Author of the book Stop depriving yourself !, Professor David Khayat, explained Saturday, at the microphone of Isabelle Morizet, that it was time to be more benevolent with ourselves, by freeing ourselves from the feeling of guilt, harmful for our mental health and for our body. 

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There is not only one life in life

, Professor David Khayat, who has long been head of the oncology service at Pitié-Salpêtrière, gave his advice on Saturday to get rid of the feeling of guilt and relativize in the face of stress. 

For the oncologist, we are subjected to many negative messages that push us to constantly question our behavior and our desires.

"When you listen to television, the radio or read the newspapers, what do they tell you? That you should not eat fat and sugar, that you should not eat cold meats and that the pollution, which is everywhere around us, causes lung cancer. But what are all these stories? Are we going to die eating a ham, a millefeuille or a portion French fries? ”asks David Khayat.

"It's all about balance"

According to the oncologist, author of the book 

Stop depriving yourself 

!

(Albin Michel, 2021), we must take a step back from these injunctions.

"It's all about balance and the search for joy and pleasure", he says, advising "not to deprive yourself of a moment of intense happiness and sharing".

"You can share a large meal with friends at noon and in the evening drink broth as a meal", illustrates David Khayat.

“I think this is the right way to go because you experience both joy and pleasure and at the same time this behavior does not have a negative impact on health,” he adds. 

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It is therefore not so much our way of life that risks making us sick but the feeling of failure that we feel.

“When you fail to meet all of these demands, you have remorse, a bad self-image, and a feeling of guilt. This degradation of your self-image can eat away at you. this may cause illnesses but in addition, the life you are going to lead will not be good, ”explains David Khayat. 

Some form of stress to fight

Our society pushes us to fight stress while causing it.

Yet David Khayat also invites us to take a step back from the stress that we can feel.

"Not all forms of stress lead to illness," he continues.

According to the oncologist, the stress that should be avoided is that "which reaches a certain level, either of duration or of intensity, which you can no longer manage and which exceeds what you can bear".

For example, you have to worry "when one morning you get up and because of this stress that you have been experiencing for some time, you tell yourself that you no longer want to live". 

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According to David Khayat, you should therefore not hesitate to discuss your pain when the stress is too intense, in particular with "psychologists and psychiatrists" but also with "his family and friends".

"Go get help! It's when you are left alone and you are no longer able to deal with your stress, that you hurt yourself," he explains.