Eating is one the most vital thing that a
human being has to do. But when your brain is telling you that food is an
enemy, it’s where everything gets complicated.
In 2012, GQ magazine published an article
written by Nathaniel Penn about male anorexia. I found this article on the
website of the magazine, and it really surprised me: five pages full of
narration, stories and explanations. And a way of describing the devastation of
having an eating disorder and the pain that feel men who are suffering from
this illness. Nathaniel narrates the stories of four men, Blake, John, Will and
Steven stories that really moved me because you can understand how they are
struggling against everything: their mind, others’ opinion, institutions, media…
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But first, let me explain things in a
medical way: anorexia is a self-induced starvation, accompanied by a morbid
fear of food and fatness and the suppression of the production of sex-hormones
of the body. Essentially, the brain feels full when his stomach is empty, and
it sees a fat person in the mirror. Basically, someone who has anorexia is in a
constant panic, and can suffers from isolation, anxiety or depression too. Anorexia
has the highest mortality rate than other mental illness, with 24 millions of
people who are suffering in the US, and approximately 4% of them are dying from
suicide or medical complication. From the ones that survived, the majority will
have long term consequences like heart problems, stomach/muscles complications,
etc.
In America, there are 20% of people suffering
from anorexia who are men. But the big difference between men and women is that
contrary to women, men doesn’t seek for help… It might
even be possible that three-quarters of them are suffering in silence. It is
sure that the media and the way they show us “body perfections” are not helping… And the stigmatization of two gender types are really influencing
people, even men. Being a men and suffering from anorexia is even harder,
because it is consider as a white women disease… And when
they managed to look for help, to overtake what society and others will think
of them, they faced a huge gap that they don’t think they can cross: there are
just 25 on 58 centers specialized about eating disorders that allowed men. Those
centers are sex-specifics and most of them haven’t the material to help boys,
and not girls.
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I know that this article is quite short,
and really general. But I really think that most of people don’t even know that
men can suffer from this illness too. The most important thing to understand is
that it can touch everybody, with all ages and all genders. The second thing to
understand is to be able to recognize the first symptoms of this illness to be
capable of getting help. Because the thing is that you can’t do this all alone,
on your own. It’s a battle that you have to do by yourself and for yourself, of
course, but has any illnesses, you need help, and supports, and love, and
patience. And then, you can kick the ass to these f*ckin illness. So talk, tell
about this because it’s the only way to accept that, and to go through without
fear. FIGHT STIGMA.
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Ressource :
“Male Anorexia: 20% of Anorexics are men” GQ (2012) Nathaniel PENN:
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