Eating disorders typically arise when a person feels the stress from a combination of biological, behavioral, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, and social factors.

Some potential factors that affect the onset of eating disorders among the LGBTQ+ population are the stress of the coming out process, being bullied, body image concerns, isolation, and identity concerns.

“All of these stressors have the potential to increase the risk of the onset of an eating disorder, as well as impact levels of depression, anxiety, self-esteem,” Dr. Stephanie Setliff, medical director of the Eating Recovery Center, Dallas, says.

Because of these unique factors, the LGBTQ community is often underserved when it comes to getting treatment for these mental illnesses.

Identifying and treating an eating disorder

Eric Dorsa, Eating Recovery Center alum, first heard the term “eating disorder” when he was 12. Dorsa was hospitalized for heart failure from disordered eating. However, it wasn’t until Dorsa turned 17 that he realized his eating disorder was killing him. He also had a hard time finding a facility to get treatment.

“There were not many resources for an adolescent male with an eating disorder in 2005,” Dorsa says.

“Many insurance companies did not cover eating disorder treatment. It took months to find a treatment center that would take me when I turned 18 and that my insurance was willing to pay for.”

Fighting stigma

One of the major challenges Dorsa had to face in his journey toward recovery was coming to terms with being a gay male in a family that considered homosexuality unacceptable.

“In the beginning of my recovery, I thought the ‘gay thing’ would go away,” he says.

“I found myself desperately trying to run from these painful emotions and I began to engage in my eating disorder again.”

Dorsa says that now he knows he was running from shame. But it wasn’t until he began to come to terms with being gay that recovery seemed possible.

Eventually, Dorsa faced the reality that he needed to return to treatment to deal with the underlying emotional pain that fueled his eating disorder. “In my journey I returned to treatment two more times. I find this to be true for many individuals seeking recovery and support,” he adds.

Finding a community

Dorsa adds, though, that being LGBTQ has been an amazing blessing for him in respect to his recovery community. “It has shown me how much of my struggle to find acceptance and identity is not just a LGBTQ issue, but a human experience,” he says.

Dorsa adds that his identity also has helped him connect with other individuals who have struggled with their sexuality and gender identity.

Changing an appearance-centric community

Dorsa says it’s been difficult navigating the LGBTQ community outside of recovery. “Coming to terms with your sexuality in today’s culture can still be very painful and shameful,” he says.

“I [also] feel like there is still a lot of pressure in the gay community to look perfect and sexually desirable. This makes an eating disorder, or disordered eating, more common in the community.”

Dorsa hopes that one day, the LGBTQ community will put less emphasis on appearance. “We are already a community looking for acceptance. Many of us come out only to find rejection in many ways,” Dorsa says.

“I feel that in a community already struggling to find acceptance, the emphasis placed on body image and sexual desirability is a huge issue.”

Sharing and finding hope

Dorsa says becoming a Recovery Advocate helped him through his illness, too.  “There is so much strength in the phrase ‘me too’,” he says.

Meeting people who support the LGBTQ community has brought much-needed support and happiness, says Dorsa. He adds that this support, the feeling of inclusion, and having people listen can help other LGBTQ people find their identity.

“I am not blaming my sexuality for my eating disorder,” he adds.

“But coming to terms with my sexuality greatly influenced my recovery. I could not have done this without support from inside and outside the LGBTQ community.”

For additional information about Eating Recovery Center, call 877-789-5758, email info@eatingrecoverycenter.com, or visit eatingrecoverycenter.com to speak with a Masters-level clinician.

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ColumnAmerica: The land of the heavily armed, hate-filled, mental-health-free extremists.

Isn’t that what America has changed its national tagline to?

All dark joking aside, this past week has suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. Forty-nine people were gunned down at Pulse, a gay-friendly nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Sunday morning. Omar Mateen now holds the disgusting title of most-prolific-American-mass-killing shooter in history.

What we know about the Orlando shooting

A lot of news has come out about Mateen’s past since the shooting.

Long before the shooting—off and on during the past five years—Mateen had been on law enforcement radar. However, the FBI never found a solid reason to open an investigation during that time.

And we now know that Mateen had been on several gay dating apps and visited gay nightclubs, including Pulse, several times before the shooting. We also know that Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS to a 911 operator. And in addition to being violent, disgruntled, and a known terrorist sympathizer, he also was violent toward his ex-wife, Sitora Yusifiy.

Even though Mateen was known for all of the above, he was still able to legally buy a Sig Sauer MCX, a popular “modern sporting rifle,” on June 4 and a Glock 17 handgun on June 5.

The newest news we’ve heard—as of Wednesday evening when this post was finished—is that Mateen’s wife will most likely face criminal charges for her participation in her husband’s attack.

“Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman, knew of his plans for what became the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, said the law enforcement source, who has been briefed on the matter,” Reuters reports.

“Salman was with Mateen when he cased possible targets in the past two months, including the Walt Disney World Resort in April, a shopping complex called Disney Springs and the Pulse nightclub in early June.”

We also know that federal authorities are now calling the shooting a hate crime and an act of terror.

How do we process this?

This shooting is first and foremost sad as fuck. No one goes out for a night on the town assuming they will be gunned down alongside dozens of other people just a few hours later.

The shooting is also heartbreaking because the shooter specifically targeted a group of already vulnerable people. Sure, gay people have won the right to marry, but the fight for equality is far from over. True allies of the homosexual community know it and people who identify as LGBTQ know it—everyone else in America, however, hasn’t caught on quite yet.

And then there’s the gun control issue. How could a man that had such a violent past be able to legally obtain guns? Well, according to President Obama, people who are on terrorist watch lists can still legally buy guns because of the power of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Yes. Possible terrorists can’t fly on planes, but can buy guns becauseAmerica!

Oh, and let’s not forget terrorism.

ISIS has had a lot of success converting people to its way of thinking. So far, federal investigators think Mateen was “self-radicalized”—meaning “there was no evidence he received any help or instructions from outside groups such as Islamic State,” Reuters reports.

Whether Mateen had help or not doesn’t matter—he was radicalized and whatever propaganda, information, thoughts, etc. got him to this violent state was made worse because he was fighting for some deranged hatred.

And that leads us to the other aspect of this attack: mental health. I’m going to guess that Mateen was mentally unstable. As we all know, the mentally unstable don’t fare too well in America.

So, what does all of this mean? Well, it means different things to everyone.

To President Obama, it means he has to give another speech about gun control that he knows few will really listen to.

To Donald Trump, it means he has another opportunity to say “I called it! Look at me! Let’s ban Muslims!” Because to him, all Muslims are the same.

To the LGBTQ community, it means they have yet another reason to fear being open and proud of who they are.

And for common-sense gun owners and gun control advocates, it means convincing politicians and the NRA that just because you limit the availability of some weapons doesn’t mean the government plans on taking away all of your guns.

People: I am so fucking tired of writing about these tragedies. But this isn’t about me—it’s about all of us.

So, America—let’s learn from this attack and make positive change once and for all. Because prayers only get you so far. Actions, however, get you further.

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Image of memorials in New York via Shutterstock, Christopher Penler 

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