Bigorexia? "We regularly have calls from people in pain," says psychologist Bertrand Guérineau, "but are we talking about the same thing? Definition of this evil of modern times: the aesthetic quest for muscular intake, accompanied by a lot of eating disorders and the abuse of special chemicals.
When their relationship to the body is disrupted, beautiful, thin and muscular people are fat and fat
The medical profession discovers this funny symptom in the 70s, while bodybuilding is in vogue. When the fashion of the running arrives thirty years later, the syndrome Musclor is followed by a new expression of the sport to excess. The term "bigorexia" is still very much used, and often to designate, wrongly, the dependence on physical effort, of which it is only a face.
A pathology that surfs on the image of a perfect body
Dan Véléa, the psychiatrist who has popularized bigorexia in France, has long been observing the mutations of these funny pathologies.
"The addiction to physical exertion strikes young people in search of the ideal body, and the 40-year-olds who react either to weight gain that builds up, or to an existential crisis - loss of work, breakup in love. Men go towards endurance. Women are seduced by the fitness side, to slim down and redraw their silhouette. "
For Bertrand Guérineau, this pathology surfs on the image of the perfect woman: the slender and muscular beating incensed in women's magazines. Dan Véléa goes further: "In the world of work, being" fit "rhymes with performance. To change one's body is to position oneself in the company. This is called a positive addiction because it is rewarding.
The endorphin secretion that makes you addicted
Catherine, a Bordelaise in sight in the middle of the wine, gets up every day at 5 am to run. Her thing: the ultra trail, which she talks about with an almost mystical emotion:
It is sometimes hard to leave in the night, but I know that at the end is ecstasy.
A metabolic reality, according to Fabien Peyrou, addictologist doctor, head of the Center for Support and Prevention for Athletes (CAPS) at the University Hospital of Bordeaux. "After about 45 minutes, the practice of endurance triggers a secretion of beneficial endorphins. This substance is also produced by drugs such as cigarettes or cocaine. "
The faster and more powerful the effect, the more you are hooked. Hence the practice times that lengthen, to regain the initial intensity.
A person who runs every day is not necessarily dependent
An addiction with substance meets three criteria: the irrepressible desire to consume, or "craving", the loss of control of the level of consumption and the associated damage.
Eric, 38: weeks of 20 to 30 hours of training
Like any drug, heaven can turn into hell. Eric, 38, a dozen marathons under his belt, is a triathlon fade. Nutrition, sleep ... To ensure "I ron man" races (triathlons), it combines a rigorous lifestyle and weeks of 20 to 30 hours of training. A routine champion thwarted by three fractures of fatigue in the basin last May.
"I could not do impulse sports anymore. The next day, I fell on the exercise bike, bodybuilding and swimming. "
I am cleaning palliative solutions but I have trouble managing the lack of endorphins. I cried a few times.
Consult a psychologist? "I do not need it, I'm my own psychologist. I just have to go off, in a progressive way. In the meantime, I get up at 4am every day to do my two hours of sport without bothering my family. "
Therapeutic work as a treatment
Can we end this addiction? "There is no chemical anti-craving treatment", says Fabien Peyrou, who accompanies patients in a transition program and a therapeutic education.
Bertrand Guérineau advocates work on drive energy, motivations, certain traumas ... and boredom! "Some take revenge on food, others on sports ... One way like another to feel alive. "
Dan Véléa confirms that the patients consult since their osteo articular pathologies become very serious, without them being able to stop. "We can then work on what the feeling of lack hides: there is no longer a screen between their inner suffering and them. "
