For some reason many people think only women have eating disorders. The idea of a man having an eating disorder is often unheard of. However, twenty-five to forty percent of eating disorder cases are male. The stereotype of only women having these issues is just one of the many misconceptions about eating disorders.
Men are faced with many of the same pressures about body weight as women are. Starting very young, boys are told they have to be between a certain weight range to play the sport they want to play. The unrealistic rule makes the boys aware of their weight, and often times insecure about it. The misconception is detrimental to the millions men who suffer from eating disorders in their lifetime. The stereotype leads most of them to feel embarrassed. They feel as if it is not possible for them to have this happening to them because it is not known as normal. It ultimately stops them from seeking help from others. Their eating disorders continue to worsen without help from others and eventually it is too late. Educating society about eating disorders can help save and improve the lives of thousands of people.
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"She doesn't have an eating disorder, She looks perfectly normal and isn't super super skinny." "He can't have an eating disorder he eats all the time!" These are the things that we hear all the time about eating disorders and the people that may struggle with them. So often, those who don't struggle with an eating disorder are blind to the hidden world of eating disorders. Here is the truth and here are some examples. There are countless amounts of blogs and tumblrs that spread the idea of #Thinspiration. Thinspiration is the idea that you get "inspiration" from looking at other pictures of #bodygoals. This is what 14 year old junior high girls look up before they eat lunch or dinner in hopes of convincing themselves to maybe eat less or not eat at all. Simply put, this is fucked up and creating a more insecure younger generation. And now with instagram and twitter these hashtags and pictures more prevalent then ever. Our bodies will never be perfect and we are reminded of that everyday. This one blog takes it one step further and even gives tips on how one can start this "weight loss journey" and how one can give "excuses" as to why they might not be eating. These types of blogs are present all around us and they are all one click away. With this widespread of negative messages and "goals" it is crucial that we promote positive hashtags such as #bodyposi and #beautybeyondsize. We will always have an "ideal" body type that takes precedent over our physical and/or mental health but we all need to work towards body positivity.
Remember the thigh gap craze that pushed girls to take mirror selfies with the stick-your-butt-out-so-it-looks-like-your-thighs-don't-touch pose? Remember the hip bridge obsession that engulfed girls in a deadly trend to become diet-manias?
When we think about the root of it all, it ultimately boils down to how media presents itself; the growing intimate social networking has instilled upon us a mentality that everyone has to look one way and only one way. We have basically defined beauty in a single bracket of thinness for women and the perfect six-pack for men. We've created a perfect arena for judgment, jealousy, and insecurity to thrive in forms of eating disorders, extreme dieting, obsessive calorie counting, and so on. Not everyone suffers from eating disorders, but everyone brushes contact with the media that perpetuates negative body image. There are more people who scroll through Kendall Jenner's or Gigi Hadid's photoshopped reflections on Instagram then inflict shame on their own selves than those who don't. There are more of those who set pictures of model Scarlett Leithold and Alexis Ren as their wallpapers, idolizing them and striving to be like them. The video above of model Agnes Hedengard relays a product of some dysfunction that has engineered our minds to a set of standards that cause us to isolate those who don't fit under it. But Agnes Hedengard's choice to stand up against this discrimination is a perfect example of how small attacks can amass to a powerful battle. She didn't succumb to the voices that told her she wasn't good enough; she instead dauntlessly declares her mark of beauty, refusing to conform to the standards that we think we are forced to follow. It's the tiny pebbles that cause the ripples which accumulate to create a wave. We can no longer avoid facing the underlying false sense of insecurity that the media perpetuates on us. We don't have to be victims and succumb to this deteriorating mentality. Let's start by taking baby steps - unfollow that one model you know only damages your self-esteem; go on a hike with friends rather than skip dinner tonight - to nix the cult of conformity that confines us to self-degradation. 20% of people with eating disorders die. So why is an illness only concerning food so hard to treat?
