I for one think it is very rare, but you can’t argue the fact that there are some people with this disorder. Most people on here are well educated so i doubt that really any people on here have it.
[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
I for one think it is very rare, but you can’t argue the fact that there are some people with this disorder. Most people on here are well educated so i doubt that really any people on here have it.[/quote]
You really need to define what it is before you can say that people have it. Is it like the ghey?
Seriously - body dysmorphia is a real condition. But “bigorexia”? What the hell does it even mean?
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
This kinda shit really gets on my nerves. In every damn area of life anybody can think of you can dig up some infinitesimally small percentage that throw common sense to the wind in the name of a self obsessed campaign of destruction. Somewhere as I type this there’s a thumb wrestling fanatic tossing his life away for a chance to chase an unrealistic dream for which he is clearly not equipped to fulfill.[/quote]
For some reason this made me laugh uncontrollably. I’m wiping the tears from my eyes as I type this.
Thank you.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Gael wrote:
If you have ever known anyone with anorexia, you know that they are sick beyond belief. It’s one of the most twisted fucked up things you ever saw. And contrary to popular belief, it as nothing to do with food, weight, or appearance. It stems from dysfunctional relationships, often stretching back to childhood. Upwards of 10% of anorexics and bulimics die, and the recovery rate among the rest is very bleak indeed.
Take any guy obsessively bent on getting huge, and there is absolutely no comparison. None. All bodybuilders are necessarily obsessive. If they aren’t, they don’t get anywhere.
Eating disorders are complex mixtures of anger and desperation and self loathing.
Bodybuilding is a healthy human endeavor, and it requires a healthy mindset and outlook. The big guys I’ve been fortunate enough to meet share a mindset and outlook that is healthier than most other people I’ve run into in life.
Good post. The same obsession that caused Koby Bryant to watch hours and hours of basketball footage to improve his own game is apparently a mental illness now. Oh wait, that only applies if his pursuit involved bigger biceps at all.[/quote]
It isn’t only in lifting, but in relationships, friendships, corporate and academia alike. You must stay “within” a certain average. If…If anyone moves below or above is considered dangerous. For example, what is so great about having 1 house, 2 cars and 1 dog. What if I want to have 1 apartment and 4cars? Or what if I want to have 1 wife and 5 children instead of the “average” 2?
Every country has their “expected” averages that are consciously or unconsciously placed on every member and if you do otherwise it signals that you don’t conform to societies norms making you a dangerous individual.
The issue is not about muscles or the lack but that the average has moved to be fat and lazy as the expected norm.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
“Muscle dysmorphia”, a disorder that involves someone who sees themselves as differently than they really are (this would include small guys who think they are built as well), [/quote]
So, Imaginary Lat Syndrome is a form of muscle dysmorphia.
Should we start a foundation to help these misguided souls?
Back to the OP’s initial question. Read Catch-22. Of course, none of us have bigorexia.
Hmm, this makes me think. Let’s say you have a lot more muscle than the average joe. If people look at you and see someone on steroids while you look at yourself and see a undernourished kid, does that mean you have a mental illness?
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Hmm, this makes me think. Let’s say you have a lot more muscle than the average joe. If people look at you and see someone on steroids while you look at yourself and see a undernourished kid, does that mean you have a mental illness?[/quote]
No (well, maybe. Do you like to hurt puppies?). If you recognize that you have more muscles than the average joe then you recognize you are not an undernourished kid. However, you may project that image on yourself to motivate yourself to grow. If you want to get as bigger as you can, there will always be some level of dissatisfaction.
Do not confuse where you are with where you started. We all have that “before” picture in out heads (some, no doubt still have it in their mirror). Learn to be proud (humbly, not with arrogance) of your gains but recognize them as steps in a much longer journey.
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Hmm, this makes me think. Let’s say you have a lot more muscle than the average joe. If people look at you and see someone on steroids while you look at yourself and see a undernourished kid, does that mean you have a mental illness?[/quote]
That would probably depend on what your concept of “an undernourished kid” is.
