Build muscle or die? About the victims of bigorexia
What drives healthy young people to sacrifice long hours of their lives, pump muscles maniacally and constantly compare themselves to muscle models, instead of enjoying work and relationships with loved ones?
Experts, doctors and psychologists, talk about the beginning of a new epidemic ─ bigorexia or muscle dysmorphia. Sometimes this disease is also called the Adonis complex in honor of the ancient Greek god, who, according to myths, had an unearthly beauty. To pump muscles is the strongest desire of patients with this newfangled disease.
The word "bigorexia" is composed of the English big (large, large) and anorexia. And this is not just that, because this concept reflects a mental deviation, the opposite of anorexia. If anorexics see themselves as excessively fat, torturing their bodies with various diets and hunger, then Bigorexics do not seem to be big enough and muscular enough, spending hours in the gym, pumping muscles for volume, using special nutritional supplements, which are not always useful for the body. Not only male bodybuilders are subject to this addiction, but also women. Moreover, the number of the latter is growing exponentially.
What drives healthy young people to sacrifice long hours of their lives, pump muscles maniacally and constantly compare themselves to muscle models, instead of enjoying work and relationships with loved ones?
When it is impossible not to pump muscles. Three causes of bigorexia
Psychologists talk about three causes of bigorexia. This is, first of all, a predisposition to phobias. Indeed, Bigorexic, describing his condition, often uses keywords associated with fear: fear of losing muscle mass, horror to miss a workout, panic attack from eating an extra slice of pizza. Even the seeming loss of a muscular appearance, of cubes on the stomach, causes an attack of fear in a person suffering from bigorexia that he is not beautiful enough, and therefore they will cease to love him.
Another reason psychologists cite is the influence of the glossy media, which extols the ideal muscular body. Now this problem is also becoming relevant for women, because the pale emaciated body of an anorexic woman is no longer fashionable. In favor of the pumped-up beauties flexing muscles.
It is much more difficult for a woman to build muscle mass. This is due to her physiology. That is why women, even more often than men, begin to resort to various hormonal drugs that allow them to pump up muscles faster, but have a destructive effect on the internal systems and organs and can be fatal. This is why bigorexia is a deadly disease.
And finally, the third reason why teenagers go to the gym is the offensive comments of others about their loose and unattractive body. According to US statistics, among adolescents, the level of rejection and even hatred of their bodies reaches 80 percent. This is what pushes them to play sports, which in itself is not bad. But if a teenager has psychological problems, then it is very easy to cross the line when pumping up muscles develops into mania, becomes a destructive addiction, when success begins to boil down to building muscle mass, and others are judged solely by the degree of their pumping up. In the United States, 5% of adolescents under the age of 16 have tried anabolic steroid medication, which further leads to serious health problems. And yet they take this risk. As with any addiction,with bigorexia, a person first of all loses an adequate perception of reality.
How to get rid of the manic desire to pump muscles?
The reasons have been identified, but how can one really get rid of phobias and addictions, and therefore from the deadly bigorexia? Bigorexics do not consider themselves sick and are dismissive of the advice of others. Should I listen to fat or thin people who are not able to put their bodies in order?
Usually they are given streamlined advice to see a psychologist who will give them the appropriate therapy. The quality of this therapy can be judged by the increase in the number of phobias and addictions in the modern world. Bigorexia is a vivid confirmation of this.
Build muscles or work? About muscle pleasure
According to the knowledge gained at the training "System-Vector Psychology" by Yuri Burlan, there is only one type of people who experience genuine pleasure from the load on the muscles - these are people with a muscle vector. In its pure form (without mixing with other lower vectors), it is found in 38% of the world's population. But these are not always the people who pump muscles in the gym. The fact is that nature created a person in such a way that he experiences the greatest pleasure from the use of his properties for the benefit of society.
The happiest people with a muscle vector are manual workers who load their muscles in hard work, in agriculture or at construction sites. Moreover, their muscle relief builds up naturally and easily, without the use of harmful food additives. These are big and strong people by nature.
Who pumps muscle in gyms?
