Misconception about male eating disorder
Misconceptions about male eating disorders, keep men from getting adequate treatment and often they are excluded from treatment based only on gender. Anorexia is thought of as a girl’s disease and men and their families think that it cannot happen to them. Even after they suspect it, they do not want to admit that they have “a girl’s disease” and neither do they want to go to specialized care mainly aimed at women. To make matters worse, men are more reluctant to ask for help because since childhood they are taught to “be in control”, to “keep themselves together” without seeking out help. To be unable to control something in life is mistaken as a sign of weakness for men. Often, men are not allowed to express their feelings and may turn to eating disordered behaviour to cope with uncomfortable feelings. Even if men ask for professional help, they are frequently refused treatment. Most medical establishments are not prepared and many don’t even know how to respond, as treatment is different in men and women because they have different worries and expectancies about their body image. Men relate in terms of “strong” or “weak”. For some fat is associated with being weak, unmanly and disgusting. So, for many men, structured forms of exercise are carried to obsessive levels. Physically, anorexia in men may be less noticeable than in women because men can still have muscle mass even though they are thin. But this fact makes anorexia more dangerous in men as they lose more muscle and tissue, as opposed to women losing mainly fat in the early stages.
For full article: http://princessa.hubpages.com/hub/Male-Anorexia
