Many times, societies set expectations about what being beautiful is, leading to many question their physical appearance and feeling the urge to change it in order to conform to the norms.
However, while body image has been associated with women only in the past, nowadays it affects males as much.
Bigorexia, or muscular dysmorphia, affects hundreds of thousands of men out there.
It is a disorder that shares similarities with anorexia in terms of being obsessed with the body image. However, while a person suffering from anorexia tries to keep their weight as low as possible, those diagnosed with bigorexia are obsessed with becoming muscular, convincing themselves they are never brawny enough.
However, “Unlike anorexia nervosa, which may be easily identified by parents or pediatricians, disordered eating to increase bulk may masquerade as healthy habits and because of this, it tends to go unnoticed,” says Jason Nagata, MD, of the UCSF Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine.
Experts believe that this disorder is partially a result of the influence of social media influencers who try to portray themselves as embodying an unrealistic, hyper-masculine ideal. This lead many people, especially men, to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and seek the perfection they see in the magazines and on social media sites.
Kara Becker, a certified eating disorder therapist and national director of eating disorder programs at Newport Healthcare, defines bigorexia as “a psychological condition and type of body dysmorphic disorder which involves a distorted self-image that focuses specifically on muscle size and physical appearance.”
Clinical psychologist Amy Gooding explains that “individuals may have an inaccurate view of their bodies, often believing they are smaller or less muscular. This belief and subsequent preoccupation can lead to unhealthy behaviors, including obsessive exercise, and may lead to changing one’s eating to be as lean as possible.”
The term muscular dysmorphia was first coined around 1997.
However, experts agree that further research needs to be done in order to learn how bigorexia develops and how it should be treated.
While some experts believe it should be treated as an eating disorder, just like the anorexia, others say it is in fact a behavioral addiction or a type of body dysmorphic disorder.
Certain factors that can lead to this disorder are history of being bu****d, loneliness, unhealthy views about masculinity, low self-esteem, and the above mentioned influence of the social media.
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