Bigorexia Nervosa
It's more common than you think
What is it?
Etiology
Symptoms
Excessive exercising
Extreme Dieting
Selective Eating in order to gain muscle
Use of steroids or fat burning pills
Relationships are affected(missing important events to work out)
Frequently looking in the mirror
- Avoiding situations in which they may be exposed
Prevelance
- More males than females are affected by this disorder, due to the sociocultural level of analysis that states culture influences behavior. Typically, in most societies, men are considered to be more masculine if they are bigger and more defined muscles. This influences some men to begin to exercise and diet to the point where they gain distorted views of themselves and obsess over the “ideal male body”.
- The biggest group of people affected are gym-going men, which goes hand in hand with the sociocultural level of analysis that states human beings are social creatures and thus have a need to belong, because they compare themselves to other gym-going men and seek to change their bodies to be more like them.
- According to Healthy Place, 10% of men who regularly attend the gym, lifting weights or exercising in ways other than just cardio, have Muscular dysmorphia.
Treatment
Psycholgical Studies
Bibliography
ANRED: Muscle Dysmorphia. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.anred.com/musdys.html
Leone, J. E., Sedory, E. J., & Gray, K. A. Recognition and Treatment of Muscle Dysmorphia and Related Body Image Disorders. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1323298/
STUDY: Pope, C. G., Pope, H. G., Menard, W., Fay, C., Olivardia, R., & Phillips, K. A. Clinical features of muscle dysmorphia among males with body dysmorphic disorder. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1627897/