When most people hear about the disease anorexia, young girls and women come to mind.
People seem to think that this disease only affects insecure, troubled women, but that is not true in our world today.

Past all the magazines, pressure from the media and all types of beauty products, anorexia has been affecting a new group of people, boys and young men.

Some may think anorexia affects boys and men at a small rate, but according to the National Eating Disorders Association, at least one million males in the United States are battling anorexia or bulimia.

Anorexia is a diesease where food cosumption is haulted for the time being, become dealthy thin and malnutrition. Bulimia is the purging of consumed food to lose weight. The large assumption of young women only being affected by anorexia or bulimia is causing boys to feel ashamed of coming forward with their disease.This confidence and hidden self-esteem issue is keeping them sicker for longer.

When researching eating disorders, most of the language and advice is targeted toward women, making it very hard for boys and young men to find help programs and facilities they can attend to get help. It needs to be taken into account that this deadly disease is not just affecting girls and women and advice needs to be given out to boys and young men before it is too late.

Dr. James Lock, a psychiatrist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, observes that most of his clients of eating disorders are straight-A students. Along with great stuents, kids are athletes, perfectionists and Type-A personalities. This is strange to hear when we put insecure, bullied, troubled girls as our first thoughts of eating disorders.

Many perfectionists have a desire for control and being perfect, and that is easily done with this disease.

This disorder also takes control over itself at some point, when the person becomes possessed and obsessed with their weight, making it a fatal and tragic matter. Boys who have eating disorders have become a lot more common and Dr. Jennifer Hagman, a doctor at a Children’s Hospital in Colorado says they almost always have one to three boys in their programs.

I believe that boys and men are overlooked when it comes to eating disorders, but they should be considered at the same rate and awareness as girls and women. Awareness of eating disorders is where all of this begins.

Health classes in schools teach children at a young age what foods are good and what foods are bad for the body to consume. Parents at home should be making healthy lives for their children by cooking and discussing healthy lifestyle elements at a young age, without sounding too possessive and scaring their children away of eating the proper meals.

Health classes, parents and Internet information needs to come across in a way that is not telling people to cut out all fat, calories and sugars from your diet.

Effectively, they need to state what are the healthiest ways to maintain enough calories, fats and protein so that your body remains strong.I believe it all begins with where people are finding information and how they are reacting to that information.

Starving your body does not make you lose weight any faster; it just hurts your body and slows down your metabolism, creating fast weight gain once you do start eating again.

So many people who suffrom this disease do not understand what they are doing to their bodies.
They look in the mirror and see this horrible looking, obese figure staring back at them, even when they have already lost 20 or 30 pounds.

This is a mental matter that is very scary and harmful physically and emotionally. In a world full of the media’s pressure of being the perfect person with the perfect body, damages the minds of people all over the world that are suffering from this disease or suffering from something like it.

No young girl, young boy, or anyone for that matter, should be so obsessed with their weight to the point that they are willing to harm themselves, subconsciously, in the process of having their “perfect” body. I feel very strongly about this because beauty is not skin deap and masculinity does not only come from a fit and muscular body.

Being obsessed with your weight will ultimately lead to more than just physical troubles. Some people never really get over their addiction and have to constantly maintain what they are eating, even when they have gotten help and recovered from their fatal state.

An estimated eight million people in America are suffering from an eating disorder.If you know someone with an eating disorder or an obsessive personality, leading to this disease, contact someone; do not wait until it is too late.

And to everyone who looks at themselves and sees something they are not, help is out there.
Do not wait until your mind takes over your ability to love yourself.

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