An alarming 9,000 men suffer from eating disorders in the UK at any one time, but male eating disorders are often ignored or ridiculed.

“All my early life I was preoccupied with my weight and body image” recalls Philo Jacquet, a former bulimia sufferer who now works as a therapist. “I remember eating whilst standing on weighing scales and as soon as the needle moved I would stop eating. I would exercise for two hours each day as well as throw up in order to control my weight. I was caught in a vicious cycle of wanting to eat more but not gain weight.”

Eating Disorder Information: Who Is At Risk of Having An Eating Disorder?

Eating disorders are usually associated with body-conscious teenage girls, but thousands of men have eating disorders and the number is growing. Addiction treatment centres like Lifeworks have seen a growing trend, especially in the relatively unnoticed disorder of bulimia amongst men.

Yet both men and health professionals often overlook eating disorders or fail to recognise the problem, delaying treatment. The greatest threat for this disease is the lack of recognition and without treatment, the fear of relapsing onto other addictive substances.

For Philo, one of the outcomes of not treating his eating disorder quickly was the dependency on other addictions, in his case heroin and crack.

What Causes Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders are often triggered by difficult life events. Problems with food can often begin with times of loneliness, boredom, anxiety, family crisis, bullying, low self-esteem or a combination of many factors. There is less cultural pressure on males to be slim, but the media are closing the gap, exploiting the perfect ‘six-pack’ shape and making image increasingly important.

Brought up in Belgium where money was very tight, food was considered a luxury and the only pleasure Philo’s family could afford. This was the onset of a very difficult relationship he had with food from the age of ten – one which he did not recover from until 17 years later. Philo always felt different to others and he used food to medicate his feelings. Food was either his best friend or his worst enemy.

Eating Disorder Facts: What is it Like Having an Eating Disorder?

In his darkest moments, Philo’s eating disorder consumed his whole life, thoughts and actions. Philo’s on-going pre-occupation with food was so severe that he was unable to focus or engage at work. Food was his drug of choice and it anaesthetised his feelings to the point of not even being able to be in a relationship with himself, let alone other people.

It’s been a long road to recovery and Philo now has a good relationship with food. He still chooses to avoid white flour and sugar, but he eats three healthy meals a day.

“Today, I have a life in between meals,” he says.

Eating Disorder Treatment

Now part of a team of therapists at Life Works, he is keen to address the rising issue of male eating disorders and hopes to give back to men with this problem what he has learnt in overcoming his own addiction.

People with eating disorders need to recognise the underlying psychological issues that have been the root cause of the eating disorder, and finally deal with those emotions without acting them out with food.

To read more about eating disorders, what causes eating disorders and the different types of eating disorders, Click Here: Eating Disorders Information.