Introduction
When eating disorders are mentioned, people tend to associate them with women and forget that men are equal consumers of food as women. Current research has revealed that anorexia is a problem to men as it is to women. Male anorexia has depicted characteristics such as preoccupation with weight and low self-esteem. Studies have revealed that the rate of male anorexia is increasing at an alarming rate with 5 –to-15 percent of the cases of anorexia being estimated to be males (Schoenstadt, 2012). As such, people tend to wonder what male anorexia is, how male anorexia occurs, or what makes this condition become a social problem. The truth is male anorexia is a condition, which has the ability of causing death when not intervened at an early stage. Further, male anorexia has similar consequences and progression patterns as the female anorexia.
How do Men get this Complication?
Women are known to develop anorexia complication because of the issue of fat. In contrast, fat is not the key issue for male anorexia. Obese and pressure are the medical conditions, which are associated with male anorexia. Further, athletic activities may trigger the development of anorexia, in men. Finally, men develop anorexia in cases where they are criticized or teased because of being fat. This is more effective in specific developmental stages of men like puberty stage.
Characteristics of Male Anorexia
Male anorexia has similar characteristics to the female anorexia. These characteristics include relationship and family issues, poor ability of handling emotional pressures, desire for higher acceptance levels in society, low self-esteem, and preoccupation with weight (Pippa, 1999). However, these characteristics are more evidenced in some groups of male than in other groups. As such, homosexual and wrestling males depicts higher levels of anorexia than in other males. These levels can be to rates such as 7-to-10 times more than normal.
Prognosis of Male Anorexia
Male anorexia occurs in most cases during teen years. Rare cases of men below 8 years and above 60 years are reported. Male anorexia is often associated with psychological and lifelong medical complications. Research findings estimate that 6 percent of cases in male eating disorder result in death (Schoenstadat, 2012). Despite the dire consequences of male anorexia, people tend to focus on combating the condition without any form of professional medical assistance. This results in people living with the condition for years or even decades.
Male Anorexia Challenges
One of the key challenges in male anorexia is the diagnosis. This is because male affected by this disease show a higher level of reluctance to seek medical attention. This is based on the fact these men tend to belief the disease is for women. This makes them to suffer from the disease in silence. Secondly, most of medical professionals have inadequate or no training at all on how to detect and treat cases of male anorexia. In addition, individuals and family have minimal abilities of detecting male anorexia symptoms. This illustrates that the illness may progress to higher levels that are untreatable without being noticed.
Gender issue is another challenge, which is experienced in male anorexia. This is because men recovering from this disease do not have the ability of engaging in support-group sessions. They fail to do so because the majority of people in these groups are female.
How to Address the Problem of Male Anorexia
Treating male anorexia is effective especially during the early stages of development for this complication. This form of treatment includes either outpatient or inpatient treatment in a hospital based on the anorexia level. This treatment includes treating of various conditions such as depression and anemia. This results in educating people on the best and necessity of having effective eating habits (National Eating Disorders Association, 2005). The treatment process may involve the use of various medications, or adoption of measures such as psychotherapy. Finally, it is beneficial to ensure that anorexia men attain nutritional rehabilitation that has the ability of making them to acquire an appropriate body weight. Complete recovery for male anorexia is ensured by adopting follow-up visits for months, or weeks. These visits seek to monitor the process of recovery and provide any necessary help at the moment.
Conclusion
Indeed, male anorexia is a complication, which occurs to men. As such, this complication has the potential of taking away life of prominent persons and breadwinners in society. Therefore, there is a need for having a public campaign, which targets men in order to educate them on the potential dangers of male anorexia. This campaign should include information on how to detect the symptoms and what should be done immediately after detecting these symptoms. Male anorexia is accompanied by numerous challenges, which need immediate address to ensure that people are able to live without fear in society. Nevertheless, scientific research should be conducted in order to ensure that male anorexia complication does not become a significant social problem. This research should include the identification of the best measures to treat and combat the spread of male anorexia.
Reference List
National Eating Disorders Association. (2005). Eating Disorders and Their Precursors.
Retrieved from: http://www.sc.edu/healthycarolina/pdf/facstaffstu/eatingdisorders/EatingDisorderStatistics.pdf
Pippa, W. (1999). Anorexia Nervosa Patients can Expect to Live a Normal Life Again.
Toronto, Canada: Rogers Publishing Limited.
Schoenstadt, A. (2012). Male Anorexia. Retrieved from:
http://anorexia.emedtv.com/anorexia/male-anorexia.html
