Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
Home Health & Medicine

Eating disorder therapy largely ignored for men

It's not just women who are concerned with their bodies and eating disorders, it's men too. This might seem obvious, but a study found that despite eating disorders are very common among men, these receive little attention or are treated less seriously than women.

Tibi Puiu by Tibi Puiu
March 2, 2015
in Health & Medicine, News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubmit to Reddit

It’s not just women who are concerned with their bodies and eating disorders, it’s men too.  It might seem obvious, but a study found that despite eating disorders being common among men, these receive little attention or are treated less seriously than women.

men eating disorder
Whilst we are familiar with the worrying numbers of women who have eating disorders, many people will probably be shocked to learn that so many men are also sufferers.

Between seven and ten million women across the United States are believed to suffer from eating disorders. These include anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating – all of which are serious emotional and physical problems that can pose long-lasting problems and even have life-threatening consequences. But both men and women are affected by eating disorders, and according to research eating disorders in males are clinically similar to eating disorders in females.

It’s true, however, that eating disorders are less common in men since only 10% of those suffering from them are men or roughly one million men in the United States. Cultural and media pressures on men for the “ideal body” (again, women aren’t alone) has exacerbated this trend. According to a new report released by a charity called Beat, 320,000 men were admitted to hospital suffering with bulimia, anorexia and muscle dysmorphia last year– up 63 per cent in the past five years.

ADVERTISEMENT

Daniel Perry, 24, an office manager, has been suffering from eating disorder since the age of 15. But according to Perry, he waited for two years to receive a life-saving ­cognitive behavioral therapy, while he was still living on 300 calories daily.

Sorry to interrupt, but you should really...

...Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40,000 subscribers can't be wrong.

   

“I attempted suicide at one point – to not have the treatment puts lives at risk,” Perry said, who laments therapies focus too much on women “One of the first things they would always ask is, ‘Do you feel as if you were born a male?”

According to Beat, there’s still a stigma associated to eating disorders in general, and men finding difficult to find help, in particular.

“Specialist treatment is also mainly geared around females and getting help can seem like an overwhelmingly impossible task,” the charity added.

“Nowadays younger men are becoming more vulnerable to disliking their bodies and seeking to reshape them, and many lack the skills to discuss their feelings.”

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rates among any mental illness. Up to 20% of all those affected die prematurely.

ADVERTISEMENT

 

Tags: eating disorder
ShareTweetShare
Tibi Puiu

Tibi Puiu

Tibi is a science journalist and co-founder of ZME Science. He writes mainly about emerging tech, physics, climate, and space. In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.