Mariners Catcher Mike Marjama on Overcoming Eating Disorder: 'Everyone's Got Their Demons'

Seattle Mariners catcher Mike Marjama is breaking his silence to end the stigma surrounding men with eating disorders.

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Seattle Mariners catcher Mike Marjama is opening up about his former struggles with an eating disorder. In an interview with ABC News, Marjama revealed his eating disorder developed when he was in the eighth grade and reached a dangerous peak when he was a junior in high school.

"Don't judge a book by it's cover. Everyone's got their demons. Everyone's got their troubles that they're dealing with," The 28-year-old proclaims in the opening to his new documentary short film for LeBron James' Uninterrupted. The MLB player is hoping to open people's eyes to the truth about eating disorders and who they really affect. Marjama was once part of the statistic of the one in three men who suffer from eating disorders, and is now using his platform to tell his story.

"If I can maybe affect one person that doesn’t have to have their hopes and dreams taken away from them because they’re suffering from an eating disorder," he explained. "And they’re able to follow their hopes and dreams, that’s all I really want." At the time when he began to develop his unhealthy relationship with eating, he recalled thinking, "If I’m going to get a girlfriend, I’ve got to get a six pack, and so I thought it I didn’t eat anything, well I wouldn’t get any fat, and then if I worked out a ton I would get big and muscular."

His eating disorder progressed for years, becoming a dangerous cycle of bingeing and purging and anorexia, but it wasn't until he was admitted into in-patient treatment for five days in the 11th grade that he realized he truly had a problem. He's hoping this documentary will shed some needed-light on men who suffer with eating disorders.

"I'm a dude just like everybody else, and I've suffered from some demons, and I have demons, and I was able to kind of overcome those," he said.

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