December 18, 2016
Do you have bigorexia? If sport has become an obsession, which you can run until exhaustion, even at the risk of a muscle tear, you may be concerned by this addiction recently recognized by the WHO.
15% of amateur athletes concerned
Bigorexia is a word still little used in everyday language, and for good reason: this disease, which is characterized by an addiction to sport, was only recently recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). At a time when sporting activity is recommended by all health and medical authorities to extend life expectancy and fight against many diseases, it seems that some have become addicted to their daily dose of sport.
This addiction today concerns around 15% of amateur athletes. who engage in daily physical exercise. Not all sports seem concerned, since we would meet more bigorexics in the world of bodybuilding and running.
Denial, characteristic of bigorexia
How to define this form of addiction? For Laurent Karila, spokesperson for the SOS Addictions association, “ we talk about bigorexia especially when there is a loss of time, of control, which is considerable and that there are consequences behind. There is not necessarily a consensus on the time, but it is on a year of excessive sports practice at least “. “ We become ill or addicted when we use a product or adopt a behavior so as not to suffer », He explains for the daily the Team.
The main risks of such an addiction are above all physical. People with bigorexia will constantly strive to exceed their limits, until exhaustion. Fractures, muscle tears or even stroke are significant risks of this type of syndrome. To be cured, those concerned must first and foremost be aware of their condition – denial being characteristic of bigorexia – before starting a therapeutic process which will not be done without consulting a psychologist or an addictologist.
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