Many men are suffering from an undiagnosed gym obsession disorder called “bigorexia".
Keith Russell who is the creator of mental health podcast “The Endless Spiral” believes that the obsession of hitting the gym and gaining muscle is rising.
He told Newstalk that he has been living with the condition for over 20 years.
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He said: “Most men, like myself, will go undiagnosed with this for a long, long time.
“It can be very hard to approach someone about it or might be hard to see someone who is suffering with this.
“For me personally I wore a mask - and I don't mean a physical mask - I wore a mask that I was fine all the time.
“Everyone tells me that I looked perfectly normal. On the outside, it can be probably hard to understand.
"Obviously for men, they don't talk about these topics, they don't share so no one else kind of knows what's going on in your head.”
Keith added men need to talk about muscle dysmorphia and how it mentally impacts them.
“I only came across even the term body dysmorphia or muscle dysmorphia around this time last year,” he continued.
“Once I researched it, I discovered that I've been living with these conditions for over 20 years.
“It can be physically and it's mentally exhausting.
“There's so many traits that you could see other people doing, which you might think they're just vain.
“But when you look back at certain situations you realise, I realise, that I've been living with muscle dysmorphia for a long time.”
Keith has been impacted by the disorder everyday and admitted that his thoughts were taken over by the anxiety that comes along with it.
“Constantly looking at yourself in the mirror, not going to social events, or not wanting to take your jumper off are these types of things that you can kind of link back.
“It affected me every day, and it would affect my thoughts all the time.
“You'd wake up in the morning, you'd be worrying about if you had to go somewhere that day and what would you be wearing.
“You'd be worrying about who's going to be there if they hadn't seen you in a while.
“Even later on in life when I had kids, I didn't want to take my kids to the swimming pool.
“If it was sunny out I didn't want to just go in a t-shirt, I'd have to wear a baggy shirt over it.
"Even sitting in traffic in a car, I didn't like when people pulled up beside me because I didn't like my side profile.”
You can listen to The Endless Spiral here and read the blog here .
For more information on eating disorders, check out the resources below:
Bodywhys.ie – 01 210 7906
Rutland Centre – 01 494 6358
The HSE National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorders
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