As a rule, urban polymorphs come to gyms - people with several vectors. The muscle vector in combination with other lower vectors strengthens them, gives them greater stability, but does not give independent desires. This means that such a person can enjoy muscle work, but the desires of other vectors will direct the person's movement.
For most people who come to the gym, this will manifest itself this way. Someone comes because it is good for health. As a rule, these are people with a skin vector, for whom health is a value. Someone to get in shape. Often these are people with an anal-cutaneous combination of vectors who tend to seize stress and gain fat mass. And some - to look like the guys and girls from the covers. In this case, we are talking about the owners of the visual vector.
It should be noted that people who do not have a muscle vector in the vector set will never be able to achieve the appearance of muscle relief. These are the features of their constitution. As a rule, people without a muscle vector are thin, asthenic, with undeveloped muscle mass. And no anabolic steroids will help them, they will only cause irreparable harm to the body. This should be borne in mind by some young people who have long and unsuccessfully strive to achieve the ideal muscular macho body.
Build muscles to be loved. Major victims of bigorexia
Having a manic tendency to pump muscles in order to look cool, to be loved for his muscular belly and rounded biceps, and at the same time to experience numerous fears and phobias about their appearance, people with a visual vector are capable. There are only 5% of them, but they are most susceptible to fears.
Fear is an innate state of the eye, and parents need to work hard so that the child can outgrow it. Only then can he be truly happy, because if the viewer does not learn to direct his emotions, then he will forever remain a victim of hysteria, phobias, and cannot love without fear.
The most sensitive sensor of a visual person is the eyes. We can say that spectators love life with their eyes. They are the avid readers of glossy magazines. They see beauty, create fashion for a beautiful body, ideals of beauty. They are also their main consumers.
Spectators always want to be in the spotlight, to show themselves. That is why they can easily become hostages of this dangerous combination - the desire to look beautiful and fears not to correspond, to be rejected by society. They become addicted to training, begin to pump muscles intensively, because it seems to them that without a beautiful body they will not be loved. And love and emotional connections are life for them.
Sometimes the partners of Bigorexics cannot stand such a life and leave. How can you withstand this if a loved one disappears in the gym for 3-5 hours a day, quits work for these activities, is constantly looking for money to buy expensive sports nutrition (all these protein shakes and amino acids)? Even in this case, the patient with bigorexia believes that the reason for the breakup is not their inappropriate behavior, but the fact that the partner liked someone more muscular.
Maniacally pumping muscles - addiction to a surrogate
In any case, bigorexia, like any other addiction, develops against the background of deep dissatisfaction, as a substitute, a surrogate for life. So, for the viewer, such a dependence can appear if he does not realize his large emotional amplitude from day to day. The stress of non-fulfillment can cause a failure in the lower part of it - in fears.
As already mentioned, many teenagers come to the gym after ridicule and offensive remarks from others. Adolescence is a period in the life of a growing up child when he wants to be like everyone else, not to stand out “in the pack”. At this age, he is especially susceptible to the influence of fashion trends and may well decide to practice to the bitter end.
Unfortunately, muscle pumping does not lead to increased self-esteem. Self-doubt, resentment, inability to stop achieving the ideal - all these qualities of the anal vector are not in the best condition. The combination of anal and visual vectors gives a painful reaction to the assessment of external data. You want to be beautiful, like on the cover, but the anal vector does not allow - the metabolism is slow, and the body is prone to fullness and looseness.
Interestingly, with the annual growth in the number of gyms, the number of people dissatisfied with their appearance is steadily growing. If in 1975 only 15% of American men were dissatisfied with their bodies, then in 1997 this number increased to 43%. This only confirms that people's desires are growing at a tremendous pace. And the inability, ignorance of how to fill them, leads to switching to surrogates of pleasure, which give a short-term feeling of fulfillment and happiness. But the very next moment, the person again feels not perfect enough and begins to manicly correct his body.
To pump muscles or?.. A way out of the impasse
What can you advise for those suffering from bigorexia? First of all, understand that the obsession with muscles is an attempt to replace the real realization with the imaginary one imposed from the outside. You need to deal with your desires and understand what gives you the most pleasure in life. And then begin to realize your true desires and properties outward, applying yourself in the best way in society and receiving from this the joy and return of others.
