College
men suffer from eating disorders, too
By
Theresa Wong
Daily Utah Chronicle
SALT
LAKE CITY (U-Wire) - University of Utah
student Jonathan Taylor was unsatisfied
with his body.
"I
was a little guy," Taylor said. "I
was the typical skinny, nerdy kid that people
picked on. I hated it."
Taylor
dwelled on his imperfections until his dissatisfaction
soon became an obsession.
"I
would go to the gym two, sometimes three
times a day," Taylor said. "I
took three different kinds of pills to build
muscle. I lived off protein shakes."
Taylor
is not alone in his obsession.
While
eating disorders have been highly publicized
in the last 10 years and have effectively
been diagnosed as a very dangerous trend,
many people only associated them with women.
However,
while people may be aware of eating disorders,
it may be surprising to know how rapidly
eating disorders are growing among males
as well. About 10 percent of people with
eating disorders that come to the attention
of mental health professionals are male.
According
to the Eating Disorder Recovery Center,
in the year 2000, men in America spent $2
billion on home exercise equipment, more
than $2 billion on commercial gym memberships
and countless more on diet supplements that
promise to burn fat and help build muscle.
Paid
circulation for Men's Health magazine was
more than 1.5 million subscribers.
While
males tend to fall victim to eating disorders
like anorexia nervosa and bulimia, one of
the fastest growing eating disorders among
men is called muscle dysmorphia.
It
has also been nicknamed "reverse anorexia"
because instead of people seeing themselves
as fat and wanting to lose weight, an individual
with muscle dysmorphia often has feelings
of shame associated with feeling too small.
Taylor fell into this category.
"Women
feel pressure when they see fashion magazines
with size double zero models in it. That's
understandable, but men have to deal with
it too, with all the body-building magazines
that there are," he said.
Taylor
also said that the "perfect body"
stereotype for males can be just as hard
for guys as it is for girls to live up to.
"Guys
have to have that perfect V-shaped body,"
he says. "That's the type of body that
is generated to males in the media."
According
to the Eating Disorder Recovery Center,
dysmorphia is an obsessive-compulsive disorder
that affects a person's perception of his
or her body. Men with this disorder often
will obsessively visit the gym and constantly
check to see if they have increased in mass.
They will constantly worry about what they
eat and commonly have strict diets.
Men
with muscle dysmorphia often turn to steroids
and other dangerous ailments to help them
bulk up. "I pulled so many muscles
when I was in my exercise stage," Taylor
said. "But if I even sat out for one
day, I would start to feel like I was losing
my muscle, so I would go and work double
hard. It messed me up."
There
are several signs to look for if an individual
worries that someone he or she knows might
be at risk for muscle dysmorphia.
The
first is if an individual gives up social
obligations and outings in order to maintain
his or her workout schedule. Neglecting
work, school, family and other social aspects
in life could mean that the person is becoming
dependent on his or her need or obsession.
A
second sign is if someone will avoid every
situation where his or her body has a chance
to become exposed. And, in the case that
his or her body is already exposed, have
great stress or anxiety about the situation.
A
third sign is if someone continues to work
out obsessively or take diet pills even
when he or she is aware of the consequences.
"People
need to realize that men are just as vulnerable
as women in terms of how they look, determined
on how they want to get treated in society,"
Taylor said. "Eating disorders are
a disease, and need to be acknowledged,
both for the female and the male population."
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