What is Inverse Anorexia? 

Inverse Anorexia is also called Muscle dysmorphia because it is a specific type of dysmorphic disorder in which a person, mainly males, become obsessed with building muscle to the point where it affects their relationships with others as well as their self-image. Inverse Anorexia is considered an inverse body image disorder. This athlete ideal is the opposite of female thinness (Anorexia Nervosa). Although the patients are very muscular and fit they believe that their muscles are not large enough. With Anorexia Nervosa the patient is very skinny, yet they believe they are fat.

Inverse Anorexia is an disorder that is described as a preoccupation with muscularity and body building. If people who suffer from this they cannot continue their daily routine they become nervous. They wear long sleeved pullovers even in summers to hide their body (Túry and et al, 2010). According to a survey in 2001 4, 3% of the Hungarian male bodybuilders showed muscle-dysmorphia.

The risk factors of this illness are family dysfunction, stress and mood imbalance. Sufferers often take anabolic steroids which cause, for example, bone calcification (Túry, 2001).