Just from experience, people who were fat kids always either think they are at risk of getting that fat again or they always see remnants of that fat kid. People who were skinny kids used to tend to do the same…before people started calling that condition cute names like “metrosexual” or “emo” or whatever the fuck you call kids now when they look like stick figures.
Anywhoo, I wouldn’t be so quick to call those conditions “mental illnesses”. I would also think there is a difference between seeing yourself as not good enough (so you work to get better) and actually seeing a small European kid with his skeleton jutting out from under his skin in the mirror when you happen to be a 340lbs Samoan.
[quote]Tex Ag wrote:
Do not confuse where you are with where you started. We all have that “before” picture in out heads (some, no doubt still have it in their mirror). Learn to be proud (humbly, not with arrogance) of your gains but recognize them as steps in a much longer journey. [/quote]
Ah yes, the “before” picture. What if you lost fat AND gained 30 pounds overall, yet you still see yourself the same as your “before” picture?
No ones on my side… your all ganging up on me! I dont have a problm, its you who have the problem just let me live my life damnit!
Just a workout man… thats all I need man just 1 workout, just one workout man! I need to lift something bro, just one good pump and Il be good.
…Sometimes… sometimes I workout twice a day, then I eat until I dont want to move to make sure my body dosent crash from the high.
My names n3wb and Im a liftaholic.
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Tex Ag wrote:
Do not confuse where you are with where you started. We all have that “before” picture in out heads (some, no doubt still have it in their mirror). Learn to be proud (humbly, not with arrogance) of your gains but recognize them as steps in a much longer journey.
Ah yes, the “before” picture. What if you lost fat AND gained 30 pounds overall, yet you still see yourself the same as your “before” picture?[/quote]
I don’t know where you started, but if someone starts at 140lbs at average height and gains 30lbs, they are only 170lbs. That isn’t very big unless you are shorter than average. Noticing that this isn’t that big doesn’t make you insane. Wanting to get bigger doesn’t either.
We could also get into how you will be less likely to notice your own progress unless you take pictures of yourself. You see yourself everyday.
[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
“The Man Whose Arms Exploded” was just on TLC. I take back my earlier stance on bigorexia. Gregg Valentino has bigorexia. The doctor who apparently coined the term was on the show as well, and I disagreed with almost everything he said. Maybe his book has a more compelling argument, or he might have been more interesting if he could have directly commented on Valentino.[/quote]
I think he defined “Bigorexia” and “Muscle Dismorphia” as one and the same.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
Tex Ag wrote:
Do not confuse where you are with where you started. We all have that “before” picture in out heads (some, no doubt still have it in their mirror). Learn to be proud (humbly, not with arrogance) of your gains but recognize them as steps in a much longer journey.
Ah yes, the “before” picture. What if you lost fat AND gained 30 pounds overall, yet you still see yourself the same as your “before” picture?
I don’t know where you started, but if someone starts at 140lbs at average height and gains 30lbs, they are only 170lbs. That isn’t very big unless you are shorter than average. Noticing that this isn’t that big doesn’t make you insane. Wanting to get bigger doesn’t either.
We could also get into how you will be less likely to notice your own progress unless you take pictures of yourself. You see yourself everyday. [/quote]
Good explanations, prof. FYI, I’m 5’7" and started at 120 with a little more fat than I have now. I had NO muscle back then. Haha…
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Professor X wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
Tex Ag wrote:
Do not confuse where you are with where you started. We all have that “before” picture in out heads (some, no doubt still have it in their mirror). Learn to be proud (humbly, not with arrogance) of your gains but recognize them as steps in a much longer journey.
Ah yes, the “before” picture. What if you lost fat AND gained 30 pounds overall, yet you still see yourself the same as your “before” picture?
