Strong muscle bound movie stars1/29/2024 ![]() ![]() For men, it’s much the same, without the breasts of course, except you also need a muscular body to be considered up to the job. For women, the message is that to be successful you have to be young, slim and toned, with big breasts, perfect skin and a faultless complexion. Men in the 21st century are constantly bombarded with images of the ‘perfect’ male physique, by hoardings, television, films and magazines. The reasons are several, and very familiar to women. What is driving so many young men to want to be bigger than they can possibly be? Low-cost, no-contract, 24-hour access to gyms has mushroomed: achieving your fitness goals is now more affordable and easier than ever.Īlongside this expansion, muscle dysmorphic disorder (MDD) is becoming an increasingly common psychological problem among men. An estimated 9.2 million people now have a gym membership – that’s one in seven of us. The fitness industry in the UK has grown from strength to strength in recent years. It was the image of me that I thought other people saw that I wanted rid of. It wasn’t actually me that I hated I liked what I saw as me – worldly, fairly intelligent, healthy, balanced and settled, with a great life. I trained obsessively, six or even seven times a week, sometimes twice a day, in an attempt to eradicate him. I was convinced that, despite appearing ‘big’ to other people, I was still the awkward, skinny boy I loathed throughout my adolescence and early 20s. Up until a few months ago, I would say I was bordering on having much the same problem. ‘I’m doing well at work – I’ve had a few promotions… I have some really good friends, and I’m in a long-term relationship.’ He stops: ‘Although I don’t know if I would be, if I wasn’t as big as I am.’ My sense is that he’s not even half joking as he adds this. ![]() I ask him: ‘So, what have you achieved, to date, since you left school, that didn’t require you to be as muscular as you are – what hasn’t needed all that muscle?’ ‘I went travelling on my own… I got my degree… my own home and car,’ he tells me. His use of the word ‘painful’ conjures up vividly his mental and emotional torture in feeling so frail and weak.ĭespite all the time, effort and money he spends on enhancing his physical appearance, Paul is still too close to see the mismatch between his skinny, adolescent self-image and the reality today. We talk about what it means for him to be bigger and more muscular. He is embarrassed when he describes his school days, and starts to blush, laughing off the pain in his own words. He describes his former self as ‘awkward, shy and a bit of a nerd, to be honest. Paul was relentlessly bullied in his childhood and youth. He tells me that, however big he is, it’s never big enough. He goes to the gym and lifts weights six times a week he avoids aerobic exercise, in case he loses weight. It takes a while for his story to unfurl. Paul first came to therapy because of his low mood and sexual promiscuity. I point out the glaringly obvious: that he is already extremely muscular.īut I know exactly how he feels. ‘Why would you want people to be scared of you?’ I ask. A client of mine, let’s call him Paul, tells me that he wants ‘to be massive, so people will be scared of me’. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |