Few solid statistics are available about prevalence of eating disorders amongst men. Because eating disorders are thought of as a “girl thing”, men who have them feel even more shame and are less likely to get help.
For men and women, symptoms vary slightly. Women tend to focus on weight loss while men tend to focus on muscle gain – however, both are found engaging in extreme alterations in diet, over-exercising, and even use of performance enhancing/appetite suppressing drugs.
Check out NEDA for more info & keep an eye on my Tumblr this week to learn more about eating disorders!
- insurance providers make it almost impossible to get coverage for treatment as a male
- most insurance covers only in-patient hospital stays (ie, your heart’s about to give out) and NONE of the follow-up care
- stigma makes seeking treatment as a male even more difficult than as a female
- treaters, providers, and other patients bear the prejudice that males with eating disorders are automatically gay
- most residential treatment wards are unequipped to deal with men, and specifically only accept women
- many treatment centers explicitly only hire women because of the high rates of sexual abuse reported among ED patients, thus preventing the possibility of a male therapist or resident supervisor for a male who may feel more comfortable with someone of his own gender (this isn’t sexist on the part of the patients – whatever you want in a doctor that makes you feel more comfortable is ok. it’s your body/mind/health)