Drugs for eating disorders

As a woman who has struggled with both anorexia and bulimia, I can tell you that men had nothing to do with my disorder. The development of eating disorders is all about the inadequacy of oneself. I didn't stop eating because I wanted to lose weight. I didn't stop eating because I was desperate for a man. I didn't stop eating because of the influence of fashion models. Yes, anorexia and bulimia are mental disorders, but it's not like we're crazy, so don't imply that we are. It's about being able to control something in a world that is otherwise uncontrollable. So don't write about something that you don't understand.

I feel bad for both of them. Eating disorders are insidious and Rory definitely needs to see a counselor ASAP before his health is badly compromised. Sebastian is doing everything he can, but he can't do it alone.

but I can tell you from what little I have researched and bothered to learn that you are wrong on so many accounts.
I won't go into preaching on this and that of eating disorders among men and women (yes, more and more men are struggling with eating disorders, and in America it seems that their numbers may soon equal or surpass those of women.)
I think that you've approached a subject that involves real people and real suffering with an incredible lack of tact and ignorance.

Based on the title and opening comments I expected to be offended by what you wrote. However, it was well written and I could see your point. I agree with a previous comment that I hope your intended audience is the misinformed general public. Unfortunately, many of your points perpetuate the inaccuracies of society's perception of eating disorders.
Most people only think of the anorexics you describe as people with eating disorders, but the truth is any person, male or female, young or old, fat or thin can have an eating disorder. It is one disease with many symptoms. Even the psychiatric community breaks them down into different groups based, essentially, on weight. Anorexics are underweight. Bulimics are normal weight. Binge Eaters are overweight.
Personally, I fall into the last category. I first began displaying symptoms when I was seven and I have been trying to recover for more than four years now. I fought the diagnosis because I believed that only skinny people had eating disorders. I was wrong.
People like Dr. Phil and Oprah talk about disordered eating in overweight people, but while there are many undiagnosed Binge Eaters out there, not every fat person has an eating disorder either. There are very specific symptoms, attitudes and beliefs the characterize an eating disorder.
It's not about food and it's not about body image. Those are just symptoms. The body is an easy target to hate when what you really hate is inside of you. Eating disorders are about control and distorted thinking. What you eat or don't eat is something you can control or choose not to control. The behaviours are often about punishing yourself for not being perfect.
When it comes to blame, I blame myself for 99.5% of my eating disorder and I blame my parents for 0.5% because their attitudes certainly contributed to my thought processes. I know that I'm the only one who can help me to recover. Do skinny models and hollywood celebrities make me uncomfortable? Of course they do, but only because I already have those issues. I don't blame them for how I feel.
When I was in a group therapy session with 20 other women, there were 4 anorexics, 5 binge eaters and 11 bulimics. I had common ground with all of them. I am just as likely to binge as I am to starve myself. We were all the same.
The bottom line is this, eating disorders aren't about weight, shape, size or food. We're not psycho crazy and in the end, articles like the one you wrote, don't help anyone.

I don't think men are to blame for eating disorders. I don't think any medical professional worth their salt would say men are to blame either.
Media, Playboy, all these things you have mentioned also are not to blame (although they do contribute to a society which contributes to the development of eating disorders).
Women with eating disorders don't do it for men, or even to look a certain way- they have mental illnesses, usually caused by past trauma or other serious life issues. They physically see themselves as a lot larger than they actually are, and employ various harmful behaviours to help mitigate the negative feelings from those perceptions (and, if you look deeper, from the original source of trauma).
These behaviours can often be very addictive- and new research is constantly being released that suggests they are physiologically addictive, effecting the serotonin supply of people prone to the illnesses.
Overall, the development of an eating disorder is a product of many factors including biological/genetic tendencies, environment, and life experiences- the views of men play only a very, very small part (except in individual cases where the source of the trauma is connected to a man).

It's true that men are not to blame. That's about the last thing insightful you mentioned. First off, as pointed out, almost everyone who DOES blame men for this problem tend to be the hardcore, man-hating feminists (which can BE men, as well). Most men don't say this, even most women don't say this, including those who suffer from eating disorders. It's a delusion that only a handful of nuts hold.
And yes, anorexia is more and more affecting older people and men. Furthermore, eating disorders are in fact not about being too thin. You can be a normal weight and have an eating problem. How? Simple; you weight might be normal for others, but not for you. I have a friend, 6'2, weighs 300 pounds. He's in decent shape but it's still alot of fat. If he we were to slim down to, say 200 pounds, sure, that might not be too unusual for a someone of his height, ON AVERAGE, but it would be dangerous to HIM to lose 100 full pounds. I've known him since we were kids, and he's just naturally a big guy. Eating disorders simply mean people are eating destructively; losing too much weight, losing weight too fast, yo-yoing, getting insufficient calories or nutrients, these are all problems that affect all sorts of people.
So, yeah, your main idea is true, but...well, I think most of us read it and went duh.

Absolutely lovely!! The influences from On the Simplicity... jumped right of the page at me and I picked that up immediately. The hints of Sandcastles followed not far behind. The other guess that I had was JCMcNeilly's Beautiful, tying in with the struggles with eating disorders, body image, etx.