Penn State kicker Joey Julius has, over the last year, developed into a folk hero of sorts across the nation and especially within the fan base.

He has trended virally on social media sites for his size in comparison to most college kickers, and then for his penchant for big hits on kickoff returns.

Penn State fans nicknamed him “The Big Toe” entering the 2015 season, and some even painted his name across their chests for last weekend’s 29-26 win against Minnesota. Crowds have started standing when he takes the field, and an isolated camera was even placed on the kicker during games in recent weeks.

But on Monday, Julius shared a very different side of his life via a public Facebook post.

Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Centre Daily Times

Due to my increase in not only weight but also depression and anxiety my team physicians started to notice not only a change in my overall happiness but also my performance as a normal human being. Throughout this whole process I learned a lot about myself. I learned that for the last 11 years of my life I have suffered through a disorder known as ‘binge eating disorder.’ Penn State kicker Joey Julius

“After a long consideration of not only myself, my family, and my team I have decided to go public about my absence from the team during spring ball of 2016 and (throughout) this summer,” he wrote. “I was admitted into the McCallum place on May 9 for eating disorders.

“Due to my increase in not only weight but also depression and anxiety my team physicians started to notice not only a change in my overall happiness but also my performance as a normal human being. Throughout this whole process I learned a lot about myself. I learned that for the last 11 years of my life I have suffered through a disorder known as ‘binge eating disorder.’”

Julius added that he showed signs of bulimia through purging “from extreme anxiety,” and said he is certain of his diagnosis through three months of care received by a program he attended at the McCallum Place Eating Disorder Center in St. Louis, Mo., this summer.

“In order to come to this conclusion I have no one to thank except for Coach James Franklin and my training staff and doctors that stuck with me throughout this whole process,” he wrote. “They all noticed that I was not myself and that I needed extensive care such as the program in St. Louis that I attended this summer.”

Julius added that he would urge “any guy or girl” with similar issues to reach out to him and he would help in any way he could.

The National Eating Disorder help and awareness center can be accessed at www.nationaleatingdisorders.org and has a help hotline that can be reached at 1-800-931-2237. According to NEDA, 20 million women and 10 million men across the United States actively suffer from eating disorders.

Last spring, athletic director Sandy Barbour addressed Penn State’s response to mental health issues among athletes at the APSE conference in State College.

“Mental health is certainly something that I think is of grave concern across our entire population of student bodies on every part of campus,” she said. “We are really fortunate in that we have a very active mental health task force that works with us from an athletic standpoint. They’ve been tremendous. But not unlike for the entire student body, we don’t have enough resources. So athletics certainly is in discussion with campus and with university health services. ... Directly to your question, it’s very individualized — which also makes it resource-intensive.”

Head coach James Franklin was asked about Julius’ weight at media day this fall.

“This isn’t something that we’re going to discuss at this time or that I think is appropriate,” he said.

“I’m worried about our kickers and specifically Joe doing well in school, being healthy, and healthy looks like a lot of different things for a lot of different people.”