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According to the first person who set about studying it around the year 1997, the psychiatrist Harrison G. Pope of the McLean Hospital in Boston, it was a psychological disorder �classified within the group of disorders known as corporal dismorphias, suffered by those who do not feel at ease with their own bodies and would do anything to make themselves more muscular�.

The problem arises when one becomes obsessed with spending a minimum of six hours per day in the gymnasium, they weigh themselves two or three times a day, they look at themselves in the mirror more times than there are hours in a day, in spite of the fact that they are doing body-building in an exaggerated manner, they never see themselves as being sufficiently muscular, they start reducing the ingestion of fats and increasing that of carbohydrates and proteins (in the belief that this will help them develop muscular mass) and what is even worse, they start taking anabolic steroids in order to quickly incrase muscular mass.

Who does this affect?

In general, they are people who normally see themselves as being somewhat unattractive to the opposite sex, they suffer from anxiety, depression, inferiority complex, obsessive compulsive disorders and are normally very narcissistic. Their personality is characterized by their immaturity, introversion, integration problems, insecurity and low self-esteem.

Javier de Francisco, a specialist in sports medicine in the Laly Ruiz gymnasiums (Tel. 91 411 90 51), warns us of the short and long term dangers which this personality may trigger off: �The over-training to which these people submit themselves exposes them to alterations in their normal heart rates, to an increase in arterial pressure, general fatigue, increase in muscular and articular pain, shaky hands, nervousness, irritability, decrease in appetite, sleeping disorders, drop in sex drive, headache, significant nutritional difficiencies and loss of energy reserves�, as he describes in detail.

And the very same Laly Ruiz adds these other disorders: �The excess of proteins which these people consume on metabolizing becomes a toxic uric acid. This excess also affects the absorption of calcium and long term these people will have problems with osteoporosis�.

The guilty party

The actress and presenter Isabel Prinz, a habitual visitor of the Laly Ruiz gymnasiums, of flashes and cameras, is very clear about the subject: �The fashion industry, cinema, advertising and the Media in general do whatever they have to in order to attract advertising. They create impossible role models and younger people and those who have a lower intellectual and cultural criterion fall into the trap�.

For this reason, one of the most-watched programmes in the United States is "Survivor", a competition held by CBS where participants compete in several endurance tests. There is no single contestant who does not show off what seems to be the new American dream: a physique characterized by six-pack muscles, or rather: the firmest and most undulating abdominal muscles that you could ever imagine.

Treatment

For these people, help comes from the hand of psychologists, psychiatrists or specialists in compulsive disorders. They take charge of counter-attacking the disorder with selective inhibiting anti-depressives for the recapacitation of serotonin (a group of drugs to which Prozac belongs), to regulate their diet again and to carry out psychological therapies in order to modify their behaviour.

As an on-looker you cannot do very much to help, but of course what you can do is not copy them and if you know of someone who is a sufferer (family, friends, colleagues) try to convince them to seek help from the experts. Don't think twice about it: this person needs help.