What Is Bigorexia?

Here's what experts want you to know about this lesser-known disorder.

We’ve come a long way as a culture when it comes to awareness of mental health conditions related to body image, like anorexia and binge eating disorder.

But other issues remain less well-known and understood by the general public, even as they become more common. One that experts warn is on the rise in our social media era is a disorder colloquially known as “bigorexia.”

What, exactly, is bigorexia, and what does it entail? Below, experts share how it manifests, risk factors for developing the disorder, and what those affected should know about it.

What is bigorexia?

“Bigorexia is a layperson’s term for what professionals call muscle dysmorphia, which is a sub-category of body dysmorphic disorder,” Joseph J. Trunzo, a psychology professor and associate director of the School of Health & Behavioral Sciences at Bryant University, told HuffPost. “In BDD, an individual has an unrealistic, borderline delusional belief about some part of the body being severely abnormal, even grotesque.”