I Investigated the Dark Reality of Body Dysmorphia

have you ever looked in the mirror and been unhappy with what you see every day that decided to pursue bodybuilding body dysmorphia dmor body dysmorphia it's real fat gas in me body body dysmorphia is a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time obsessing over flaws in their appearance but these flaws are often unnoticeable to others I'll uncover the reality of body dysmorphia how we can combat this issue and also how I myself have fallen victim to body dysmorphia for my entire life and the one place I knew where to start was

Venice Beach Los Angeles the place where everyone cares about their looks a little too much the first thing I wanted to gauge was how many people here actually have body dysmorphia I am here with Vincent Doug Liam Yan I'm just going to call him Mr bodybuilder do you have body dysmorphia I do for sure yes I do yeah I mean I think probably everyone like in the gym has it's a pretty common yeah but 99% of the bodybuilders have it don't even know what it is do you ever look in the mirror all the time

are you happy with what you see basically yeah I mean dude if how old are you I turned 72 this last Monday can we get a flex really quick come on give me something give me oh dude no no no 1,000% I do I do yeah I actually did when I was actually sent to the hospital for anorexia and and yeah it's 100% a real thing and I think that it affects too many people at a young age how old are you I'm 17 17 if you don't mind me asking when did uh when did

all that happen uh two years ago this time and is it still a battle for you sometimes it can be I guess a way to put it is kind of like if someone's in the driver's seat or like backseat driving that's sometimes how it'll feel like someone's telling you like yo you shouldn't do that out of the dozens of people that I've asked about 90% of them said that they have body dysmorphia but this raises the question why okay what do you think has caused your body dysmorphia started lifting um the more progress you get

the more body this this more fail you gets you think so yeah I think I think I mean to be honest seeing social media you know it's not the greatest I mean I think that's the obvious though a lot of the times man it's just seeing you know people like you no no I not not in a bad way okay okay good good it should be it should be a motivational thing honestly I feel at this day and age you can't detach yourself from social media so you're always going to see it and it's just

what you choose to let influence you if social media seems to be the leading cause of body dysmorphia then I wanted to ask these Jim Bros what did they think about the most popular fitness influencers physiques speaking of social media I want to show you guys social media Stars I want you to tell me what you think about their body okay what do you think of Larry Wheels physique I think that's amazing I mean iconic what do you think of lean beef Patty's physique yeah she's a 10 that's a 10 like what I'm going to

go hit Tri actually n she got it she motivated you yeah you're doing your what do you think about Alex eubank's physique you got to come clean about the Peds are you calling Alex you Bank out right now what about you uh yeah so seeing these bodybuilders how does it make you feel about your body I mean honestly I'm young I feel good you know I like I like where I'm at myself a strive to get greater and just you know keep going to the gym keep putting in that work and eventually you'll get to

their point as well so would you say that seeing these celebrities and all these influencers physiques would motivate you yeah sure sure yeah look cuz that just looks like time and effort I mean like 6 to 10 years of time but yeah it looks like he's just been building that um it does motivate me especially the Natty bodybuilders because the Natty bodybuilders there's a lot of people that look great out there that are natural and I I want to continue to strive to be like those guys when I'm old besides calling out some of the

industry's biggest fake natties shank kidding I'm kidding guys or am I I think it's time to talk to the people who are supposedly causing this issue the influencers themselves and see what they think about their bodies I am here with Eric Janik janary Le Patty Joey swo Joey swo Joey small depends on how you're feeling so let me ask you this have you ever dealt with body dysmorphia yourself absolutely yes of course yeah I feel like everyone has th% man yes all the time every day day in day out do you ever look in the

mirror and feel unhappy or dissatisfied with how you look less so now than I used to yes sometimes a look in the mirror and be like whoa I don't know who that person is and they're deformed it's purely hate just no love just all hate and um yeah I think that like when I get to a certain point just like anybody else you start looking at yourself like oh it's not enough it's not enough and that's me 100% of the time do you think being on social media as an influencer gives you pressure to have

to improve your physique or look a certain way yeah but I like that pressure personally me I like the pressure of knowing that people are watching motivating others is what motivates me what you see every day is not necessarily the progress the advancement in your physique that other people see that don't see you every single day so I think it's tough these responses made me wonder that if social media is the problem in the eyes of the audience then what's the problem in the eyes of the influencers what do you think is causing the body's

