Eating disorders affect men, just as they do women. Males make up 10 percent of all people with these problems, with many suffering the co-occurring condition of substance use disorder. When you suffer an eating disorder and drug or alcohol addiction, you need specialized treatment focused on healing both the addiction and eating disorders in men.
Truths of Eating Disorders In Men
Eating disorders in men often continue without detection, until prognosis becomes dire. This is because men struggle with stigmas society places on males when it comes to revealing their problem and seeking support. But acceptance and treatment of eating disorders are growing. This means more men seek help for their problems than ever before.
Eating disorders in men respond to treatment just like the same conditions in women. Men also experience similar signs and symptoms. These include physical and psychological problems, such as low sex drive, weakening of bones, damage to the heart and other vital organ damage. In fact, research proves no real differences exist between how eating disorders affect men versus how they affect women.
Eating disorders in men typically appear due to body image issues. In fact, studies show that male desire for thinness plays a bigger role than psychological problems or family concerns. Cultural pressures and increased focus on the ideal body shape and size affect many men today. They face pressures for highly masculine forms with toned muscles and perfect grooming.
On television today, you see more and more commercials about men’s weight loss or those targeting men. The same is true of grooming products, skin care products, cosmetic surgeries, and fashion. Experts believe this cultural shift is leading to an increase in a compulsive exercise disorder with eating disorders in men.
Addiction and Eating Disorders
Addiction and eating disorders go hand-in-hand. The same is true for other types of behavioral disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Your diagnosis of an eating disorder possibly includes the eating problem itself, substance use disorder and a co-occurring mental illness.
But finding out about your problems through clear diagnosis should not make you feel despair. Instead, your dual diagnosis or having multiple co-occurring conditions makes perfect sense. You likely fell into substance abuse because of your behavioral disorders. Such self-medication is common among people with drug or alcohol addiction.
Now all you need for a chance of a better life is a treatment for substance abuse and your eating disorder. This treatment takes place in a dual diagnosis treatment center in Pennsylvania. There, you gain the education, support, therapies and other help you need for strong recovery.
Eating Disorders in Men and Addiction Treatment in Pennsylvania
Your Pennsylvania addiction recovery services take place at Steps to Recovery in Levittown. At Steps to Recovery, you gain the education, support, coping skills and therapies you need to overcome your behavioral problems. Steps to Recovery’s treatment includes individualized treatment plans. Your plan takes you through two phases of rehab, starting with PHP and continuing in IOP.
Programs of Steps to Recovery include:
- Extensive pre-admissions involvement
- Eating disorder treatment
- 3-to-1 staff to client ratio
- 12 step-based Florida model treatment
- PHP and IOP treatment
- Individual, group, and family therapies
- Addiction education and life skills
At Steps to Recovery, you gain the freedom you need from your addictions and eating disorders in men. For yourself or someone you love who suffers from these problems, help exists in Levittown. Call Steps to Recovery now at 267.719.8528 now. Talk to caring counselors, learn about programs and gain the support you need for a fresh start.