When I had written an article on Anorexia Nervosa (see January 23, 200), I had mentioned in passing that those afflicted by it are mostly the female gender though there are a number of young men too who were found to be anorexic. But recently I read an article about a young man who was suffering from this condition and was shocked to read that there were scores of men out there who are anorexic and their numbers have risen in the recent past. And those men were being anorexic for the very same reasons as the women. I’d like to share this story with you.
It is so common to associate anorexia nervosa with a desperate urge to maintain a figure. But underlying this urge is always something graver. The triggers are always psychological. This is what was the reason with this young man I was reading about who came out in the open to talk about his condition and how he sought treatment. And he insists that there are many men out there who need help but who are not coming out in the open. This teenager from Cornwall wants to tell them that there is ‘life beyond anorexia’.
Chris Hardy recounts his tale about why he became anorexic and how he got treatment. When he was around 11-12 his parents went through a divorce and they had to move house. He had to change school too and all this had a traumatic effect on him. This is quite a tender age for a person, an age when you are on the verge of becoming a teenager and undergoing a lot of hormonal and therefore, psychological changes. It is not easy to handle such upheavals in personal life and we have heard tragic tales of kids turning to drugs or crimes to get control of their life. Or being struck by eating disorders, as in this case.
Apart from these personal tragedies in his life, Chris was also at an age when you become aware of your body and want to have a say in how it looks. Chris now wanted control of his life so that he could disallow any more sorrows in it. He wanted to be able to do as he pleased. And this manifested itself in his eating habits. It was fine that he had only cereals for breakfast but what not fine was that he counted the number of pieces he ate! His lunch was just a cracker and his dinner a ‘few bits of pasta’! His weight naturally dropped dramatically and when his BMI was calculated it was a mere 15 when the normal range is 18.5-24.99.
As his physique got weaker, his mind too began to feel the effect. He could not concentrate on his studies and that was when he finally decided to seek help, though with much reluctance. Like with all anorexic and bulimic, he felt control was being taken away from him when he allowed himself to be treated.
Today, he has recovered and is his normal self. But does appeal to others like him out there who haven’t come out in the open to do so and seek professional assistance.
Now that Chris has recovered, he is relieved that he sought help when he did!