morphia for you I definitely think it's just like a gym thing in general I think part of it is like looking at others right and just not being content with your own body looking at all these other girls online like damn I need to look like that it's not reality you know like you don't have to have big lips big boobs big butt like and then I'm like oh but I need to do more cardio cuz my waist isn't thin enough like it's just you know it's like an ongoing cycle but I've like learned to

be better with that for sure and just like be okay with myself and my body and like understanding that also everyone's genetics are different when you put yourself as this person online that's what you're Pro like subconsciously programming every single day is that I look like this a lot of them talked about how social media was harming their self-image however some of them looked more deeply into themselves and here's what they had to say you have to be in love with every phase because if his Grass Is Always Greener like oh when you're like big

and you want to be shredded and then you're shredded and you wish you were bigger again you're never going to be happy right you're just like this constant cycle of just like dissatisfaction with where you are currently so I would just say Embrace whatever phase you're in so if you're getting lean yeah you're going to be a little bit more flat your training intensity is probably not gon to be as high you're not going to be as strong but like that's something I've just started to embrace it just wouldn't be right to be like oh

my God my physique cuz it's not but I do see myself not in the best light sometimes does bodybuilding increase body dysmorphia that's the real question what is your opinion on competitive bodybuilding do you think that brings out any sort of self-image problems I think it definitely can and I don't think everybody can handle it I personally am not a competitive bodybuilder cuz I don't know if I could handle it especially once You' gotten like show lean at least once then it's just like if I'm not that lean then I'm fat and then you're always

comparing yourself to that look and then if you when you're coming back down you're like please let me be like more muscular than last time so be successful in the sport you almost have to be a little hypercritical and want to go and be better every day as someone who does social media as a career and also has competed in two bodybuilding shows I can easily add to this discussion during my last competition prep I did not realize how bad my body morphia was until after the show my mind and the mirror were playing different

games and they were on different pages I did not see the reality of my body whatsoever and one of the biggest struggles that I had after my competition was being so fearful of getting fat I thought that if I ate one cookie or I did anything off diet I was going to immediately just get fat and it's so ridiculous I think that way but that's the way my mind worked I 100% had an eating disorder during this time and it's like a struggle that I've dealt with since I was 15 when I first began bodybuilding

but it definitely Amplified from competing it took my body dysmorphia and struggles with food to the next level it also trickled into my life affecting that and also affecting my relationships drastically and here's the brutal truth from my fiance I mean when you're prepping for bodybuilding so I feel like it's probably brutal on most people's relationship 100% because you can't you are not in a normal State of Mind you were literally just grumpy like 24/7 after realizing how serious bodybuilding is and the Mental effects it can have on somebody that can't handle bodybuilding Prep properly

a friend that has struggled so drastically with body dismorphia that he has quit bodybuilding all together Mr Larry Wheels Mr badass I've heard you made some changes and they stem from body dysmorphia but I want you to tell your story about this when you first started lifting and getting into everything did you originally have the thought of becoming a competitive bodybuilder I did very briefly because once I learned that you have to have like a 24/7 lifestyle dedicated to the craft I couldn't see myself sustaining that very long especially at 17 and not to mention

I didn't care much for the posing I didn't want to be a mass monster I was pretty happy with the way I was built fast forward now to last year and I decided to pursue bodybuilding and I didn't realize how toxic it can be for your mindset because you're hyper focusing on all of your flaws 100% and it was taking a toll on the people around me now because I'm like a Debbie Downer I'm like Oh my cast are small my triing seches aren't great they're not round enough I'm not going to be a good

competitive Pro bodybuilder and I became very negative about my body which I never was in my life before I was never negative about anything in my body you well I mean like you were obsessed with looking in the mirror which I understood obviously because you were like preing for a show which is everything is about your body and how I look and it was really controlling my mind I would only had small C I didn't care it didn't matter I was pursuing strength I was trying to be strong it didn't matter how big my Cals

were how round my triceps were as a bodybuilder all that matters it's very important so once you got into bodybuilding the body dismorphia kind of kicked in oh yeah so the deeper I got into it the worse it got you told me you were like you were getting really really bad and obsessive about this food stuff and how I looked in my body and we came to conclusion that I might need therapy and when that reality hit what was your final decision well I pulled the plug a couple weeks ago the B dysmorphia was really

bad right it just getting worse it was only going to get worse especially uh when I'm not winning and then it starts to sink again like this is like where is this going to go truthfully there's not much on the other side of it even if I were to win shows besides maybe some more recognition from the bilding community but I can do that making content without sacrificing my health and ultimately my marriage right I have a happy marriage but when I'm taking things like Trend it turns me into like a paranoid anxious person that

