During National Eating Disorder Week (5th - 11th February 2006) PROMIS, an addiction treatment centre based in Kent and London is working to increase awareness surrounding male eating disorders.

Dr Robert Lefever, founder of the PROMIS group says "Public perception seems to be that eating disorders solely affect women when this is not the case". The Eating Disorder Association quotes that at least 10% of all eating disorder sufferers are men.

PROMIS strives to provide help and information for anyone suffering with eating disorders and in particular men, who may find difficulty in getting the help that they need. PROMIS is currently working in conjunction with Sussex University Media Students to produce an informational DVD about Male anorexia and has also published the book 'Common Sense in the treatment of Eating Disorders' by Dr Robert Lefever on-line at www.helpeating.com. Further help can be received by calling 0800 374318.

Dr Lefever is keen to stress the seriousness of eating disorders "Eating disorders are not primarily about food and body weight but are about feelings. If the individual sufferer feels wretched, lonely, miserable and empty emotionally and knows from previous experience that some food substances or processes have the capacity to fill that sense of inner void, the ultimate choice is between self-satisfaction by giving into the urges or self-destruction."

One PROMIS patient would like to share his story in order to help others in the same situation.

At the age of 19 I had a breakdown of health. My digestive system was shot, I had no energy and the medical establishment had zero suggestions of what might be the cause, let alone the cure. For two lonely years I fought a solitary battle against what I now know to be an addictive disorder. Despite having the support of family and friends, going to therapy and meditating for hours, I was unable to dispel my demons.

Had someone spotted the eating disorder during that time it might have saved me and my loved ones much pain. My hope is that you will be supported in a diagnosis and the following treatment of anorexia, bulimia or compulsive over-eating without having to experience the prolonged desperation that I did, and from which many never return. With the growing public recognition of male eating disorders it is increasingly likely you'll get the support you need to recover.

In the last six months of that struggle I recognised that I ate very unhealthily, bingeing and starving, feeling ashamed and then doing it again. Food occupied every inch of my conscious mind. And when I finally realised that I needed help, I found PROMIS and the 12 Step programme.

Walking into that clinic was the biggest relief of my life. It was very scary to surrender the control over what I ate to someone else, but it was the only solution and I knew it. A close look at my past revealed that I started starving myself at the age of 11 because I thought I was greedy and fat. As time went on this thinking and behaviour became totally unconscious. At school another boy was taken away because he was anorexic. I remember thinking "How could anyone ever do that? I could never starve myself because I love food too much..." Yet my energy and health were already beginning to fail from five years of doing just that. It is very important to recognise that denial is a defining element of this illness. Conditions such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and food intolerance are often symptoms of this deeper problem.

Slowly but surely the obsession with food and body image have diminished as I've learned to deal with the underlying fears and feelings in a self-enhancing way. Through starting to relate to people in the here and now, and to communicate my feelings rather than eating or starving them away, I have been lifted out of the pit of self-hatred and despair that had become my home. My physical health has returned. I have a non-emotional relationship with food – it now sustains and nourishes me, rather than fixing me. And I have a measure of contentment that I had scarcely dreamt of before.

Over-eaters Anonymous has enabled me to continue in my journey to recovery over the six years that I have now been free from any starving or bingeing behaviour. Through continuing to work the 12 Step programme and asking for help I am now able to offer my experience to others, which is both humbling and rewarding. I now have a sense of worth and awareness that I have never before possessed. I wouldn't swap it for anything.

Anonymous.