Anorexia hitting men increasingly hard: One in three cases

life.nationalpost.com...

Bulimia, anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders, long thought to be serious problems for many women, are showing up among surprisingly large numbers of men, some of whom are starving themselves or exercising obsessively to look like the pictures in men’s magazines. Yet neither men themselves, nor most doctors, think of males as being at risk for these illnesses, experts say. Community-based studies suggest one case in three of anorexia nervosa is a male, said Dr. Blake Woodside, director of the program for eating disorders at Toronto General Hospital. For bulimia, it is about one in four. Breaking through stigma in the battle for better eating disorders care in Canada For eight years, Debbie Gordon’s daughter suffered from anorexia. It began at the age of 15 and went on well into adulthood. Over the years, Gordon’s daughter was constantly checked in and out of eating disorder programs offered by the Toronto General and Credit Valley hospitals. At most, she was out of the program for six months before having to be readmitted. “It is the No. 1 mental health killer in young people,” Gordon says. “There’s just so many people with the disease and so little beds.” Indeed, in the Greater Toronto Area, there are only two eating disorder programs available. “It saddens me,” Gordon says. “There needs to be more government funding.” “And that’s a dramatic finding, because in clinical samples (based on people in treatment) it’s more like one in 15, or one in 20,” Woodside said.

Okay, I have to admit that shocks me. The old joke used to be that women look in the mirror and pick apart their flaws, men look and think...eh good enough!

Even one in two is a shocking increase and shows that the body image problems have finally been hitting us long enough to wear down men with the belief that conformity to that image is necessary.
I think we need to talk about the situation.

Your feedback please.

reply to post by winterkill


I wish I could gain weight. I could eat a side of beef and be back to normal weight in 24 hours

How ridiculous. I can't believe people are still getting suckered into letting others dictate how they look. I used to blame the media for this until I took a second look.

We are responsible for our own behaviors. People become alcoholics and anorexics and drug users and overeaters. By the same token they can control their behavior with the right psychological tools.

Discipline is required.

This trend tells me some men are becoming weaker, susceptible to the same mind games that have been played on women for centuries.

Welcome to the war, gentlemen.

It's not about conformity.

Eating disorders are about control and the body is an OUTLET.

Society makes people sick, and it's not JUST the advertising, it's the whole sloppy mess spread over the melange of different forums here. It can be sad, depressing, and horrible, and the illusion of control in obsessing about what you eat is the only thing some people can reach out to do... It happens when your grasp at peace and sanity is like grasping at straws, it's painfully ignorant to blame anyone in these situations and call them weak.

So, really, now we just have more people destroying themselves from the inside out.

I starved myself really good when I was... 11. Had to do with a terrible family situation. It's like a compulsion for control that gets stuck in the mind, whether you're eating or starving.

It took a lot of love, support, a healthy environment, radical therapy and a total reinvention of my lifestyle to get out of it. It's possible. But it's difficult, like getting an addict to quit. It's an addiction to control.

It's not because these people want to look like Calvin Kline models.

My heart goes out to anyone who is struggling.

Bull. I ate too much. I got fat.

Solution? Discipline.

I put down the fork and left it there until my weight was where it needed to be.

Problem solved.

Discipline IS control.

Girly men.

What a waste of a "medical study".

They need to grow a pair, get outside, go to work, find a hobby.

Main Entry: 2

DISCIPLINE

Function: transitive verb

Inflected Form(s): disciplined; disciplining

Date: 14th century

1 : to punish or penalize for the sake of discipline
2 : to train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self-control
3 a : to bring (a group) under control 
3 b : to impose order upon < serious writers discipline and refine their writing styles >

Originally posted by manicminxx
It's not about conformity.

Eating disorders are about control and the body is an OUTLET.

Society makes people sick, and it's not JUST the advertising, it's the whole sloppy mess spread over the melange of different forums here. It can be sad, depressing, and horrible, and the illusion of control in obsessing about what you eat is the only thing some people can reach out to do... It happens when your grasp at peace and sanity is like grasping at straws, it's painfully ignorant to blame anyone in these situations and call them weak.

So, really, now we just have more people destroying themselves from the inside out.

I starved myself really good when I was... 11. Had to do with a terrible family situation. It's like a compulsion for control that gets stuck in the mind, whether you're eating or starving.

It took a lot of love, support, a healthy environment, radical therapy and a total reinvention of my lifestyle to get out of it. It's possible. But it's difficult, like getting an addict to quit. It's an addiction to control.

It's not because these people want to look like Calvin Kline models.

My heart goes out to anyone who is struggling.

I totally agree.....I think there is a real difference between people who want to be thin or change their body shape because of perceived pressures in magazines etc and as a consequence don't eat healthily ... to those people who deny themselves food in an attempt to gain some control in their lives.
Also eating disorders can have an element of self harm.

Going what you went through at 11 and managing to get an handle on it show's great strength and bravery....proves that you are anything BUT weak!

I'm so glad you got the help you needed

reply to post by winterkill


I recall a study I came across in college which found that gay men and athletes ( high-jump & pole vaulters) were the most susceptible males to such eating disorders.

Gay men .... I can see how they may follow female trends but pole vaulters and high jumpers specifically

I will have to look up the study online......

A study in Norway (Sundgot-Borgen et al 2004) looked at elite athletes and reported the incidence of eating disorders amongst male competitors was double that of the general population, with sports such as high jump and pole vault seemingly being the riskiest when it comes to disordered eating in men exposed to this sport.

.... a staggering 42% of participants in a study by Carlat et al (1997) were identified as being homosexual a large proportion of male patients in the study by Carlat et al (1997) were identified as being homosexual compared with a prevalence of just 5% in the general population; so it would appear that homosexuality certainly is a general risk factor in males, and it has been suggested that sexual orientation is particularly important risk factor in bulimia nervosa. A suggestion which agrees with the widely accepted hypothesis that males with body image concerns are more likely to binge than are their female counterparts Read more: essaybank.degree-essays.com...

link

Good!

This is called survival of the fittest and if these men hurt themselves, tough.

We need less of these sheep in the world, people who care more about vanity than health. Idiots.

Pred...

Originally posted by UmbraSumus
reply to post by winterkill

 

I recall a study I came across in college which found that gay men and athletes ( high-jump & pole vaulters) were the most susceptible males to such eating disorders.

Gay men .... I can see how they may follow female trends but pole vaulters and high jumpers specifically

I will have to look up the study online......

A study in Norway (Sundgot-Borgen et al 2004) looked at elite athletes and reported the incidence of eating disorders amongst male competitors was double that of the general population, with sports such as high jump and pole vault seemingly being the riskiest when it comes to disordered eating in men exposed to this sport.

link

edit on 21-1-2013 by UmbraSumus because: (no reason given)

It's quite self explatonary with some of the sports. Pole vaulting, high jumping, ski jumping, competitive dance and several others favor very lean and thin body types (especially for males). For example young ski jumpers very often have this problem and we need to observe them all the time when coaching and practically force feed some of them. Unfortunately many elite/professional level sports nowadays do more harm than good to your body...

Originally posted by Juggernog
reply to post by winterkill

 

I wish I could gain weight. I could eat a side of beef and be back to normal weight in 24 hours

Two things
1. Drink a gallon of milk a day
2. Around midnight, eat another pre prepared meal

This is an old body builder trick on how to put on thirty lbs in a month (do weights at the same time)