Collin County Living Well Magazine March/April 2016 | Page 46

Bigorexia

I

The Adonis Syndrome

n recent years there has been a
greater focus on becoming healthier, looking good, and exercising.
Most fitness centers have experienced an increase in memberships
both for men and women. Busy people
are taking the time to take care of
themselves externally and internally,
incorporating exercise as part of their
everyday routine before or after work,
and becoming more concerned about
their nutrition. But what about when a
person becomes obsessed with their
own physical appearance? Specifically, those gym goers who are already
big, powerful, ripped, lean, and with
abs of steel and that most people could
agree possess THE PERFECT BODY?
Well, sometimes behind all that muscle
mass lies something deeper.
Exercise to stay fit and healthy
Most of us practice regular exercise
and physical activity not only to feel
good because it increases the “happy
hormones” or endorphins but also because of the endless benefits to our
health. Mayo Clinic (2014) explains
that exercise is good to control weight,
help the body fight diseases, improves
mood, boosts energy, promotes better sleep, helps with sexual drive and

By Julie Alvira, MD, MBA

performance, and helps with stress
and its effects. Krauss (2012) see exercise as a tool to lower the chance of
developing dementia because of the
constant blood circulation that helps
preserve neurons. Exercise helps with
the metabolism of glucose and fat,
which helps slow or prevent acquiring
Alzheimer’s disease. On another note,
strength and resistance training exercise helps with building muscle mass.
The combination of cardio plus resistance offers better results––physically
and emotionally. But what about when
a person becomes fanatical about
building muscle mass? When the concept of exercise to stay fit and healthy
is not enough?
Body dysmorphic
disorder mental illness
“Without obsession, life is nothing.”
John Waters
An obsession is good when it’s a
healthy one but when it becomes unhealthy, it can impair our thoughts,
effect our emotions, and our whole
wellbeing. When a person develops
body dysmorphic disorder, which is
a chronic mental illness, they become

obsessed with their appearance and
body image and develop self-consciousness. They think there is something wrong with their body, feel ugly,
and have a need for reassurance from
others to feel good. In many cases, a
person can get numerous cosmetic procedures but other times turns to intense
exercise to try to fix interior flaws.
There are combinations of causes such
as: abnormalities in the brain, family
history, culture, past experiences, and
a previous psychiatric disorder (Mayo
Clinic, 2013).
Bigorexia––Adonis Complex
A type of body dysmorphic disorder
known as bigorexia, reverse anorexia
or Adonis complex is becoming very
popular among men gym goers. It is
widely known that for many men muscularity equals masculinity. A man with
bigorexia is not the typical person that
seeks to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
This is the male bodybuilder that becomes obsessed with his body because
he is unhappy, one whom sometimes
seeks injectable anabolic steroids,
chest implants, and other type of cosmetic procedures to feed an emotional
emptiness, which in some cases can
be an underlying depression. Bigorexia can be misdiagnosed because there
are a great number of men who just
want to improve their physical appearance to attract partners. The problem
here is when a vicious circle forms. According to Brown University, the more
a person focus \