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Are Competitive Bodybuilders Psychopaths?

 

By Rick Collins, Esq.

 

Q: Competing in bodybuilding takes a special breed. Are competitive bodybuilders crazy?

 

A: Be careful! As I’m a guy who competed in bodybuilding shows back in the day, I take that remark personally! But, OK, well maybe you must have a screw loose to subject yourself to the rigors of stage preparation – the countless sacrifices and challenges including brutal workouts, endless cardio, strict dieting, meal prepping, and all the rest. It’s a lot easier to relax on the couch eating a pint of ice cream and watching Netflix! But then I think anyone driven to be the best in any sport or grueling physical activity has to be “crazy.” Interestingly, though, there isn’t a public call to label figure skaters or ballet dancers crazy. We tend to admire the dedication and sacrifices of athletes in other sports (and ambitious and competitive people in all walks of life). However, some in the psychiatric field are keen on finding “psychopathology” – the presence of factors meeting the criteria for recognized mental disorders – among hardcore bodybuilders.

 

A new study, “Is competitive body-building pathological? Survey of 984 male strength trainers”1 seeks to determine whether men who are competitive bodybuilders exhibit more psychopathology than those who are ordinary gym rats. Using the answers to a prior internet survey, the authors compared 96 competitive bodybuilders with 888 recreational trainers, adjusting for age and race. Not surprisingly, the competitors reported a much higher lifetime prevalence of steroid use than the gym rats (63.5% vs. 10.1%). But the authors found the competitors to be “slightly more ‘responsible’ or health-conscious than recreationals in certain ways, in that they reported a markedly lower lifetime prevalence of marijuana use and were less likely to consider themselves as overweight.” Also, among the steroid users in each group, the competitors who use steroids were more likely than the non-competitors who use steroids to have disclosed their steroid use to a physician (50.8% vs. 30.0%) who could monitor for adverse effects.

 

The authors were looking for other factors indicating psychological pathology, but they didn’t find them. There were “very few significant differences on other survey measures” between the competitors and the recreational trainers. Both groups reported high levels of body image concerns (e.g., “preoccupation with appearance” caused significant reported distress or impairment in important areas of functioning for 18.8% of the competitors vs. 15.4% of the recreationals). About 40 percent of respondents in both groups reported that they were “preoccupied with an imagined defect or slight physical anomaly in your appearance.” About 20 percent of the men in each group responded positively to the question, “Is there a preoccupation with your appearance causing significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning?” Caring a little too much about your appearance is a problem that both recreational and competitive bodybuilders share, but roughly to the same degree.

 

Looking at psychiatric diagnoses made by a doctor or other health professional, both groups reported a low prevalence of having been diagnosed with any individual psychiatric disorder or with psychiatric disorders as a whole. Both groups also reported low rates of childhood physical or sexual abuse and did not differ from each another on these variables. “Interestingly, none of the competitors reported diagnoses of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), substance dependence, bulimia nervosa or schizophrenia,” notes Jack Darkes, Ph.D., Director of the Psychological Services Center at the University of South Florida. “Certainly, competitive bodybuilders with their regimented eating and exercise routines would be expected to hit on OCD. And the fact that there is no report of substance dependence among them, while not statistically significant, is curious given that many steroid policies and classifications are based on concerns over potential dependence.”

 

The authors note that their findings are generally in line with several other studies that failed to find higher rates of psychopathology in comparisons between competitive and non-competitive bodybuilders. They note a prior study that found that competitive bodybuilders were significantly more likely to meet the criteria for bulimia nervosa than recreational bodybuilders, but no other eating disorder differences. Another study “found no support for the assumption that muscle dysmorphia” – so called, “bigorexia” – “was more prevalent in a group of 40 competitive bodybuilders as compared with 40 non-competitive bodybuilders or 40 physically active men who did not lift weights. Indeed, these investigators suggested that competitive bodybuilders exhibited a better overall body image than either of the other groups in the study.” Maybe because they were satisfied that they improved their weak body parts enough to take the contest stage?

 

The bottom line: aside from steroid use, “competitive bodybuilders show few psychological differences from recreational strength trainers.”

 

Rick Collins, Esq., CSCS [https://rickcollins.com/] is the lawyer who members of the bodybuilding community and dietary supplement industry turn to when they need legal help or representation. [© Rick Collins, 2020. All rights reserved. For informational purposes only, not to be construed as legal or medical advice.]

 

Reference:

                1. https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000708

 

 

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