Eating Disorders In Men

Men and Boys with specific Eating Disorders is a subject that until recently has actually gone overlooked and untreated. Of the 9 million suffering with the eating disorders it has been seen that almost 10% are Men and Boys. This is most likely a low estimate because the male gender is much less likely to talk about this specific issue which has been viewed as a disease that threatens mostly young white females. High School Coaches and Physicians are not as likely to recognize an eating disorder in young boys as they are with adolescent girls. By the time men are diagnosed with the problem of eating disorder it is more difficult to change the negative behavioral pattern that has led to a serious disease.

Men and Boys with serious eating disorders are falling pray to the pressure from movies, advertising and famous Action Figures much the same as females have felt for years. The fascination to be skinny but with six pack abs is associated with success and popularity. The idea or an image of the perfect body leads to unhealthy behaviors and disordered eating habit. As most of the society and cultures today have started to accept the reality that males are suffering with eating disorders this allows men and boys to seek help for their problem.

Men with low self esteem who get into the perfect body and are dissatisfied with their body often eat obsessively to feel better. The actual role reversal for men and women in the society today in corporate America causes some men to try and compensate with body image. When certain behaviors and feelings about food and ways to reshape the body interfere with the normal daily routine and people think they have lost control they may have to look for eating disorder treatment. There are very few services and facilities that treat men for eating disorders preferring to offer effective treatment to the majority of sufferers which are female.

There are some symptomatic differences in this eating disorder problem between men and women. Whereas women tend to focus on excess calories and body weight, men tend to obsess over muscle and body fat. Women normally tend to use laxatives more often than men to control their increasing body weight. Men tend to do over exercise to counterbalance overeating more often than women. Women suffering from eating disorders want to be slim as their objective. On the other hand men may want to be slim or heavily muscled, solely depending upon the body image most appealing to them.

On the surface men generally appear to be more contented with their bodies. There is however a general acceptance, often by the media, on dieting and shapeliness for females and physical fitness and muscles for men. Younger people, the young guys, in particular can be obsessed with having a six pack muscular abs and being heavily muscled or buff, or lean and lanky like the model or rock star they admire. Body builders, specially the athletes, are perhaps the most notorious of men with body image obsession. Building body muscles is a vanity sport with heavy emphasis on shape and size. Healthy eating becomes a primary focus and choice of foods a total preoccupation. Here the eating habit of a man can go from near starvation to compulsive overeating in a very short time.

• Matt Thompson
• 15/01/2009, 8:59 AM
• 0 Comments