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
40 CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL Summer 2017 National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys