Hello Everyone! I am very happy to have found this group online,
since there are so few (if any!) groups addressing the needs of men
with eating disorders.

My name is Mike, I just turned 40, and I am anorexic. Let me
explain briefly - I had Gastric Bypass Surgery in January of 2004,
because I was close to 400 pounds. The surgery was a great success -
I alost all of my excess weight by December. However, I began
showing symptoms, such as restricting, etc. I am currently under
the care of my primary care physician and a very good therapist. I
am about 25 pounds underweight now (but in all honesty, I am happy -
it is so hard to break the cycle!), and I live (as many of you do
I'm sure) with the constant, total-consuming fear of gaining.

I don't blame my surgery at all for this. I needed the surgery, or
I certainly wouldn't be here today. However, I just took it a step
too far, and now I feel like I am in a hole that I can't climb out
of. Like I was digging for treasure (an ultimate goal?), and I just
dug so deep that I can't climb back out, you know?

Anyway, I am far from any kind of recovery - I am actually trying to
just cope with this right now and live day to day. But I felt that
it would be very emotionally healthy to find an online support group
where I could share thoughts and ideas with others who were facing
the same things that I was. So many people out there NEVER heard of
Anorexia in men (I certainly thought my doctor was on drugs when he
told me that I was! I didn't believe it was possible), and I am
very resistant to ever discussing this with anyone I know, such as
friends for coworkers, because of this stigma. Also, I am very
ashamed by it.

I don't know how far many of you have gotten, but I am at the point
now where I can no longer go anywhere that requires my shirt to be
off (such as the beach or swimming), because all I get are comments
and I don't want to deal with that.

Anyways, I just thought I would do a BRIEF introduction, and look
what happens - I run off at the mouth! Sorry about that! :)

Have a great day everyone,

Mike