By Halen McCarthy
From the outside looking in, seeing a young man working extremely hard to achieve goals of becoming a professional in his field may seem like a good thing, but that is not always the case.
This is a story about a young Welsh footballer striving for greatness in America while battling with bulimia.
Bulimia is an illness which is often only associated with females, but this is not the truth as NAMED (The National Association for Males with Eating Disorders) estimates that 25-40 percent of people suffering with eating disorders are males.
This is Rhys Picton, a 22-year-old Welshman who recently signed to play with Louisiana State University of Alexandria for the next season but has spent the last two years at Utah State University Eastern.
I first met Picton as we attended the same college, and from day one his goals were always to try and make it out to the US and compete through their sporting ladder.
And the fact that he achieved it came as no suprise, but what we did not realise was that through his hard work in trying to get himself in the best fitness state he could possibly be in, he had developed unhealthy habits in his training.
I have been following Picton’s journey from working to make it to the States and after his first year out in Utah with short feature pieces.
Last year Picton opened up to friends and family about his battle with bulimia and recently I decided to speak to him about how he is dealing with it almost a year later.
He explained to me that he first started to experience symptoms of bulimia during COVID last year.
“It first started during COVID, I came back home, and I really wanted to get in the best shape possible”
“I was tracking all my calories, I was running a lot, and I started getting an unhealthy obsession with tracking my calories and dropping (my intake) ridiculously low for the amount of exercise I was doing”
“I was running like seven miles a day, doing two-to-three-hour weight sessions, eating only one thousand to two thousand calories a day”
Picton goes on to explain the type of bulimia which he has been suffering with.
“I got into the binge and purge cycle, I would end up bingeing because my body needs it, I would end up eating six thousand calories in one sitting, then I would feel horrible about myself and the guilt would kick in and I would purge the next day, eating hardly anything and over exercising”
“it started me into a vicious cycle”
He also admits to being ignorant to his illness and ignoring his mum’s concerns.
“When people used to say bulimia, I would be ignorant to the fact”
“My Mum said she thinks I had it because she watched the Freddie Flintoff documentary, I said it couldn’t be because I’m not making myself throw up, I was ignorant to the fact that it’s more than just throwing up, and a month later I was diagnosed with bulimia”
Picton went on to speak on what pushed him to fall into his unhealthy routine.
“It definitely came from me wanting to strive for greatness”
“I was a good weight, but I had no energy, so my performance levels were nowhere near as good as they should be”
Looking at the current day and how he is currently doing.
“I’ve gone 22 days without any binges or purges”
“I went to the doctor because it went bad for a week, worst that is has ever been with bingeing, so I went to the doctors and now I’m on medication, which is helping”
He also sung his praises to the documentaries done by Freddie Flintoff and Colin Jackson for helping raise awareness for himself and many others.
“before I would’ve known nothing about it”
“these athletes coming out will help younger people come forward and get the help they need”
He continued on what can be done to help young athletes like himself.
“raising awareness, if someone is suffering from early signs you can help them before it progresses into something which is ruining them on a daily basis”
“giving athletes realistic goals, showing that they don’t have to be perfect, because nobody is”