People Develop Vigorexia As A Result Of New Social Environments

carlos gerardo balderas campuzano

The people who suffer from Vigorexia have or had problems with their appearance, their self-esteem, or have suffered traumas because of their physique at a certain points of their lives.

Vigorexia sufferers desire a perfect “image” to fit the supposed requirements of their social groups and to meet the need to be accepted as part of a larger community. As social beings, humans have the need to socialize and to feel that they are an important part of society. They also have the need to receive attention from others and vice versa.

The psychological part of the individual takes an important part of the main cause of the development of this disease. For example: experience, upsets, or traumas suffered by the person at certain point of his life drive the victim to Vigorexic behavior. Experiences such as critiques or their looks, if they were too small, too thin, too big, or too fat; together with the lack of familiar support of their ideas, and rejection by the ones surrounding them (family, friends or the general society) are the factors which shape the perfectionist personality that is a characteristic of his type of person.

As this internet publisher states about the cognitive hypothesis explanation:

“When a person has a negative appraisal of internal body image, it influences the external representation of appearance. That triggers processing self as an aesthetic object which results in negative internal body image.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_dysmorphia


This article excerpt describes the perception of oneself in Vigorexic persons, contributing to a vicious circle of wrong ideas and false thoughts about the victim’s self worth that lead the victim to despise of him or herself, as a reaction to the depreciation of his body image.

The most accepted hypothesis on the causes of Vigorexia, the cognitive-behavioral explanation states:

“The responsibility for muscle dysmorphia is shared by: cultural factors, biological predispositions, psychological vulnerabilities and early childhood experiences. Cultural factors manifest themselves in an exaggerated emphasis on appearance, physical strength and attractiveness.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_dysmorphia

This hypothesis combines different factors, such as cultural, biological, psychological and experiences of the individuals. The result of these diverse variables is the projection of the individual’s insecurity and self-esteem that obligates the Vigorexic to push to the limit his or her physiology in the attempt to change its physiology.

The Vigorexic victims communicate their mental issues and their traumas with what psychologists call “Body Language”; Body Language consists of the explanation that people, who cannot express their feelings or upsets by speaking, eventually represent them with actions, gestures or gesticulations.