Michael Krasnow

About the author: Michael Krasnow is an anorexic and the author of My Life as a Male Anorexic.

Michael Krasnow began his ongoing struggle with anorexia in the mid-1980s. In the following selection from his book My Life as a Male Anorexic, Krasnow describes the onset of the disease that has affected his life for many years. According to Krasnow, he began feeling fat when he was eleven years old but did not become anorexic until he was a teenager. During his first year of high school, Krasnow relates, he became depressed and developed an obsession with studying. This obsession was eventually replaced with an obsession about his weight. The control he gained over his eating patterns and his food intake made him feel special and all-powerful, Krasnow now confides.

For some time now, my...