Vigorexia

Generality

Vigorexia, or bigorexia, is a form of dysmorphophobia, characterized by a continuous obsession with muscle tone, training, lean mass, a low-calorie and high-protein diet and, finally, the body's athletic hold.

In people with vigoressia, the obsession with the above is such that: there is nothing different from physical exercise; social life and work are of secondary importance; the appearance of the body and nutrition are at the center of every daily thought; the sport of choice is weight lifting; the use of dietary supplements and the abuse of anabolic steroids take over; etc.

The causes of vigoressia are to be identified in a combination of factors of a different nature, including: psychological factors, social factors and biological factors.

The diagnosis of vigoressia is based on some diagnostic criteria, suitably recognized by the experts, which concern the obsessive concern for the body and its muscle tone, for training and for diet.

Treatment consists of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, sometimes associated with drug therapy based on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

The biggest difficulties in treating vigoressia lie in convincing the patient that he suffers from an illness and needs help.

What is vigoressia?

The vigoressia, or bigorexia, is a subtype of dysmorphophobia, characterized by the continuous and obsessive concern for muscle tone and its training, for the lean mass and its maintenance through a strict diet and, finally, for the loss of athleticism by of the body, following physical inactivity.

In other words, those who suffer from vigoressia are people who have an obsession with muscle training, a lean and athletic physique and a diet aimed specifically at increasing the muscular system; in the same way, it is also a person with an obsessive fear of losing a muscle tone acquired after years of training and sacrifices and that is intolerant to every minimum imperfection of their muscles.

WHAT IS DISMORPHOPHOBIA? SHORT REVIEW

Dysmorphophobia is a mental pathology, characterized by an obsessive, and often baseless, concern that a particular part of the body (eg the nose) carries an imperfection so obvious that it must be hidden with every possible remedy, even the most extreme (eg: cosmetic surgery).

At psychiatrists and psychologists, it is a unanimous opinion that dysmorphophobia is an obsessive-compulsive disorder .

OTHER NAMES OF VIGORESSIA

In addition to the term bigorexia, vigoressia is also known as muscular dysmorphy, inverse anorexia or Adonis complex .

CLASSIFICATION: UNCERTAINTIES

According to some experts, as a subtype of dysmorphophobia, vigoressia is considered an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

According to other scholars, however, dysmorphophobia is more similar to a disorder of eating behavior, the latter category to which diseases such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia belong.

Epidemiology

Vigorexia is a particularly widespread condition in the male population and among athletes.

However, it should be pointed out that, according to the most recent statistical surveys, it would be becoming increasingly popular also among women.

Diffusion of vigoressia among body builders

According to some statistical researches, vigoressia concerns about 10% of those who practice body building .

SOME HISTORICAL NEWS RELATED TO VIGORESSIA

Vigorexia is a mental state that belongs to modern times. In fact, his first description in a reliable scientific journal dates back to 1993 . At the time, the most used term to refer to it was inverse anorexia, to contrast it with anorexia nervosa.

Causes

According to experts in eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders, vigorhexia would be due to a combination of factors of different nature, including: biological factors, psychological factors and social factors.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS: THE ROLE OF SELF-EAST

From the study of the precise causes of vigoressia and, in particular, from the analysis of factors of a psychological nature, it would seem that the level of self - esteem plays a very important causal role.

In fact, individuals with low self-esteem have a greater tendency to develop an obsessive preoccupation with their body's muscular tone and with all those delusions, which characterize muscular dysmorphy.

SOCIAL FACTORS: THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA

Those who have been studying vigoressia and its characteristics for years now believe that the most important social factor, associated with the appearance of the aforementioned condition, is the media exposure continues to the myth " thin equal beautiful ", typical of modern Western culture. Moreover, consulting magazines or television programs, the probability of running into advertising or services, whose protagonists are well-known characters with a dry, tonic, muscular body (especially if the subject is a man) and without imperfections, is very high.

Symptoms, signs and complications

The symptoms of vigoressia consist of abnormally characteristic behaviors .

