~Eating Problems - Article~ Womens Issues

Eating Disorders affect men too

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Says Garrett, "Why would a girl that looks like a model go for a guy who doesn't work out, go to a gym, and look as attractive?"

Tom Davis, who battled bulimia for more than a decade, says, "You almost get this kind of rush after you vomit. It's almost like a drug."
A broken college romance pushed him into a devastating cycle of eating and then forcing himself to vomit. He explains, "It's about control." It still is about control. Like many men with eating disorders, he found it hard to accept having an illness society generally views as a "woman's disease." He adds, "And I think probably the doctors felt the same way, too."

Says Doug Bunnell of the National Eating Disorders Association, "It's shameful to ask for help, stereotypically for men anyway -- but then to ask for what seems to be a female disorder is doubly shameful." And that shame has prevented all-important early diagnosis in men. Says Bunnell, "We do a much, much better job of catching anorexic girls before they lose a tremendous amount of weight."

Men who ARE caught early can be successfully treated with psychotherapy or medication. Psychologist Craig Brown also finds group therapy with both adolescent boys AND girls can offer breakthroughs. He says, "It is an interesting pool of feedback having the opposite sex around to say -- you know what? You'd actually look a lot better to me if you gained another 10 to 15 pounds."

Garrett Athenas went through therapy, gained about 40 pounds, and now has his anorexia under control. It's a battle back to normalcy he is happy to share, counseling other men who face the same life-threatening compulsion. "It's not what you look like," he says. "It's not what you weigh. It's really who you are and how you treat people."

Future diagnosis and treatment for both men and women with eating disorders could involve genes. Researchers have found some evidence that suggests eating disorders could be hereditary, not unlike alcoholism.