EATING DISORDERS
Men and Eating Disorders; Trauma and the Body as Enemy
By Mark Isaac Thyss
Garden of Healing®
Little would you think, but men also suffer from eating disorders - it's not just a problem among women.
Men are following ten to twenty years behind women in terms of being exposed to body images that are difficult to achieve.
According to an article in the September 1995 issue of Psychiatric Times, about 7 million women across the country suffer from eating disorders including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. However, as many as 1 million men also struggle with eating disorders.
Males with eating disorders have been “relatively ignored, neglected (and) dismissed,” said Dr. Arnold Anderson, psychiatry professor at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, in the Psychiatric Times.
The American Journal of Psychiatry suggests two in every 100 males have an eating disorder.
Commenting on the magnitude of this problem, Dr. Anderson said, “Eating disorders are as common in men as in women, and perhaps more severe.”
Dr. John Morgan, one of Britain’s leading experts in eating disorders suggests that as many as one in five young men derive extreme distress from the shape and size of their bodies.
The experience of trauma often leads to the body being perceived as an enemy.
Eating disorders result in a person being both the weapon and the victim. Clearly, the man afflicted with an eating disorder is viewing the body as the enemy and is lost in a never-ending cycle wanting to self-punish through the control of his food intake.
We all try to somehow control or avoid pain, and in doing so, we think that life would then become manageable. For the person suffering from eating disorders, the need for control over food becomes primary. This in turn results in denying one’s own nutritional well-being.
The relationship with food becomes the focal point for survival. Restricting and/or binging behaviors gradually consume more and more internal resources.
Calling it “Manorexia” is treating the problem with typical Hollywood flair, and this is a mistake, because it’s a dead-serious disease.
There is little known because it is not typically seen as a disease among men. Men are too often diagnosed with depression, rather than with an eating disorder. Men also tend not to discuss their body concerns in the same way that women do.
Homosexual men are at an increased risk for developing an eating disorder. The International Journal of Eating Disorders reported both body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are considerably more prevalent among homosexual men in comparison to heterosexual men. In their study of homosexual men, 20 percent suffered from anorexia and 14 percent suffered from bulimia.
Some patients who experience little to no relief from an eating disorder describe their world as a constant battle with food and their body. The tension between the eating disorder voice and the inner self is all-consuming. Individuals in this place are characteristically in need of a higher level of treatment for their eating disorder.
Patients must gain freedom from the painful and repetitive struggles and life-interruption that accompanies eating disorders.
New research done by doctors at the University of Iowa and headed by psychiatrist Dr. Arnold Anderson shows that men with eating disorders had significantly lower bone density than women suffering with the same condition. Severe weight loss and a deficiency in essential nutrients, particularly calcium, can cause a serious decline in bone mineral density (BMD) leading to the brittle bone disease osteoporosis.
Anderson and his team assessed the BMD of 380 people (14% of whom were men) who had been admitted to the eating disorder clinic at the University of Iowa between 1991 and 1998. Three types of eating disorders were studied: anorexia nervosa, binge/purge anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa.
While all patients with these disorders showed BMD deficiencies, the researchers found that men, particularly those suffering from the binge and purge bulimia, had markedly lower bone density. The researchers suspect the serious drop in BMD for men is related to the male hormone testosterone, which is predictably lower in men suffering from eating disorders.
Men who develop eating disorders can generally be divided into three groups. There are those where onset was preadolescent, those where the onset was adolescent or young adult and those where the onset was adult.
“As many as one in six cases of anorexia nervosa occur in males. Binge-eating disorder seems to occur almost equally between males and females, although males are not as likely to feel guilty or anxious after a binge as women are sure to do,” according to the Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc.
Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders:
http://www.anred.com/
Eating disorders in men may be a new occurrence, or may have been occurring since the creation of beauty standards. If we allow men to acknowledge their disease, eating disorders will lose their power.
Treatment for eating disorders is gravely essential. Viewing the body as the enemy with the pain and anguish that accompany this idea means getting insight, especially into any past trauma.
© 1996-2009 Mark Isaac Thyss/Garden of Healing®. All rights reserved.