I don’t know where you started, but if someone starts at 140lbs at average height and gains 30lbs, they are only 170lbs. That isn’t very big unless you are shorter than average. Noticing that this isn’t that big doesn’t make you insane. Wanting to get bigger doesn’t either.
We could also get into how you will be less likely to notice your own progress unless you take pictures of yourself. You see yourself everyday.
Good explanations, prof. FYI, I’m 5’7" and started at 120 with a little more fat than I have now. I had NO muscle back then. Haha…[/quote]
Gee, that whole “I was a starving orphan” info might have been some important info to add at the beginning.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
Professor X wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
Tex Ag wrote:
Do not confuse where you are with where you started. We all have that “before” picture in out heads (some, no doubt still have it in their mirror). Learn to be proud (humbly, not with arrogance) of your gains but recognize them as steps in a much longer journey.
Ah yes, the “before” picture. What if you lost fat AND gained 30 pounds overall, yet you still see yourself the same as your “before” picture?
I don’t know where you started, but if someone starts at 140lbs at average height and gains 30lbs, they are only 170lbs. That isn’t very big unless you are shorter than average. Noticing that this isn’t that big doesn’t make you insane. Wanting to get bigger doesn’t either.
We could also get into how you will be less likely to notice your own progress unless you take pictures of yourself. You see yourself everyday.
Good explanations, prof. FYI, I’m 5’7" and started at 120 with a little more fat than I have now. I had NO muscle back then. Haha…
Gee, that whole “I was a starving orphan” info might have been some important info to add at the beginning.[/quote]
Actually, I didn’t originally want to implicate myself, but what the heck. My parents WANTED me to be BELOW the NORMAL BMI range.
I just don’t see the news in this. You mean to tell me there are people with deluded views of themselves from which they develop self destructive habits? GOOD HEAVENS!! Say it ain’t so!!!
The quicker we can give it a clinical sounding name the quicker we can work on selling people a cure. I know, we need a pill. It can be pink on side and blue on the other, unisex, we’ll call it, yourebeautifuljustthewayyouare hcl with a brand name of selfcontentadine. Of course it won’t be without it’s side effects, like the uncontrollable urge to watch Denise Austin videos, that’s just par for the course.
We can then have federally funded workshops that still cost $800 an hour where people take turns telling Johnny and Julie how wonderful they are… for 20 years with no improvement at all.
But, the main event will be watching the loving insurance companies find ways to avoid covering treatments for any of this as they of all people rightly declare that this is not a medical condition, but a case of an over fed good old fashioned character defect that will only be resolved when the subject bottoms out and realizes how foolish they’ve been, it they ever do.
I don’t think I have muscle dysmorphia or “bigorexia”. I just think that every time I achieve a goal, I want more. I “raise the bar” (pardon the pun).
It’s the people who give up, become satisfied with the status quo, and let themselves stagnate who have the mental problems IMHO.
Anything that prevents a “normal” healthy lifestyle is by definition unhealthy.
Does “bigorexia” really affect ones work routine, personal relationships, sleep patterns, nutritional intake, etc. If it does there maybe cause for concern. Most people don’t fit these lifestyle patterns therefore I wouldn’t generally consider it a disorder.
Let’s face it tough, by anyones standards most professional bodybuilders and strength athletes would appear to have OCD at the very least because their careers requires it. These are not the symptoms of your average person.
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Let’s face it tough, by anyones standards most professional bodybuilders and strength athletes would appear to have OCD at the very least because their careers requires it. These are not the symptoms of your average person.[/quote]
Almost all highly successful people would appear to have OCD compared to the normal population.
It’s called ambition. Drive. It is hardly an illness.
[quote]rainjack wrote:
If someone dedicates a large portion of their time to improving their golf game, are they golforexics?
What about folks who punish their bodies relentlessly to compete in a triathlon? Triatharexics?
Why the singling out of people who devote a large portion of their time to put on muscle?
Why the idiotic assumptions?
[/quote]
Because certain people want a label for every little thing that there ever was and ever will be.