that's not who I am and it's a drain of my relationship you're always tired you're always in a bad mood because you a little like starving basically but now we enjoy our Chick-fil-A dates our real Pepsis would you say bodybuilding is toxic I think it's toxic yeah like can I put myself to that again one time like The Bucket List yes I'm glad I did it I'm glad I got to experience what that's like fully committing you you know what that's like now and I you don't regret the experience at that not at all it

was certainly worth the experience but I don't ever want to do it again I you feel the same bro I'm not kidding I'm like I don't know if I have any me to do it again it's time to get to the bottom of this how do we prevent body dismorphia but first I need to figure out the relationship between competitive bodybuilding and body dysmorphia in order to find out I'll be interviewing two experts meet Dr Mike Israel a doctor an exercise scientist and a competitive bodybuilder Mr Handsome oh you don't like that it's just not

true but I do appreciate the compliment okay Jared feather an ifbb Pro bodybuilder and exercise coach in the world of bodybuilding as light as a feather apparently as you are an active bodybuilding competitor do you have body dysmorphia do I have elements of um dealing with my body image in a certain way that's maybe a little bit unique and maybe not the average person definitely like right now I'm looking at myself on camera and I'm I'm thinking I look small if you have a coach you're willing to go through uh extreme changes in body fat

extreme changes in how full your muscles look so when you're dieting down and you're able to stick to a plan without it impacting your psychology a ton you you don't have it to a terrible degree do steroids cause body dismorphia steroids in some cases can increase the expression magnitude and probability of body dysmorphia there are a couple of mechanisms I can talk about if that's okay as to how that might happen so one of them is when you start using steroids you typically don't use it in isolation you're kind of in a gym culture is

just to fit into that new band of Jim bro friends that they have or competitor friends and then you're like a little fish in a big pond another mechanism by which body dysmorphy can get exacerbated with steroid use they can 100% give you a new standard and you love that standard but you can't be on high doses all the time unless you want to you know clock out real early and so when you come down off of steroids to smaller doses your body's going to look not as good as it could I'm actually in the

process right now of kind of unfolding my bodybuilding career I I've just competed recently probably my last competition for some time I'm about to get significantly smaller that's going to hit me bro it's going to hit me 100% do you think that being a competitive bodybuilder can bring out body dysmorphia body dysmorphia in general as a whole category absolutely I think less in the musculature realm but the problem with bodybuild competition is that you actually can't see your body at all when you're pumping up when you're standing in line and when you're on stage you

see other people's and everyone looks really impressive and a lot of times you don't have an understanding of how impressive you look because you just haven't seen yourself for that long in your best shape cuz you've never been in your best shape before and you look at these other guys and you're like man this guy's going to toast me and that might be true or it might not be true and so if some people that are a bit more negatively tinted they can take that negative tint and get a lot more self-doubt out and kind

of anxiety about oh boy is this really going to come together for me whereas other people it's this beautiful journey of like a man my body's changing every other day I love it to be completely honest the people that see it more positively and experience it more positively are the best bodybuilders in the world and they just love the sport and that's how you do bodybuilding the day I began my fitness journey when I was 15 years old is the day that I decided I will never be happy with the way I look basically Ever

every single year I would gain muscle but it was never enough I always wanted more and then I gained more muscle and it was still not enough it was never ending cycle and it drove me insane for years so what can we do to fight these internal battles then I developed a little nickname for this sort of thing we call it time in the Sun that if you can really absorb your time in the sun really have a lot of positive selft talk and affirmation about how much your body's changing and how great that is

how much you like it at some point it's going to sink in sink in sink in until people are like hey like do you hate your body even when it's out of shape you're like it's all right I know I don't always get it back into shape and I look I think I look cool I think that's a thing a lot of people can pull off wow soak in the sun I love that life is about living and it's about enjoying as much as you possibly can if you want to go out and have a

beer with your friends and you're over 21 why should you not you should not be worrying about your body and how you look thinking that's going to make me look bad tomorrow we shouldn't have those thoughts we should be able to hit the gym have fun hit PRS gain muscle and still hit life PRS friendship PRS relationship PRS and just live life to the absolute fullest that is my message to you that is what I want to leave everybody with and I believe that is my purpose to show you guys that you can still be

jacked and have fun at the gym but go out and have fun with your friends and not be worried about being less Jack tomorrow stay Relentless baby stay relentless stay positive okay oh and don't forget to use code Jesse on gymshark.com to get yourself 10% off and if you can you know watch these next videos peace