Guys have eating disorders too.

Hey, my name is mike. I'm a recovering anorexic. This is my story.

My ED goes back about 4 years, when I just started high school. I had come from a fairly small school, and it wasn't until I was exposed to this much larger and much more diverse group of people that I became self-conscious of my body. I found myself comparing to the other people, wanting a more desirable body, a more attractive figure. It didn't take much time before I began to change myself.

It started with excessive exercise. I started out with martial arts, about 1 hour a night. That quickly progressed to 2-3 hours, because I began weight training. Before I knew it, I was working out from the time the bell rang to signal the end of classes, to the moments I got ready for bed. Even with all that activity, I didn't increase my intake.

Instead, I soon began to do the opposite; I began to lower my intake - a few calories here, a few calories there. Then a few hundred here and there. Soon I was only taking in about 1/3 of the calories I needed for all the exercise. I found myself addicted to the physical strain, my body and mind wanted it every second of the day.

Fast forward several months, and I found myself pushing harder and harder to eat less. One day I realized that I didn't have to do the exercise if I just didn't eat anything. That was my next course of action. Before long, I was eating next to nothing, living off insubstantial intake, and purging any food I did eat.

My parents found out. I ended up getting sent to the doctor, having tests run, and examinations. At the beginning of March this year, I was pulled out of school. My heart was close to stopping. I was ordered to move as little as possible and to go to the hospital immediately. I was put on bed rest and was stuck in the pediatric ward for 4 months.

Since then, I have been in a day treatment program, helping me to battle the ED. I have realized that I really don't need it. I am much happier now. I am dating an awsome girl, living a great life. I won't lie, sometimes it is hard. But I see what the ED did to me, and I see what it did to other people. I can see the way the lies tore me apart. I will soon be free. And you can be too.