Eating Disorders: A Secret in the Legal Profession
By Brian Cuban, Esq. www. BrianCuban. com Dallas, Texas
This article first appeared at http:// www. briancuban. com / blog /
I remember the day in April 2007 I finally confided to my psychiatrist that I was struggling with drugs and alcohol.
I did not mention at that time that I had also struggled with both exercise and traditional bulimia for over two decades
I felt completely stigmatized and alone in my eating disorder and did not feel that anyone, including him could understand or help. Adding to the stigma was my profession. Not only was I a male with an eating disorder, I was a male lawyer with an eating disorder. How stigmatizing was that? I have spoken openly about my eating disorder recovery for years and to this day, I am unaware of any other male in the legal profession who has publicly professed to dealing with an eating disorder. The hard statistics of how many males are afflicted with eating disorders tell us that they are of course out there. Along those same lines, I have received numerous emails from females in the legal profession who are struggling or are in recovery from both anorexia and bulimia.
Why do males struggling with eating disorders in in the legal profession seem to be so few and far between? We can look to a recent study of mental health issues in law school published by the Journal of Legal Education, which found 27 % of law students( 18 % of male respondents and 34 % of female respondents) screened positive for eating disorders. Yet only 3 % of respondents had actually been diagnosed. While I do not have the breakdown, I suspect that the majority of that three percent diagnosed is female.
I believe one reason for this reluctance to seek treatment compounded on top of the strong societal stigma is the culture of the legal profession. The fear
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