WHEN we discuss eating disorders, the conversation usually revolves around teenage girls and young women.

But thousands of Aussie men are suffering from eating disorders and failing to seek treatment for fear of the stigma still attached to the illness.

A staggering 40 per cent of people with a binge eating disorder and 20 per cent of those with anorexia nervosa are men, says Christine Morgan, who is the CEO of the Butterfly Foundation, an organisation for people with body image issues.

The Foundation estimates more than 333,000 Australian men currently have a clinical eating disorder.

“There’s this myth that eating disorders are something that only affects teenage girls, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Ms Morgan told news.com.au.

“The number of boys that are being hospitalised (because of an eating disorder) is frightening stuff.”

Some of the entertainment industry’s biggest male stars have battled with eating disorders. Elton John says he developed a “camaraderie” with Princess Diana over their shared illness, bulimia. Comedian Russell Brand also developed bulimia as a teen, which returned when he was in rehab for a drug and alcohol addiction.

Former Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns suffered from anorexia at the height of his career, even penning Ana’s Song (Open Fire), about his battle.

He told Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope program: “I could somehow convince myself that apples contained razorblades and wouldn’t go to restaurants because I thought every chef in the world wanted to poison me.”

Eating disorders cover a broad spectrum of illnesses — anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and atypical presentation (where a sufferer has clusters of symptoms from all three of these illnesses) are all types of eating disorders.

Exacerbating the problem is that men are far less likely than women to seek treatment.

“Guys are more likely to say, ‘I don’t really have a problem, I don’t really need help’,” said Ms Morgan.

“It’s perceived as a sign of weakness. They believe it’s simply a matter of willpower — but an eating disorder is not cured by willpower. It’s a very serious psychological disorder where the battle ground is in the brain.”

Tony Kay knows this battle all too well. The 29-year-old Sydney man has struggled with anorexia since he was a teenager.

“When I was 13, I was very conscious of my body and was always comparing and contrasting myself to other boys,” Mr Kay told news.com.au.

“When I finished high school, I had a lot of spare time on my hands and I put on a lot of weight quickly because I was sitting at home doing nothing. I weighed 120kg.

“I had a lot of body dissatisfaction and I decided to lose a bit of weight to feel better about myself.

“But it went from being this hobby or a goal to be healthier, to several months on having noticeable signs of an eating disorder.

“I was restricting food and exercising compulsively. I was going to the bathroom often to flush out any waste. Obviously I lost weight and that positive reinforcement exacerbated it.”

Mr Kay says he’s hit rock bottom “several times” and dropped to an extremely low weight (I’m 6”3. I was a noticeable anorexic”). He has been hospitalised four times.

“I could no longer really function,” he said.

“I couldn’t feel anything. I wasn’t happy, I was apathetic, I was tired. I didn’t have any energy and I was very angry. The only thing that made me feel any better was exercising and restricting food, because it gave me a sense of security.”

And while his condition has improved, Mr Kay says you never fully ‘recover’ from an eating disorder.

“It’s a day by day thing,” he said. “One day I will challenge those thoughts and unrealistic expectations and eat freely without consideration.

“Other days, I’m a slave to those thoughts. It becomes so ingrained in you it’s hard to stop.”

Male eating disorders can easily go unnoticed. Going to the gym daily or watching what you eat can be misinterpreted as simply going on a health kick.

Ms Morgan says: “They will often start to engage in disordered exercise behaviours which then leads to disorder eating behaviours, with the idea of getting that buff, ripped look, which society says is a healthy look, that it’s a healthy practice.

“How few guys naturally have that ideal body look? To try and get that look they have to do things which are very harmful to our bodies.”

Mr Kay says eating disorders are more rife in the male community than people realise.

“Images of the ideal male are constantly shoved down your throat,” he said. “They’re unrealistic expectations. Most people can never achieve that.”

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If you or someone you know is seeking help, contact the Butterfly Foundation National Support Line for eating disorders on 1800 33 4673