What do Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan, Billy Bob Thorton and Elvis Presley have in common? They have all suffered from eating disorders.
While eating disorders in females are often identified, male celebrities are not publicized as much but they too have fallen victim to the same disease.
In 2008, a student was diagnosed with an eating disorder after witnessing many female schoolmates obsessing over how “fat” they were. Currently receiving treatment four years later at age 14, Avi Sinai is one of many males who have suffered from anorexia nervosa.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association, anorexia nervosa is a “life-threatening eating disorder”, but sex or gender is not mentioned.
Compared to women, men tend to be more secretive about anorexia due to cultural and social expectations within their own society. Thinness amongst women is advertised within the media, allowing them to battle with weight issues without it being socially unacceptable.
An msnbc.com article that was posted February 22nd titled “Boys dying to be thin: the new face of anorexia” is evidence of the spreading of “manorexia” awareness.
According to the article, educating children to live healthy lives and deliver the message without triggering unhealthy habits is the way to prevent not only males who suffer from anorexia, but people all around the world.
It is reported that men who are athletic, have gender issues, act out certain personality traits or are obese are more likely to become anorexic. These situations that lead to the eating disorder depends on what is culturally acceptable within their society.
In America, boys become aware within adolescence of their expected cultural image.
“From a very young age, boys are surrounded with media message of what they should look like,” said Sondra Kronberg, co-founder of Eating Disorder Associates Treatment and Referral Centers. “Action figures present subtle message of unrealistic role models of well-sculpted, heavily muscled, ‘perfect’ bodies that little boys see as their role models.”
TJ Warschefsky, who was a star athlete and a straight-A student, died at the age of 22 in 2007 after an eight year battle with anorexia nervosa. According to his mother, Warschefsky didn’t strive to become skinny, but wanted perfectionism and had desire for control through achieving rock hard abs.
“I think there’s a point in this illness where the obsession and the control turns to complete out of control,” Warschefsky’s mother said, “The illness takes control, and they become possessed.”
Due to males often being too ashamed to seek help when dealing with anorexia nervosa, past records reported by doctors show that by the time males go to a hospital to receive treatment, they have become too physically sick.
A CBS News article titled “More Men Facing Eating Disorders” from October of 2005 talked about the increase in number of men developing anorexia. The article states that the number of men who are developing eating disorders is increasing because of society’s “ideal” image.
In study conducted in 2007, one in four people suffering from an eating disorder were male, surpassing the reported 10 percent of males out of the total anorexic population. According to Children’s Hospital Colorado, there has been recent evidence of an increase in men seeking medical help.
Dr. Jennifer Hagman, who has been running the eating disorder program at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said that it was uncommon to see male patients five years ago.
Now, she always sees one to three boys in the program, with the majority of them being victims of society’s obsession with appearance and an ideal image.
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