Muscle dysmorphia is known as vigorexia.
Vigorexia is muscle dysmorphia , a disorder characterized by obsessive preoccupation with the physique and distortion of the body schema. This is a concept not recognized by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) , but in common use.
This emotional or nervous disorder, which is not usually recognized as a disease by doctors, is more common in men than in women . Also known as the Adonis complex , vigorexia causes sufferers to perceive their physical characteristics in a distorted way.
Specifically, people who suffer from this disorder look thin and weak. Hence, they perform all kinds of actions to achieve the desired muscles.
Causes of vigorexia
Among the causes that lead a person to be affected by this problem are fundamentally having an obsessive personality , especially with oneself, as well as suffering various emotional problems in their personal or professional relationships.
All of this without forgetting that, on other occasions, the reasons that make someone suffer from vigorexia are physiological problems. Specifically, it is considered that it can cause what would be various effects on the central nervous system .
Vigorexia implies an obsessive concern for the physique.
Main symptoms
Among the main symptoms that indicate that someone has this disorder are low self-esteem, constantly weighing themselves, self-medicating, manifesting an absolute obsession with body worship, having a disproportionate body, having an absolutely distorted view of their physical state or that they begin to isolate themselves on a social level.
Vigorexics feel that they lack muscle and tone; Therefore, they have an obsession with performing physical exercises that allow them to improve their body appearance. These exercises are performed compulsively until the body loses its normal proportions.
In many cases, physical exercises are complemented with the consumption of steroids or anabolics that contribute to increasing muscle. In this way, vigorexia becomes even more dangerous, since the abuse of this type of substance increases the risk of suffering from prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction and other diseases.
Compulsive physical activity and the consumption of anabolics are also often combined with unbalanced diets , with the consumption of foods that have a large amount of protein and carbohydrates, which can produce metabolic alterations.
Consequences of vigorexia
Many and serious are the negative consequences that the person who suffers from anorexia can experience, not only due to the excessive sports they do but also due to their poor diet and the abuse of anabolics. However, among all those, fluid retention , the appearance of acne and heart problems stand out.
It should also be added that women who suffer from this disorder may suffer an alteration in their menstrual cycle, while men may suffer from testicular atrophy or a reduction in their sperm levels.
It is believed that four out of every 10,000 people suffer from vigorexia, with those subjects with low self-esteem and a tendency to addictive behaviors being more likely. The treatment of vigorexia is mainly psychological so that the person overcomes their fear of failure and improves their self-esteem .