Men four times as likely to go undiagnosed with eating disorders

Alec White-Cheshire has lived with anorexia for nearly two decades, first diagnosed at age 10. He describes the illness as entwined with his identity, a difficult reality to accept.

"I have 20 years of living with it," he said. "I developed as a child with an illness, which has now become entwined into who I am. And that's the hardest part to come to terms with."

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I have 20 years of living with it. I developed as a child with an illness, which has now become entwined into who I am. And that's the hardest part to come to terms with.

White-Cheshire notes that while awareness has improved, local communities still lack understanding, particularly for men. He has experienced dismissiveness, with people viewing eating disorders as a choice rather than a serious illness.

About 365,000 men in Australia live with an eating disorder, yet on average, only 2,500 men are diagnosed annually. Men are four times more likely to go undiagnosed and less inclined to seek help. Jackson Rose, a counselor for the Butterfly Foundation, observes an increase in boys aged 16 and under reaching out for support. He attributes this partly to influencers promoting an idealized, muscular masculinity, which contributes to disordered eating.

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When I was 10, [the perception of eating disorders] was quite bad. People still just don't really understand the impact that any sort of eating disorder has on somebody … it just still seems to be portrayed as more of a choice rather than the illness it is.

"We see a lot more early intervention around female presentations of eating disorders … but we don't really have as much of that on the male side," Rose stated. "So when there's a lot more pressure around certain body image types … we're seeing males be a lot more susceptible to that."

Men constitute 33 percent of eating disorder diagnoses but less than 1 percent of research. A recent survey found 84 percent of boys aged 12 to 18 desired to be more muscular, with those aged 15 to 17 showing the highest prevalence of disordered eating.

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We see a lot more early intervention around female presentations of eating disorders … but we don't really have as much of that on the male side. So when there's a lot more pressure around certain body image types … we're seeing males be a lot more susceptible to that.