I need a shrink that understands Weightlifters!!

[the5thhorseman]

I have just been "diagnosed" with bodydismorphia! Has anyone else even heard of this?

My signature has my size stats, and although bigger than average, I don't consider myself huge or that I look the best. My goal is about 260 at 6%BF (sounds low, but i maintained 4% year round in college-ran track). My doctor and my couselor think I'm crazy to think i need to get bigger or cut down on my fat - currently 14%. They say I don't see myself how I really am, kind of like someone who is anorexic!

I eat healthy, work out, my blood pressure and cholesterol are low, but they think theres a problem...has anyone experience similar stuff with ther doctor's...i gues I'm just trying to make sure I am not the only one, so i can justify telling them to !#$%^&*

 

[jamesbrosky]

they have low standards, you however want to look better than that. If he can't understand that then F#$K em. Unless..... theres more to this story?

 

[DieTrying]

**** them. Theres nothing wrong with you, shoot for the stars brother. As long you are healthy, I don't understand how they can be worried about you. MOST people (doctors or general public) will never understand bodybuilders. As long as you are happy, keep doing what you're doing.

 

[Iron Warrior]

You're fine. My parents tell me that **** all the time. Your health is fine and I actually think it's great that you have goals you wanna achieve.

 

[ManBeast]

Agreed, I get **** from everyone, I'm gonna get a physical WHILE doing keto just to prove them all wrong.

ManBeast

 

[rhinochaser48]

As wrong as they are, it's still a valueable experience that puts things into perspective.

Set progressive goals, but be realistic, (not that you don't know this already).

They've spent their whole lives accepting their physical state "as is." We on the other hand, choose to live in a prime, and rise to a level of extraordinary.

 

[WYD02]

There is always another doctor that will be happy to accept your business. Don't be excessive with your goals and expectations nor sacrifice your social life (too much at least to the point where you are giving up everything you used to enjoy), love life, or health for it, and you are just fine.

 

[BingeAndPurge]

I had my first session the other day and the dude asked me if I was taking any supplements and I listed my long list of ****, a lot of which he had no clue, and he asked me why I was taking creatine. Apparantly some P.O. told him that people took creatine to stump drug tests. I had never heard of that and he had no clue what creatine was really used for. No wonder ****'s getting banned left and right. The next time I hear ephedra called a performance enhancing drug I'm going to jump out a high window.

 

[VanillaGorilla]

I think it depends. If you like to lift and they are just saying that because of your goals than they are prob. wrong. If you can't leave the house because your afraid you will miss a meal or if you freak out because you missed one work out then you might have it. Muscle dismorphia is basically reverse anorexia. A person like this could weigh 280 have 23 inc arms, and have 2 percent body fat and they still won't think they are big enough.

 

[FLY]

I did a huge report on muscle dysmorphia last year for my sports psychology class. How many hours a day do you spend in a gym? How many days a week? Muscle dysmoprhia is when you see your body in a distorted view so that it you think you are smaller than you actually are. This is usually characterized by people who wear baggy clothes 24/7 to make themselves seem bigger than they are. They rarely go out in public. Everything they do is done in an effort to get bigger, but unfortunatly they will never be big enough. Their mind still shows them as being tiny.

Almost everyone has some of the characteristics of muscle and body dysmorphia. That's just our insecurity. The problem with these diseases is when they start to interfere with your daily life. When you stop going out with friends, being seen in public, wear baggy clothing 24/7, look at yourself in a mirror more than 4 times a day, etc. Sometimes you don't realize how much your personal relationships deteriorate and often the people with this disease claim that their psychologist doesn't understand them. This goes back to the idea that no one other than another bodybuilder could understand what we go through.

A good book to read is The Adonis Complex. It will really help you understand what others have gone through. The relationships lost and the extreme extent of drugs used all to try to reach this unnattainable goal.