Not seeing yourself right?? Need Help!!

[h0other]

I'm not sure if this is where I should post this but there really isn't a section for this. First of all I am 6' 215 pounds at around 10% bf. I have 17 1/2 inch arms and can bench over 350pds. Sounds ok right? Well the problem is when I am in the gym I feel smaller than people who are 150 pounds. It doesn't make sense. Does anyone else have this same problem? Has anyone else found a way to come back to reality and stop having such negative thoughts? Just curious to if this has happened to anyone else and if so what you do to help! Thanks!

 

[bulls**t]

I'm not sure if this is where I should post this but there really isn't a section for this. First of all I am 6' 215 pounds at around 10% bf. I have 17 1/2 inch arms and can bench over 350pds. Sounds ok right? Well the problem is when I am in the gym I feel smaller than people who are 150 pounds. It doesn't make sense. Does anyone else have this same problem? Has anyone else found a way to come back to reality and stop having such negative thoughts? Just curious to if this has happened to anyone else and if so what you do to help! Thanks!

It's called body dysmorphic disorder.
It is more common in men than one would think.

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/157/8/1291

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1627897

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_dysmorphic_disorder

If you feel that it is serious, do a search for possible ways to cope with it, many of which involve therapy.

 

[wearedbleedblue]

Yeah, its usually referred to as bigorexia, opposite of anorexia. Pretty much what you're saying. You just need to take pictures of yourself next to said smaller people and look at them to remind yourself. That or start hanging out with smaller guys haha. Wish I could help you more but you're a hell of a lot bigger than I am. Though, I've never wanted to be the big guy, just the strong guy.

 

[lonewolf0420]

Your not alone, brother!

 

[SoCo4Fun]

A lot of us are like that...

 

[MasterFlexx]

Also along the same lines is the Adonis Complex. A little snip it from a book about it,

"Most of the time, Scott explained, he sees his reflection as small and puny, even though he's actually massively built. "I know it sounds silly," he said, "but there are times that even on hot summer days, after getting a bad shot of myself in the mirror, I'll put on heavy sweatshirts to cover up my body because I think I don't look big enough." For the same reason, he explained that he almost always wears heavy sweats when working out at the gym. He sometimes even turns down invitations to go to a swimming pool or the beach, for fear that when he takes his shirt off, people will notice him and think he's too small."

I think lots of us feel this way at one point or another. A good support tool I use is friends and family and explain to them how I feel about my physique.

 

[h0other]

thanks for all the feedback.. it's sometime just good to know that you're not alone. All of it sounds so familiar though. Sometimes I just feel like i'm going crazy because of it.

 

[Lacradocious]

I still feel small and I am bigger now than I ever have been. I don't realize how much I have gained the past year until I see photos of how I used to look, and how I look now standing next to the same people.

I think this is normal for most guys when they get some mass on them. Little and skinny guys seem to be the exception a lot of the time and think that they are bigger than they really are. Napolean Syndrome.

 

[h0other]

Yeah I remember when I was small I used to feel like I was pretty descent sized. Now I feel tiny all the time. Even when I look at pictures I feel small. Then i'll lift a big weight and be like "how the hell did I just do that". I guess in a way it drives me to not be satisfied with myself and to keep lifting hard. But hopefully one day I will feel satisfied or it will feel like a waste internally.

 

[Aggravated]

I am like that as well! There really isn't much you can do about it, unless you resort to therapy. You just have to be confident I guess. I am currently working on this!

 

[mixedup]

YEP bigorexia mine only kicks in when i'm at the gym though when i got injured and couldn't work out for awhile it rarely came around

 

[gismo0184]

It's surprising to see that this affects a lot of people. I've always been the little guy and over the past 6 years I've gained over 35 pounds and I still feel small at the gym and around guys I work with. I think my self esteem has a lot to do with it, but I get by.

 

[dpfisher]

Is wanting to be big a bad thing? I mean as long as it doesn't drive you to excessive steroid consumption or something?

 

[Mulletsoldier]

I usually self-doubt in times such as I am in right now: I deliberately took a week off, then my newly purchased puppy was sick and passed away [I lost sleep], and that further delayed my scheduled time 'back on lifting'. The glycogen loss is horrendous for me, and I continually reassure myself - with my background in physiology - that really a week off is only enough time to lose glycogen, and not really mass. Still though, I convince myself that my shirts fit looser, I look smaller in the mirror, and so on and so on.

 

[Chubbinmuffin]

I feel small in the gym all the time. I'm still 135lbs but my arms are about 16 1/4" flexed and can rep 100lb dumbells for about 4-5 reps. Everyone estimates me to be about 160+lbs. It's just a mental thing.

 

[SoCo4Fun]

It actually hurts my performance in the gym. I find that I get down about it and think "why do I even bother?"...then I start slacking...and next thing I know I'm back to eating dub cheese and combo pizzas...

So far the easiest way for me to keep my motivation up is pictures...I keep taking progress pictures...

 

[h0other]

This post has almost turned into a therapy session haha. It's good people are getting there feelings out there on the topic though. Sometimes just seeing other people feel the same way as you can help out. Right now I am trying to cut some as I am going to the beach and this is when it is the hardest for me. I've tried to cut multiple times in the past and i've always shot in down shortly into it as I hated loosing mass. I'm taking as many supplements as possible to try to help lose as little muscle as possible in this cut though and I am doing ok with it.
---Thank you guys for your support and I hope i've helped someone else in coming out with my own feelings on this topic!