My anorexia started when I was fifteen (I am now twenty five). I had been bullied prior to this because I hadn’t shifted my teenage puppy fat as quickly as my friends but it was the breakdown in my parents marriage that most contributed to it. My dad had for a long time been physically and mentally abusive to my mum and in the end she was almost driven to have an affair which when my dad found out, led their separation. My sister went to live with my mum and for some strange reason (to this day I still don’t know why), I stayed with my dad. We struggled, both of us suffering from the effect of the break up and cooking meals didn’t seem important, so I started skipping them, first breakfast and lunch. It was around this time that my doctor diagnosed me as suffering from depression.
This, as well as my dad starting to be abusive toward me affected my confidence and I started to withdraw from people and becoming more shy, which led to me struggling to attend college, eventually leading to poor grades, and once I finished college, led to a struggle finding employed work. It also impacted on my sexual relationships, I would manage to get girlfriends but wouldn’t allow them to be in my life for any more than a month and any mention of food would instantly mean I would have to distance myself from them. All of this stress impacted me and I started skipping all meals when possible, only eating one real meal a week when I would visit my mum for tea. I would have to justify this by walking on a coastal route path for up to six hours. It was around this time at the age of nineteen that I was officially diagnosed as having anorexia.
At twenty five I’m probably the perfect example of how eating disorders evolve. I’m no longer able to not eat for long periods of time, often binging and then having to exercise for hours and hours afterwards. From a simple exercise in attempting to cope with a difficult situation, I now suffer from extreme bouts of depression when I can’t get out of bed and social anxiety which is stopping me from functioning in society and doing the things I want to do (get a job, go to university, etc).
Men Get Eating Disorders Too’ is a registered charity in England and Wales no. 1139351
Registered postal address: c/o Community Base, 113 Queen Road, Brighton, BN1 3XG
