Hypheragia. More commonly known as “an unhealthy disturbance in eating behavior.” Believe it or not, a lot of people experience this. Unfortunately, even I can say that I have. Now tell me, how many people know someone with an eating disorder, can thoroughly explain what it is, or even maybe experienced one yourself? The numbers most likely are not too high. An eating disorder such as Anorexia Nervosa is more common than one may think. Anorexia Nervosa, according to The National Eating Disorder Association or NEDA, is defined as “a lack or loss of appetite for food (as a medical condition)” or “an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat.” If you know what anorexia is, you know that is mostly appointed towards girls. Almost as if it is just a girl thing. It isn’t. Boys can have an eating disorder too. Boys can hate their bodies and believe that in order to be attractive, they have to be thin. Or they just do not like the way they look in general. While you may have been taught that it is a female thing, it isn’t the case. For this paper, I am hoping to inform you on how frequent it really is for men to develop Anorexia Nervosa.

According to the article from Eating Disorder Hope, at least 10 million males in the United States alone will suffer from an eating disorder at least once in their lives.  Typically, men do not report or seek treatment for their eating disorder because it is organized as an issue only women deal with so they feel as though either someone won’t believe them or that they will be thrown over a shoulder. That what they are saying will go in one ear and out the other as if it is nothing. Roughly 10 to 15 percent of men are afflicted with an eating disorder. The numbers would be much higher if men would report their disorders but we don’t focus on the fact that they can have them, so they choose not to report their problem. It almost seems as though it is like that for everyone. Even with me, I found it rather difficult to finally tell someone until I went to the doctor's office for a checkup. My weight had been 95.3 pounds and I knew exactly why. It wasn’t until then I spoke up. Telling someone a physiological problem about yourself that extreme can be tough.

When struggling with an eating disorder, as said before, you often find it difficult to speak up for the first couple of weeks, months, or even at all. It is very common for male students, especially, to become vulnerable and develop an eating disorder. Even more so with those going into college. Such a big life transition can put a little bit of stress on someone, thus causing an existential crisis in which an eating disorder comes into play. For male college students, one out of every three positive screenings were within men.  Typically, hypheragia develops by the age of 9 to 15 in males, as said by Medical News Today. An eating disorder has nothing to do with your gender or age, but it has to do with how you perceive yourself and what you do with or to your body. It has a lot to do with how your mind works.

In the sixth grade - when I was 12 - I was anorexic, to put it in a blunt way. I never ate and I thought I was doing myself justice. I figured that if I was thin, then nobody would have any reason to make fun of me. I was . . . out of control, if you will. However, while females typically have that feeling of not being able to stop or eat, males do not. Men know what they are doing and know they have the ability to stop but they more commonly choose against it. It’s almost as if the world will stop spinning on its axis if they eat. It is understandable. When you put yourself in that mindset, it is very difficult to come out of. It is almost as if eating will kill you just as easy as not eating could. As I have mentioned before, a lot of women feel out of control with anorexia. But with men, they know they aren’t. A portion of the time, men with anorexia love the feeling of being in control or use anorexia as a way to reduce their anxiety. They like to know that they are in control of themselves and their minds. Anorexia is control. It seems as though it takes over your person as a whole. And what a scary thing that is.

With this eating disorder, people tend to visualize it as a thing females typically go through and that a lot of the time, that is all it is. A female thing. Whether it be because of a Victoria’s Secret ad or just something you see in a magazine, you never really see super thin men. Only women. Men are said that they have to be muscular with abs and amazing bodies. But magazines, blogs, articles, et cetera never dare to show the other side. Thin men. Men with what one would call a “dad body.” Which could be a reason one male may have the eating disorder. When men are shown off in things, they are held to a standard of perfect bodies. It could drive someone to believe that their “dad body” is not okay or acceptable so they figure working out and never eating will make them picture perfect. This, however, is not the case. Males can have any eating disorder.  “Research indicates that up to 25% of people experiencing an eating disorder are male, with many experts believing this figure to under-represent the true number.” Eating Disorders Victorias says.  A lot of research has been done and a lot shows that the number of males with anorexia is higher than some numbers and researchers claim. And though males with anorexia seem to be overlooked, it is not something that can not happen.