Males and Eating Disorders  

I'd like to first credit my source of this information : Medscape.com had a Medscape Mental Health journal article on this subject written by Devra Lynn Braun, MD. entitled Eating disorders in males.

More and more males are coming out with eating disorders, the most famous is probably Daniel Johns the lead singer of Silverchair. He came out with his eating disorder after the release of the Neon Ballroom CD, and the song Ana's Song which is about Anorexia, I wrote an analysis of it for English and it can be found here. many other males famous and not have eating disorders, in fact the number is higher than most think. males make up somewhere between 5-10% of all diagnosed anorexics and 10-15% of all diagnosed bulimics. Although I haven't found specific numbers, anorexia athletica, or sports related anorexia, seems common as the form developed in males, often because certain sports set ideals for the participants that are hard to maintain and thus disordered eating patterns develop, this is equally true for females in sports. athletes who are Body builders, wrestlers, dancers, swimmers, runners, rowers, gymnasts and jockeys, are some of the most prone. 

The general image of an anorexic is a 80 pound pubescent girl, and often people think that the eating disordered person is vain and self centered always talking about their weight and appearance. but nothing proves the point that eating disorders are not about food and fashion, that they are a true biological problem than the evidence of eating disorders in males. Because people do not see males as superficially as women are viewed. If you have a hard time grasping this I suggest you visit a library, or my bookshelf, and get yourself a copy of My life as a male anorexic.  it is an excellent book written by the sufferer himself after being coxed by his mother to do it as part of his healing process, it is a no holds barred account of his struggle, and the editors comments at the end are particularly moving. another excellent story, is online, and was written by a psychiatrist who specialized in eating disorders and had one at the same time.. Dr. Thomas Holbrook: One Mans Battle  

A recent addition to the world wide web is this page also written by a male who suffers with anorexia and self mutilation .  I really do believe more attention needs to be afforded to men with this illness. If it where more generally accepted than men do have some of the same issues girls and women do and can suffer the same problems, perhaps more males would reach out for the help they need rather than hiding in shame over their disorders. 

visit male cutters a yahoo support club for males with depression and or self injury (ed's are self injury in a way)

Check out this site on research into men and eating disorders: http://www-users.aston.ac.uk/~pieronim/index.htm