The list of typical behaviors of an individual with vigoressia includes:

Worrying, obsessively and often unfounded, that one's body is not sufficiently thin, muscular and athletic;
Practicing extreme exercise programs, which involves many hours of the day and which consists mainly of weight lifting;
To have excessive and obsessive attention to food, which, specifically, must include only healthy, low-calorie and high-protein foods (NB: protein-rich food can promote muscle hypertrophy if combined with adequate training) ;
Prevent sports training and caring for your body from social life and work;
Dedicate most of your time and many of your economic resources to attending gyms, fitness centers, beauty centers and buying clothes that treat body care and sports training aimed at muscle growth;
Always look at yourself in the mirror, searching for some imperfections in your muscles. By the same principle, categorically avoid looking in the mirror in a period of physical inactivity due to force majeure;
Train yourself even in the presence of muscle injuries, which would discourage sports;
Continuously resorting to food supplements;
Use anabolic steroids to increase muscle mass.

Curiosity

According to an interesting statistical research, almost all people with vigoressia use anabolic steroids.

COMPLICATIONS

If not properly treated, vigoressia can have serious repercussions on the quality of life of the person concerned. Indeed:

The use of anabolic steroids, especially if reckless, is responsible for serious side effects, such as testicular atrophy, gynecomastia, cardiac hypertrophy, psychosis, etc .;
Positioning training in interpersonal relationships and working activities can lead to social isolation and job loss, respectively;
The aforementioned social isolation and loss of employment are possible causes of depression and suicidal thoughts;
The continuous training, without days of rest and with extreme loads, can have an opposite effect on the muscular apparatus, weakening it and making it more and more susceptible to injuries;
The high-protein diets (that is, with a high quantity of proteins) over-engage the kidneys, so much so that the latter, in the long run, could suffer serious damage.

Diagnosis

To arrive at a definitive diagnosis of vigoressia, it is essential to find obsessive concern that the body is too thin and not sufficiently muscular, and the finding of abnormal behaviors, associated with the mania for weightlifting and for a low-calorie and high-protein diet.

DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA

In a subject with vigoressia, the obsessive preoccupation with muscular tonicity and weightlifting mania and the hypocaloric diet can occur in at least four ways, which represent, according to the experts, four important diagnostic criteria :

1st criterion: the individual with vigoressia puts physical exercise and attention to the diet before everything that could, in some way, make him give up a training session or make him eat inadequately to his habits;
2nd criterion: the individual avoids showing his body to others, for the fear, often unfounded, of not being sufficiently thin or athletic. If he could not avoid it, showing himself in public leads him to develop anxiety, stress and discomfort;
3rd criterion: the obsessive preoccupation with muscle tone and training is such as to lead to social isolation, job loss, etc .;
4th criterion: the individual continues in the practice of physical exercise, even in spite of injuries, and in the use of anabolics, despite the awareness of the harmful effects that these have on his health.

In order to be able to talk about vigoressia, it is sufficient that the concern for the body manifests itself even with only two of these four diagnostic criteria.

PROBLEMS OF DIAGNOSIS

Diagnosing vigoressia is quite complex, as affected individuals tend to hide their problems or, worse still, do not realize that they have a distorted view of their bodies. These typical attitudes, on the part of the sick, represent the main reason why the vigoressia is underdiagnosed (ie the actual number of affected people is greater than is believed).

Therapy

The first-choice treatment for the treatment of vigoressia consists of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, combined with a drug therapy based on selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors .

That being said, treating vigoressia is very complicated, as it is very difficult to convince the patient that he suffers from a pathology and is leading an abnormal life and a source of damage to the social and working sphere.

SUPPORT FOR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES

According to psychiatrists and psychologists, the support of relatives and friends is essential to convince people with vigoressia to undergo specific treatments. The latter must, above all, draw the patient's attention to the negative consequences that vigoressia is having on daily life, on social life, on work, on economic resources, etc.

COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy aims to teach the patient with vigoressia how to identify, dominate and prevent problem behaviors (in specialized jargon, "inactive behaviors" or "distorted thoughts"), which characterize the obsessive preoccupation with a presumed thinness or poor muscle tone.

Moreover, it is of enormous help in providing a method for identifying the so-called "symptomatology triggers", ie the factors that trigger pathological behaviors.

Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy includes a part "in the studio", with the psychotherapist, and a part "at home", reserved for the exercise and improvement of the techniques of domination and prevention.

Prognosis

If the patient agrees to undergo the planned treatments and gives continuity to the sessions of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, the vigoressia tends to have a positive prognosis.

To compromise the prognosis, even in spite of adequate care, it could be the prolonged use, before starting the therapies, of anabolic steroids. In fact, these substances can have long-term side effects with irreversible consequences.