in a sample of 142 Russian female patients with eating disorders (binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, unspecified eating disorder). Methods used for assessment of the sample included NVM (Dutch personality inventory, a variation of mini-MMPI), DEBQ (Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire), EAT-26 (The Eating Attitudes Test), IES-2 (The Intuitive Eating Scale-2). Statistical analysis (the Kruskal-Wallis criterion) shows that patients with high level of shame have high disposition to external (χ2 = 12,791; p = 0,012) and emotional (χ2 = 8,020; p = 0,091) eating. They also have highest scores of occupation with food (χ2 = 13,856; p = 0,008). Finally, they have lower ability to follow physical hunger and satiety cues and a higher tendency to eat due to emotional reasons (χ2 = 13,212; p = 0,010). Summarizing results of the statistical analysis we can say that shame is an important factor of eating behavior. Shame defines emotional aspects of disordered eating and also affects awareness of physical sensations. Shame is supposed to be one of the key elements of a vicious cycle of dieting. Restrictive eating behavior often leads to uncontrolled overeating and blaming thoughts like “I am lazy and weak, unable to control what I eat”. These thoughts and shame act as a trigger for secondary emotions like guilt, anger, anxiety. Lack of emotion regulation skills leads to the use of food as a way to cope with emotions. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that there are in our sample two ways how shame is connected with disordered eating behavior - it leads to emotional dysregulation and lowers ability to follow bodily signals.