Simple. Eating disorders have nothing to do with food. Food is the gun but a poor mental state is the hand that pulls the trigger. Eating disorders are so difficult to treat because they never occur due to a single event or even a period of time; they are a build up a life long struggle of factors concerning body image AND not concerning body image that cause the individual to finally succumb to the pressure. Eating disorders are deeply rooted in physcological factors that give a false allure of a way to control an aspect of life out of the many others an individual feels like they can't : weight. It may begin as an extreme form of dieting, but eventually the eating disorder becomes a "beacon of hope", or a "comfort" to the sufferer. Over time, the eating disorder will be a way to numb the individual to the other stresses of the world, such as the pressures of school, a dysfunctional family, or feelings of failure, while still believing that if they "lose weight", all those problems will go away. The complication is that sufferers equate their worth to how much weight they lose. They equate their beauty to how little calories they can eat in a day. They equate their control in life to how many pounds they can lose in a week. They truly believe they are in control over their eating disorder, but really they are more further from control than anyone. It's important to realize that eating disorders are never voluntary or a choice. Over time they become compulsory- something as normal as a daily routine. Treatment is hard because many don't want to "lose" their eating disorders, and some mentally just don't understand how to let go of an addiction that has desensitized them for so long. The process is draining, and many experience severe depression and hopelessness from the withdrawal. The sad fact is that eating disorders can never be completely cured. They can be healed or numbed or blocked out but never fully cured- cured as in the thought will always be there, one just must become strong enough to resist the allure. Eating disorders such as Bulimia may remerge during times of extreme stress, so therapy is often a life long commitment for some. Bulimics feel comforted by the feeling of emptiness. Anorexics feel full by the feeling of an empty stomach. Binge Eaters feel safe by the thoughts of an over stuffed stomach. Confused? Still don't understand how someone can force themselves to throw up? Or why someone would starve themselves to 60 pounds? That's understandable. It's very hard to understand the illness unless one has it themselves. When the topic of eating disorders are brought up in conversation, the words "sickly, thin, underweight, emaciated, skeleton, etc" are typically only associated with the illness. Images of starved models with piercing collar bones and jutting hip bones chiseled on a pale canvas of a skeleton-like body are the only pictures that show up when one googles "eating disorder". It rarely occurs to the vast majority of people that almost 30% of individuals suffering from life threatening forms of eating disorders are at an average weight or even overweight. Out of 5 eating disorders, Anorexia Nervosa is the ONLY one where the individual suffering drops and maintains a body mass index much lower than that of a healthy person- but in the other 4 (Bulimia Nervosa, EDNOS, Binge Eating Disorder, and Orthorexia) rapid weight loss is not a symptom. In fact, the eating disorders such as Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder, an individual will actually gain weight. Why? Take Bulimia Nervosa for example: Bulimia is the cycle when an individual will binge on large amounts of food and then proceed to purge the food (throw up) due to an overwhelming sensation of guilt. The cycle begins by having low self esteem and a strong desire to lose weight quickly. The individual will attempt to strictly diet, have a small slip up or feel a sensation of extreme hunger, feel ashamed and turn to binge on food as a way to cope with the shame, feel even more guilty from the binge, purge the food, and go back to dieting believing that "tomorrow will be different". And this cycle repeats itself over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until one is so helplessly stuck in the deep pits of Bulimia that they ironically resort to it as a coping mechanism rather than a way to lose weight.
There are, however, signs to look for to spot a bulimic: * going to the bathroom frequently after meals * repeated flushing from the bathroom * taking long showers or running the tap for long period of time * overuse of perfume or body spray in the bathroom * a vomit like smell in a bathroom or a person * the Russell signs (calluses or indents on knuckles from scratching against the teeth when purging) * swollen face or salivary glands * puffy redness of the eyes after using the bathroom * yellowing or erosion of the teeth * frequent coughing or complaining of sore throat * consuming extremely large amounts of food at once * obsessive preoccupation with body image * frequent crash dieting * depression, anxiety, social isolation In short, you can never judge whether a person is going through an eating disorder just by looking at them. You don’t have to be “skinny” to have an eating disorder, and you certainly don’t have to be underweight to be in danger of dying from your eating disorder. Help those suffering by looking for the signs and educating others on the misconceptions of eating disorders. |
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December 2016
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