‘It’s so easy for men to disguise’

Writer and campaigner Sam Thomas, 34, lives in Brighton. He says, “It’s so important that Freddie Flintoff has chosen to talk about his battle with bulimia. Despite male eating disorders being relatively common, it’s still seen more as a ‘female’ problem. But they can affect anyone.

“I was 13 when I started bingeing and then purging. It was triggered by being bullied at school. I’d hide in the toilets to eat my lunch, stuffing down everything and then bending over to vomit it all back up. It felt like a release at the time. I carried on doing it at home, too. I had 40 minutes from when I got home until my mum got back from work, and in that time I’d eat and eat, then vomit. She never noticed, though, and people expect teenage boys to eat a lot.

“Back then, I hadn’t heard about bulimia. I thought it was a coping mechanism I’d created – something unique to me. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I picked up one of my mum’s magazines and read about a single mum who was putting her children to bed and then binge-eating and purging, as she was so miserable and hated her life. The agony aunt called it bulimia and outlined how dangerous for your health it was. That didn’t make me stop, though. I also started exercising excessively, doing hundreds of sit-ups, press-ups and running seven miles a day.

“After I turned 16, I went to the doctor several times to talk about my bulimia, but I never felt they took it seriously. I didn’t get the counselling I desperately needed and can’t help but feel that, if I’d been female, I might have been treated differently.

“My recovery eventually started in my early twenties and was gradual. I moved to Brighton from Merseyside and it felt like a new start. I was happy for the first time in years and felt the need to binge and purge less and less. I started to have a much healthier relationship with food.

“After what I’d been through, I wanted to help other men, and so set up a campaign – Men Get Eating Disorders Too.

“It’s so easy for men to disguise an eating disorder – there’s almost an expectation that they will eat a lot and exercise a lot, so people don’t pick up on it. I now have a balanced relationship with food and have even studied nutrition. And while I still exercise, there’s a huge difference. I exercise to be healthy, not obsessively to punish myself.

“I hope more men feel able to talk about this and we can keep on raising awareness. There have been improvements, but we are still just scratching the surface. There are many men out there who need help – and I am so glad Freddie is shining a light on the illness to encourage people to do so.”

FREDDIE FLINTOFF: LIVING WITH BULIMIA Mon 28 Sept, 9pm, BBC1