My obesity is the first thing people notice about me and it's the first thing many judge me on. I can't think of anything else in the world that I would like more than to be free from this disorder, writes Sam Ikin.

Eating disorders have been well and truly in the spotlight thanks to the Butterfly Foundation and its Body Image and Eating Disorder Awareness week. But something has been missing from all the coverage.

There have been numerous mentions of anorexia and bulimia and quite rightly so; they are debilitating illnesses and are not well understood in the wider community. But the disorder that the foundation describes as "the most common of all eating disorders" has barely rated a mention.

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is not associated with skinny teenagers; one in four sufferers are men starting from their early 20s well into their adult life. Butterfly Foundation CEO Christine Morgan describes BED as "the very distressing disassociated binging, completely out of control, that goes with bulimia nervosa but without the subsequent purging behaviours". As such it's almost always associated with obesity.

"With the levels of stigma that we have in our society people would say 'No, that's not a psychiatric illness, it's just you doing some comfort eating'," Morgan says. "In fact if you've sat alongside anybody who does it, you'd know it's the furthest thing in the world from comfort eating. They do not get any comfort from what they do whatsoever."

Fat haters love saying, "You know, eating that much food will make you fat, but you do it anyway. Why don't you just stop?" I guess that's true. I guess it's also true that alcoholics know they drink too much and gambling addicts know they're probably going to lose money.

At this point, as a journalist, I usually bring in a case study. But finding someone with BED who is prepared to talk about their experience has proved difficult. The foundation's website says BED "can result in intense feelings of guilt, depression and shame". In my experience this is always the case, so I have decided not to ask another sufferer to act as a case study; instead I will share my own experience.

I was diagnosed with BED in 2012 but I have had it for decades. As a man in my 30s, an eating disorder was the last thing I thought I would have. Morgan says BED is often hidden after repeated misdiagnoses.

"The 'cure' for obesity is to go on a diet and for someone with an eating disorder that's like throwing kerosene on a fire," Morgan says. To simply blame obese people with this condition for their poor lifestyle choice is cruel and unhelpful.

I can't count the number of times since childhood that I have been advised to go on a diet. I am incredibly good at diets. I can stick to the strictest of diets for months on end but the one common factor in diets is that they end and when they do my disorder kicks back in.

BED is something that I have worked hard to beat but so far I have been unsuccessful. I had lap band surgery in 2009, but while the band stopped me from enjoying my wife's stir-fried prawns yesterday, it has no effect on most binge foods. I have been to rehab and I have relapsed. It wasn't a special fat people rehab. It was the same place alcoholics, drug addicts and gambling addicts go.

I can't think of anything else in the world that I would like more than to be free from this disorder. I dream of buying a suit off the rack or flying economy class without being terrified of how fellow passengers will react if I sit next to them. I would like to be able to look at my television work and see something other than how fat I am. My obesity is the first thing people notice about me and it's the first thing many judge me on.

I am committed to beating this disease and being a better example for my two little boys but it has taken me years to get to this point; the point of accepting that I have an eating disorder.

Morgan said the statistics show an increase in rates of BED among men:

Where males will make up approximately 10 per cent of those presenting with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa it's up to around about 25 per cent in binge eating disorder. There would be an even larger percentage of people who would not be coming forward for help. They would think, "Oh I just can't control my eating", and they don't realise that an eating disorder is a psychiatric disorder.

Obesity is said to be costing millions upon millions of dollars every year yet most Australians have never heard of Binge Eating Disorder.

Maybe it's time to stop watching television shows encouraging more extreme dieting and personal training regimes or reading books about excluding sugar, including coconut oil or whatever next month's miracle food fad will be and start focussing on the causes behind Australia's growing obesity epidemic. People who have binge eating disorder already understand "calories in vs calories out", in fact possibly better than most Australians.

As uncomfortable as I am with it I'm prepared to put myself out there in the hope that others might reach out for help and not keep punishing themselves. If you think you have an eating disorder get in contact with your GP or call the Butterfly Foundation on 1800 ED HOPE.

Sam Ikin is a Digital Producer for ABC News Online. View his full profile here.