Has anyone here ever heard or read about the Adonis Complex, or male body dysmorphia? This is a condition where men and boys become obsessed with their bodies, and develop a distorted perception of their bodies. They begin to perceive themselves as being "to thin", and not big or muscular enough. They will continue feeling this way no matter how much they work out, how much muscle they gain, and fat they loose. It is essentially reverse anorexia.

What I'm really interested in hearing about is what you think might cause this debilitating, and sometimes lethal obsession? Is it childhood trauma, social and media influences, pressure from women, a combination of these, or something all together different?

oh yes bigV, you definitely nailed this one.

i have suffered from this all my life, and i am no 'adonis'. see, there i did it again, i compared myself to statues. unfortunately, doing so, i turn myself into a pillar of salt in many respects.

damn i hate when i do that, or that i ever did it in the first place.



taking a stab at it with my current understanding of myself, i think you are correct, it is a combination of all of these things, and most likely some other forces we have not yet discovered.

thanks for the topic, i needed to examine this at this point. very timely for me. further commentary is continued in my journal.

all the best,

ron

Wow, shit man, that's heavy. I'm going to read more of it when I have a chance, and I'll probably have questions for you. Thank you for sharing.

At some point I think I almost went down this path, of obsession with my body. I use to hate and loath my body image, I was to thin, my stomach stuck out, I looked too young, even when I was twenty eight, people thought I was just a young up-start with no experience. My self-body-hatred was at it's peak when I was in my teens. In my early twenties, I didn't work out, as I don't have the patience to do this, but I did do landscaping, construction, trail building and a lot of outdoor activities. I worked my body to the point that I was slowly killing myself; I was lifting to much, working to much, climbing and hiking higher, steeper mountains, often alone, and with insufficient equipment. Basically, I was punishing myself, if I couldn't make satisfactory gains, I would work myself half to death. My nerves are still recovering.

Luckily, I've gotten to the point where I don't have to eat three protein shakes a day, and I couldn't care less if the opposite sex finds me attractive or not. I have enough on my plate right now with my own life, to go wasting my time worrying about women, about my attractiveness to them. Being with a women will never make me happy, and I seem to be happier without them. I am finally at ease with my body, I'm happy with being thin, and I no longer care what people think about it. Anyone who claims to love someone for having a "perfect" body is obviously suffering from major issues. I would rather avoid such women altogether.

that's a great place to begin a discussion about 'judging' who is worthy of our affection.

i suppose it's done more often than not in relationships: find ourselves attracted to characteristics about others which appeal to our own biases, resonating with our in-formed idea of what constitutes worthiness.

they say you marry a character and learn to live with a personality.

so very true in many cases.

all the best,

ron

in my whole family -which is mentally sick by the way- physical perfection is a big issue, and not only body perfection but also face features and acting classy all the time and stuff. since i was a toddler i remember coments like, some "ugly" kid is worth less than a beautiful kid. it was the same in the elementary school i attended in my birth comunity, we had different ranks to which you accessed after earning certain titles like kindness, intelligence, and one of them was beauty (it was a boys school)

so yea, i grew up thinking "ugly" meant not-worthy. i'm still struggling to get rid of all the teachings my sick family put into me, but since i am multiple (i have DID) i can't control the other personalities, and i know some of them work out like crazy every day, some of them even *trigger* when they think they have eaten much and are really obsessed with this whole thing.. it's really a huge deal for us as multiple, i will talk about it someday cuz its something we need to work on.

3 protein shakes a day sound familiar bro

I would love to be so muscular as to be an Adonis. NOT sure if this is what your saying.