Download Muscle Madness by GEORGE JOSEPH

by GEORGE JOSEPH
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Muscle Madness
© 2006 Custom Publishing Design Group
How far is too far
in the quest for the
‘perfect’ physique?
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HAT’S happened to G.I.
Joe? In 1964, he was
proportionally under 6 feet
tall and had 12-inch biceps. Today,
he’d give Arnold Schwarzenegger
a run for his money. Apparently, our
plastic friend has spent more time
at the gym than on the battlefield!
Of course, Joe isn’t entirely to
blame. His bulging biceps merely
reflect what’s going on in society
at large. And considering the fact
that Americans spend several
billion dollars a year on gym
memberships alone, what’s going
on gives cause for concern. In fact,
experts say that muscle madness
has given birth to a new disorder.
A GLANCE IN THE MIRROR
Remember the funhouse mirrors
at the old amusement park? Some
of them made you look fat. Others
made you look thin. In one way or
another, all of them distorted your
true image. At the amusement park,
it was funny. In real life, however,
some people have a distorted
view of their physique. It is as if they
carry around a personal funhouse
mirror wherever they go, and what
they see in it is not funny at all.
Such persons may suffer from
body dysmorphic disorder, which is
characterized by an obsession over an
imagined defect in their appearance.
But now that insidious disorder has
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spawned a mini-me version called
muscle dysmorphia. Those who have
it may be quite fit, but they perceive
themselves as frail and weak. As
a result, they take workouts at the
gym to an unhealthy extreme. “High
school boys—not athletes—are most
at risk,” points out Jeff O’Brien of
the Center for the Study of Sport in
Society at Northeastern University in
Boston. “They’re the ones who think,
‘You gotta be big.’ It gets reinforced
everywhere … even in video games.”
Such thinking causes many young
ones to place undue emphasis on
appearance. They may feel similar
to a sophomore named Brandon,
who said: “Personality counts, but
the first thing people see is what
is attractive and looks good.”
“BIGGEREXIA NERVOSA”?
Dr. Harrison Pope, co-author of the
book The Adonis Complex: The Secret
Crisis of Male Body Obsession, draws a
parallel between muscle dysmorphia
and self-starvation. He says: “In a
typical case of anorexia nervosa,
a woman diets until she is severely
underweight. Yet, when she looks at
herself in the mirror, she perceives
herself as fat. By contrast, in typical
muscle dysmorphia, a muscle-bound
bodybuilder will look in the mirror and
see himself or herself as out of shape.
We think the underlying pathology
of the two conditions may be the
same, since they are both disorders
of body image. The preoccupations
simply go in opposite directions.”
The eerie similarities to anorexia
have caused some to call muscle
dysmorphia “reverse anorexia” or
even “biggerexia nervosa.” Much like
an eating disorder, muscle dysmorphia
is often kept hidden from friends
and family, and it produces bizarre
symptoms in the sufferer. In his book,
for example, Dr. Pope tells of a man
who refused to kiss his girlfriend for
fear that she would transmit calories
to him through her saliva. Another
man kept a blender on his desk at
work so that he could make a protein
shake every 90 minutes. The noise
was so irritating to his coworkers that
he was given an ultimatum: ‘lose
either your blender or your job. The
employee chose to lose his job.
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According to a Chicago Tribune
report, “6.1 percent of high school
students admitted in 2003 that
they had taken steroid pills or shots
without a doctor’s prescription at
least once in their lifetime.” That’s
double the number who ’fessed up
to the same vice just six years earlier.
The rationale of those who use the
supplements is disturbing, to say the
least. “There’s a pill for everything,”
says Daniel Gould, director of the
Institute for the Study of Youth Sports
at Michigan State University. “Why
wouldn’t there be a pill for this? From
a kid’s angle, it would be logical.”
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As odd as these anecdotes may
seem, they get to the crux of the
dysmorphia dilemma: the quest for
bigger and better muscles comes
before anything and anyone. “I didn’t
go on vacations for many years,” says
a sufferer named Ken. “I always had
to be near a gym.” Of course, like
any obsession, muscle madness can
lead to any number of unfavorable
consequences. These include
increased anxiety levels, eating
disorders, mood swings, and fear of
socializing. It can also lead to the use
of dangerous bodybuilding drugs.
Another reason why many
kids are anxious to jump on the
chemical bandwagon may be
that they have not seen anyone
punished for using them. As the
Chicago Tribune points out, teens
“have been weaned on DARE
programs and ‘Just Say No’ bumper
stickers and have been schooled
in the dangers of recreational
drugs, alcohol and tobacco. But
few teens know anyone who’s ever
been busted for steroid abuse.”
Unfortunately, the common use
of chemical supplements has now
begun to pique the interest of the
very young. “I get 10-year-olds asking
me about it,” says Eric Welsh, an
instructor at C.F. Swingtown Baseball
Academy in Orland Park, Illinois.
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To determine whether you suffer
from muscle dysmorphia, ask yourself:
‘Do I check out my muscles in the
mirror more than twice a day?’ ‘Do I
weigh myself two or more times a day
to see if I’ve lost or gained weight?’
‘Do I avoid going out with family and
friends, for fear that I’ll deviate from
my diet?’ ‘Do I dress in loose clothing,
dreading that others might perceive
me as skinny or frail?’ According to
fitness specialist Ian Lee, answering
‘Yes’ to such questions may indicate
that you have muscle dysmorphia.
Nevertheless, he cautions, “some
guys might have all those symptoms
and still not have dysmorphia. It all
depends on how much bodybuilding
controls your life. If you can’t let go of
the gym as easily as you might want
to due to extreme feelings of anxiety—
unlike the negligible anxiety you feel
when you stop an old habit—then
you should look into the matter.”
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TREATMENT AND BEYOND
Ian Lee emphasizes the need for
family and friends to provide a helping
hand to those who show symptoms of
having muscle dysmorphia. In fact, the
intervention of others is often crucial.
“Men with dysmorphia will rarely seek
out help themselves,” Lee says.
So what can you do if you know
someone who may be suffering
from muscle dysmorphia? “The
first step, and usually the most
important one, is making a person
see their body for what it actually
is; that it is fine and doesn’t need
to be changed,” says Lee.
Once the sufferer acknowledges
the problem, he needs to spend
less time at the gym—perhaps one
or two days less per week. Also, he
should refrain from comparing his
physique with that of others, who,
truth be told, might be using steroids.
In the end, a person needs to restore
balance to his workout routine.
“There’s nothing pathological about
being an avid bodybuilder,” says
Lee. “The only thing I’m saying is that
it shouldn’t take over your life.” ■