Every month or so, the popular media are saturated with stories of the latest Hollywood starlet’s eating disorder. However, it is rare to hear of males who are suffering with anorexia, bulimia, or other disorders. In his forthcoming autobiography, former deputy prime minister John Prescott has admitted to the public that he began his struggle with bulimia in the 1980s. In the same week, an article published in BMJ details the experiences of a male who suffers from anorexia and provides a first-person account of how a male lives with an eating disorder.
“People who are ‘successful’ anorexics die,” writes David Samuel, a student at Cardiff University in his final year of medical school. “I did not want to turn into one of the 20% of people with anorexia who die.”
Anorexia nervosa (its formal name) is an eating disorder characterized by an obsessive fear of gaining weight combined with very low body weight and low body image. Only about 10% of people who suffer with anorexia are male. Samuel writes that statements such as “I need to go on a diet” and “Does my bum look big in this”, expressions that are not usually attributed to men, are now what a typical male suffering from anorexia might say in the changing room of the local gym.
Samuel’s four-year battle with anorexia included a constant fear of gaining weight and a hatred of his own body that essentially resulted in exercise, calorie counting, and work dominating his life. As part of his medical training, he was undertaking a psychiatry attachment at the local hospital’s clinic for eating disorders. It was this experience that led him to admit that he had a problem. “I entered a room full of human mirrors of my bony form. I felt the pain they were suffering-the pain I was suffering”, writes Samuel.
He indicates that, the admission of having a mental illness was the hardest part. “My bubbly personality was gone, and my relationships with members of my family were shattered through their anguish at seeing me starve.”
It took months of weekly counseling sessions and cognitive behavior therapy along with the continuation of his medical studies that eventually led him to overcome the disorder. In 10 weeks, Samuel should have his qualification as a doctor, and he believes that the experience as a patient has been humbling. “One thing is certain, he concludes, the experience of anorexia has made me appreciate the torment that patients endure when they have a serious illness.”
The tale of an anorexic male medical student
David Gwynfor Samuel
BMJ. Vol 336. pp 892. (April 2008)
Written by: Peter M Crosta