Men and Eating Disorders
Men suffer from the same kinds of eating disorders as women. However, support specifically for men seems limited since the number of men affected is not as great as women. About one in ten people with an eating disorder is a man.
Compulsive overeating
Compulsive overeating or binge-eating is found in 25 percent of obese men, usually men in their 30s and 40s. The disorder is characterized by impulsive eating beyond the point of feeling full, then feeling shameful afterwards but not purging. Men also suffer from other eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia nervosa.
Muscle dysmorphia
Muscle dysmorphia is an obsessive-compulsive disorder that affects a person’s perception of their body image, and is commonly referred to as “reverse anorexia.” Men with muscle dysmorphia perceive themselves as looking too small, when they are actually quite large. Men who experience this disorder describe a need to exercise every day, feelings of shame about their body image, and lifetime histories of anxiety and depression.
Men with this muscle dysmorphia also often risk physical self-destruction by enduring compulsive exercising despite pain and injuries, or continue on ultra low-fat, high-protein diets even when they are desperately hungry. Many take dangerous anabolic steroids and other drugs to build muscle.
Symptoms
Those with muscle dysmorphia may:
- wear baggy clothes in public to hide their anticipated “small” size
- spend countless hours at the gym every day lifting weights obsessively
- check many times to see if they gained mass
- constantly complain they are too thin or too small and need to bulk up
- be obsessed on eating the right foods
- adjust their entire life around gaining mass and muscle
- be affected by anxiety and stress.