For more articles about natural health and healing, please visit:
http://www.thegardenofhealing.com/
Men and Eating Disorders; Trauma and the Body as Enemy
By Mark Isaac Thyss
Garden of Healing®
Little would you think, but men also suffer from eating disorders - it's not just a problem among women.
Men are following ten to twenty years behind women in terms of being exposed to body images that are difficult to achieve.
According to an article in the September 1995 issue of Psychiatric Times, about 7 million women across the country suffer from eating disorders including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. However, as many as 1 million men also struggle with eating disorders.
Males with eating disorders have been “relatively ignored, neglected (and) dismissed,” said Dr. Arnold Anderson, psychiatry professor at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, in the Psychiatric Times.
The American Journal of Psychiatry suggests two in every 100 males have an eating disorder.
Commenting on the magnitude of this problem, Dr. Anderson said, “Eating disorders are as common in men as in women, and perhaps more severe.”
Dr. John Morgan, one of Britain’s leading experts in eating disorders suggests that as many as one in five young men derive extreme distress from the shape and size of their bodies.
The experience of trauma often leads to the body being perceived as an enemy.
Eating disorders result in a person being both the weapon and the victim. Clearly, the man afflicted with an eating disorder is viewing the body as the enemy and is lost in a never-ending cycle wanting to self-punish through the control of his food intake.
We all try to somehow control or avoid pain, and in doing so, we think that life would then become manageable. For the person suffering from eating disorders, the need for control over food becomes primary. This in turn results in denying one’s own nutritional well-being.
The relationship with food becomes the focal point for survival. Restricting and/or binging behaviors gradually consume more and more internal resources.
Calling it “Manorexia” is treating the problem with typical Hollywood flair, and this is a mistake, because it’s a dead-serious disease.
There is little known because it is not typically seen as a disease among men. Men are too often diagnosed with depression, rather than with an eating disorder. Men also tend not to discuss their body concerns in the same way that women do.
Homosexual men are at an increased risk for developing an eating disorder. The International Journal of Eating Disorders reported both body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are considerably more prevalent among homosexual men in comparison to heterosexual men. In their study of homosexual men, 20 percent suffered from anorexia and 14 percent suffered from bulimia.
Some patients who experience little to no relief from an eating disorder describe their world as a constant battle with food and their body. The tension between the eating disorder voice and the inner self is all-consuming. Individuals in this place are characteristically in need of a higher level of treatment for their eating disorder.
Patients must gain freedom from the painful and repetitive struggles and life-interruption that accompanies eating disorders.
New research done by doctors at the University of Iowa and headed by psychiatrist Dr. Arnold Anderson shows that men with eating disorders had significantly lower bone density than women suffering with the same condition. Severe weight loss and a deficiency in essential nutrients, particularly calcium, can cause a serious decline in bone mineral density (BMD) leading to the brittle bone disease osteoporosis.
Anderson and his team assessed the BMD of 380 people (14% of whom were men) who had been admitted to the eating disorder clinic at the University of Iowa between 1991 and 1998. Three types of eating disorders were studied: anorexia nervosa, binge/purge anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa.
While all patients with these disorders showed BMD deficiencies, the researchers found that men, particularly those suffering from the binge and purge bulimia, had markedly lower bone density. The researchers suspect the serious drop in BMD for men is related to the male hormone testosterone, which is predictably lower in men suffering from eating disorders.
Men who develop eating disorders can generally be divided into three groups. There are those where onset was preadolescent, those where the onset was adolescent or young adult and those where the onset was adult.
“As many as one in six cases of anorexia nervosa occur in males. Binge-eating disorder seems to occur almost equally between males and females, although males are not as likely to feel guilty or anxious after a binge as women are sure to do,” according to the Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc.
Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders:
http://www.anred.com/
Eating disorders in men may be a new occurrence, or may have been occurring since the creation of beauty standards. If we allow men to acknowledge their disease, eating disorders will lose their power.
Treatment for eating disorders is gravely essential. Viewing the body as the enemy with the pain and anguish that accompany this idea means getting insight, especially into any past trauma.
© 1996-2009 Mark Isaac Thyss/Garden of Healing®. All rights reserved.
For more articles about natural health and healing, please visit:
http://www.thegardenofhealing.com/
