Has Your High School Or College Wrestling Career Pushed You Toward Bulimia? What Are Your Treatment Options?

If you spent your high school or college years as a competitive wrestler, you may not have given much thought at the time to the strange, potentially dangerous eating and exercise habits adopted by many wrestlers in an effort to get down to competition weight. However, once your wrestling days are behind you, you may still be dealing with disordered eating patterns. In some cases, years of a restricted diet (followed by post-meet binges) could lead to full-blown bulimia once you lose control over your binging and feel as though you're forced to purge. Are there any treatments or therapies that can assist you in regaining a healthy relationship with food? Read on to learn more about your male-centered bulimia treatment options.

Why are traditional eating disorder treatments not the best option?

Although both men and women can suffer from anorexia, bulimia, compulsive exercising, and other eating disorders, because the majority of those who seek treatment are female, treatment options tend to cater toward women. This can leave you feeling left out, as the emotional, societal, and environmental factors that lead to eating disorders for women are often very different from those that lead to eating disorders for men, and you may feel as though the issues discussed in therapy simply aren't applicable to your situation.

Fortunately, there are a number of treatment facilities and therapists that are trained to specifically treat men; seeking out one of these facilities rather than a "regular" eating disorder treatment center should significantly improve your odds of recovery and ensure that you'll have a more meaningful experience.

What are your best eating disorder treatment options? 

Depending upon the severity of your eating disorder and its affect on your overall health, you may opt for either inpatient treatment that focuses on both medical recovery and equipping you with the emotional tools to stop the binge and purge cycle, or outpatient treatment that has more of a focus on counseling. Binge-eating and regular vomiting can have a negative effect on everything from your dental enamel to the electrolytes that keep your heart beating, so inpatient treatment is best for those who have been bulimic for some time and have begun noticing effects on their body or health.

Outpatient treatment is much more flexible and doesn't require hospitalization. You'll simply make an appointment with the treatment center one or more times per week for intensive one-on-one and group counseling to help you get to the root of your binging and stop the cycle. Having an outpatient treatment group behind you during your recovery can give you the support you need to break this unhealthy addiction for good.