According to the Los Angeles Times, information from a recent survey challenges the assumption that young males don’t get eating disorders. In fact, it seems that teenage boys are nearly as likely as teenage girls to use vomiting and laxatives as purging methods for weight loss or weight control. The survey also reveals that teenage boys are increasingly engaging in unnatural and extreme dieting behaviors such as use of steroids and diet-specific supplements (e.g., pills and powders).
When we pay attention to the emphasis on body and diet in our city (just look at and listen to the various forms of our media and advertisements), it’s not surprising that Los Angeles teen boys seem to have a higher rate of participating in these behaviors than much of the rest of the nation.
Extreme dieting behaviors can cause serious physical damage–sometimes life-threatening.
If you’re concerned about your male (or female) teen, a positive initial step can be to: get curious. People engaged in eating disorder behaviors often don’t initiate conversations about their potentially life-threatening practices. To begin opening up a conversation thread, here is an idea. Try sharing what impacted you from the Times article (citation provided below for full article) and ask how he–or she–feels about this information (e.g., “What do you think about that?”-type of question/statement). This may bring about an opportunity to connect and learn from each other’s experiences, feelings, and thoughts about a seemingly taboo conversation subject.
Citation: Alpert, E. (2013, June 13). Eating disorders plague teenage boys, too. Los Angeles Times.
