Men With Eating Disorders - Anorexia Or Bulimia
What Can We Learn From Them?

Men with eating disorders are not a very common occurrence, since the majority of those who are suffering seem to be women.

However, there are some very well known - even famous - men who have had to battle anorexia or bulimia.

Whether they realize it or not, these gentlemen could be a big source of inspiration to other men with anorexia or males with eating disorders.

Enduring the shame and embarrassment of having a so-called "woman's disease" is an added burden for sure, so it's good to know that there have been some successful recoveries in the area of men with eating disorders.

You may or may not have heard the anorexia stories or bulimia stories of the men listed below. Each is unique and is probably at different stages in their recovery process. They may even consider themselves to be fully recovered.

Either way, these stories will hopefully serve to inspire and motivate other men with eating disorders to come forward and get help.

Men With Eating Disorers - Daniel Johns Anorexia

Photo from jeaneeem

"Anorexia almost killed me" is how Daniel Johns speaks of his battle with the illness.

If you're unfamiliar with the name, Daniel Johns is a member of the Australian rock band, Silverchair.

Daniel entered an eating disorder treatment center in his late teens after several physicians had warned him that he was going to die.

He claims that he hated himself so much that he contemplated suicide many times over a span of three or four years.

Daniel stuck it out and remained in treatment for approximately one year, despite being one of the few men with eating disorders.

Everyone tries to pinpoint the causes of anorexia in cases like this, but I need to emphasize that there is no single cause, and no single event that will drive someone to an eating disorder.

With that being said, Daniel has admitted to being bullied and beat up by people outside of school and has alluded to that as being a contributing factor to his development of anorexia.

Men With Eating Disorders - Dennis Quaid Anorexia

Dennis Quaid - Anorexia Battle
Photo courtesy of jurvetson

When you hear "Dennis Quaid anorexia", it's not exactly something you would associate with a name like his.

But he is one of the few male celebrities with eating disorders who has come forward to speak about his illness.

Dennis' battle was the most fierce during the filming of one of his movies, in which his character was near death. His goal was to appear emaciated enough to be convincing as dying man.

Dennis admits to having a distorted body image and being obsessed with how many calories he was consuming, always wondering how much exercise he'd have to do in order to burn them off again.

Today he appears fit and healthy, although in the case of anorexia, looks can sometimes be very deceiving. Let's hope he's in full recovery!

Males With Eating Disorders - John Prescott Bulimia

John Prescott - Bulimia
Photo courtesy of skuds

Former British Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott battled bulimia for nearly 20 years.

He was aware that he had a problem, but hid it for many years due the shame and embarrassment of it all.

His wife had suspicions all along because there were several tell-tale signs in the house - such as missing food.

Once John was convinced to see a doctor, his first step into the waiting room was a challenge in itself.

It's reported that the room was filled with young women and teens -not a situation where any high profile, male politician would be comfortable!

Mr. Prescott entered treatment and experienced some difficulties with relapses early on. It should be noted that relapses can actually be an important part of eating disorder recovery. It is by no means a sign of failure.

These days John is, courageously, speaking out about his illness and promoting awareness about men with eating disorders, which is absolutely fabulous!

That is not and easy thing to do, and I wish him well on his journey to complete eating disorder recovery!

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