“I hadn’t had any bouts of bulimia for three years, I thought I was cured. But with food inflation, these debates on prices, the fear that it will become too expensive… The fear of running out of food came back, the crises too”. After years of calm, the illness from which Caroline suffers starts to act up again. A war of return for a few months and the massive surge in prices at the supermarket. Because, if inflation is finally starting to slow down in France, this is not the case for foodstuffs, the cost of which continues to soar. Prices increased by 15.8% in one year in March, against 14.8% in February, according to INSEE.
In the opinion of Clément Vansteene, a hospital practitioner specializing in TCA, it is difficult to believe that inflation alone can create disorders, the latter occurring rather due to a genetic or social context, or due to pre-existing fragilities. Neither he nor Anne-Laure Laratte, dietician, have noticed an influx of patients – even if the doctor recognizes that the subject is difficult to measure, his service being already saturated. “There is no explosion of new cases”, sweeps, too, the dietician Marie-Laure André. But Clément Vansteene recognizes: “Inflation can aggravate or modify the troubles. »
“An increase in the level of suffering”
Since the price spike, “there has been an increase in the overall level of suffering associated with an already existing TCA”, continues the hospital. “Inflation can be a source of additional risk for people suffering from eating disorders (TCA), abounds Anne-Laure Laratte. Patients who are anorexic, or who eat little, try to eat high-calorie products, which can be difficult to find with inflation. Price hikes can also increase food or calorie restrictions, and therefore aggravate anorexia nervosa disorders”
His patients “very often mention rising prices. This is a source of concern”. And complication for her too: “There is this very ingrained thought that eating healthy is expensive. Part of my role is to demonstrate that this is false. But in times of inflation, it must be admitted, it is somewhat true. »
Inflation, “the perfect excuse” to skip meals
Without talking about TCA, Marie-Laure André evokes “an overall poorer nutrition than before, and a change in consumer eating habits”. These changes, already harmful in normal times, are even worse for people with eating disorders. Mickaël suffers from hypophagia, a disease that he managed to more or less calm down by systematically taking a predefined shopping list. Here it is now too expensive for him: “The slightest microchange can give a horrible feeling of loss of control. So when our purchases are totally upset because of prices, it’s the apocalypse. Crises are coming back.
Bastien’s troubles have also worsened with inflation: “To put it roughly, anorexia means finding all possible excuses for not eating: I’m not hungry, I’m already too fat, I ate enough before… Overpriced groceries are a perfect excuse for skipping meals. Perhaps the most comfortable of all. What Clément Vansteene calls “rationalization phenomena”: a way of convincing oneself that not eating is the right choice.
Additional insecurity and fewer breaths
Food inflation is therefore a new insecurity for this already weakened public. “For fear of running out, people can buy a lot more and eat a lot more,” says Anne-Laure Laratte. High prices can also cause the opposite effect. Caroline can no longer afford her “cuddly toy purchases”, as she mentions them, which are essential to her well-being. Explanation: “It reassures me to know that I have certain foods in my cupboards, so that if I have a crisis, I know that I will be able to contain it by eating that. These products have become extremely expensive…”
“We are bombarded with information about food, we only talk about that, it’s hard not to think about it”, continues Mickaël. Especially since, with the rise in prices, leisure and other social activities are sometimes reduced or sacrificed, “while this was essential breathing to manage eating disorders”.
More expensive and heavier crises
Because fear does not stop at the door of the supermarket, relaunches Clément Vansteene: “Inflation creates financial anxiety, and anxiety promotes the risk of a food crisis”. It then left for a vicious circle: a bulimia crisis has a financial cost which increases economic anxiety, which increases the risk of a bulimia crisis…
A situation in the face of which Mickaël struggles to see a way out: “These troubles are destroying our morale, our health and now our wallet. It’s all the more guilt-ridden. And when we feel guilty, we fall back”