Muscle Dysmorphia, FACT or FICTION?

[quadfacekillah]

latelly i've seen acouple of articles about this " disease", supposedly its like the bodybuilding version of anorexia, a warped self image problem. it affects alot of big gym goers who see themselves as too small compared to others even though in most cases they are bigger than those whom they use as a comparison. My question is have any of you felt this way or known someone who you might classify as having this disease??

[illwill2]

First I've heard of it.

[goth666]

i have it.

[lift4fun]

I have it...but I guess it's not really a problem at all unless you start putting yourself in danger (i.e. drug use)

[SlimShady316225]

i don't think it should be compared to anorexia because it is a very serious disease that skinny people think they are fat and stop eat and many eat celery witch has no nutritonal value.
this is just seeing your self as to small but you r big. this has really no danger because you wouldn't get ill or hospitalized by it

[webbdman]

i think every guy that works his ass off in the gym and eats rite has it...at the end of the day no matter what we do were always striving to get bigger better and stronger.

[nk_84]

Originally posted by quadfacekillah
latelly i've seen acouple of articles about this " disease", supposedly its like the bodybuilding version of anorexia, a warped self image problem. it affects alot of big gym goers who see themselves as too small compared to others even though in most cases they are bigger than those whom they use as a comparison. My question is have any of you felt this way or known someone who you might classify as having this disease??

I get told I'm not small (although I am in the world of bodybuilding), but in the general public eye I'm no sissy. But I see myself as smaller sometimes.

Only recently have I started to think "yeah, those 17" guns will be mine soon"!

I think it's when people aren't positive enough about their image and perhaps gain confidence not through personality, but from the way they look and I know I'm more to the way I look. My personality is meant for someone of a bigger size, because that's the kind of guy I am. I wouldn't feel right if I had no muscle.

NK.

[quadfacekillah]

but for some people with severe cases of muscle dyspmorphia it can lead to things such as steroid abuse and even severe depression that could drive them to kill themselves. So both MD and anorexia seem to be in the same playing field becasue their both diseases that revolve around a warped self image.

[Loader]

All of us on this board have a drive to get bigger and better at whatever we do but I would say that very few of us suffer from a disease. We are just more ambitious than the general public think we ought to be about our physical appearance and well-being. It has been suggested that I have body dysmorphia by some people I know. The truth is however, that I was quite happy with how I looked before I started lifting weights. But, I am even happier now and I don't know why this drive towards excellence needs to be classified as a disease. In the majority of cases it is a thing to be admired.

[quadfacekillah]

let me clarify what muscle dysmorphia is in comparison with the determination and drive that we naturally have as bodybuilders. To a person that has MD, they can look at a guy that is alot less muscular than themselves and actually say " wow i wish i looked like him", when in reality they are actualltyalot bigger than this person. now that, is a real self image problem. Now i know like most of us, i look in the mirror and see alot of progress but still not yet satisfaction as to where i would like to someday be, well people with this disoreder who have been working out for years and have exceptional physiques dont even see that when they look in the mirror.

[Big Slim DaDDy]

I think almost every bodybuilder has it at least to some degree. I dont look at weaklings and think "Damn I wish my bicep development was on par with his." I can pretty much tell if someone is bigger than me or not, But I'll see like flaws in myself and mentally exaggerate them, or not, my physique is flawed. But I do worry though that I dont look "presentable" Like I want to at least be able to take off my shirt and "look good".

[ohashi]

The lack of knowledge on this thread is amazing. Everyone wants to offer their opinion on a subject that they know nothing about. Wow.

[Loader]

let me clarify what muscle dysmorphia is in comparison with the determination and drive that we naturally have as bodybuilders. To a person that has MD, they can look at a guy that is alot less muscular than themselves and actually say " wow i wish i looked like him", when in reality they are actualltyalot bigger than this person. now that, is a real self image problem. Now i know like most of us, i look in the mirror and see alot of progress but still not yet satisfaction as to where i would like to someday be, well people with this disoreder who have been working out for years and have exceptional physiques dont even see that when they look in the mirror.

The condition as you describe it there is quite clearly a psychological problem. It is something that I would say is quite uncommon among the most bodybuilders and most people who frequent this board. If someone sees another person who is smaller than them yet envies their superior size, their perception has clearly gone askew. I still think that members of the general public and possibly some psychiatrists could misinterpret the drive that bodybuilders have as the above condition.
In recent months I have told people that I am on a diet and trying to lose a few pounds and they say to me things like "You look fine. You don't need to lose any weight" and I would reply by saying something like " Yes but I am trying to get my bodyfat down from about 12% to 7%". Yet, a lot of people can't get their head around thinking numerically like that.
When I look at people walking down the street there is very few of them that I envy but, that doesn't mean that I don't want to better myself. As I said in a previous post people have suggested to me that I may suffer from a similar disorder to the one we are talking about. One which is not bodybuilding related. There probably a lot of people who do suffer from diseases such as muscle dysmorphia but I am fairly sure that I am not one of them. Because if I was asked to describe my physical appearance I would give my height, weight, general shape, bodyfat %, skin colour, hair colour, and other easily definable characteristics. I wouldn't use relative words like small, big, fat, muscular, attractive, ugly since these are much harder to define.

I know very little about psychiatry but I do know what I weigh and I do know what I would like to weigh and if my desired weight differs from most other people's desired weight it doesn't mean that I am dysmorphic(is such a word exists).

[S_Star]

Personally, when ppl tell me i have great body, i kinda brush it off say its nuttin special, i find that im never happy with the way i look, if a guy like Kevin Levrone can look in the mirror and say he doesnt like the way he looks, then nobody whos seriously into bodybuilding could ever be happy

[Spark15]

yes i have it too, even though other people say im bigger than most others, i can look at those same people and feel even smaller than they

[GSMan300]

quadfacekillah,

I just want to say excellent post topic. We need more people posting more "legitimate" topics like this in teen forum.

We always here people getting ragged on for posting crappy topics but we never here positive comments toward good posts. We need more of this.

Peace.

[BGforearms]

its called 'bigorexia'

[em_]

bigorexia lol i like that one

i guess they think they are smaller than other people because when they.....well i guess everybody when you look down at your self you see yourself pretty small

i look at my arms and i'm like dayum i'm small (i have 15.5" arms ) and my friend tells me that i have big arms

[Big Slim DaDDy]

Originally posted by ohashi
The lack of knowledge on this thread is amazing. Everyone wants to offer their opinion on a subject that they know nothing about. Wow.

Penis