Yes and no doc....
See it's a complex situation we have here.
One of the points I was trying to make is that bodybuilders both female and male go through a lot of psychological stressors. The sport costing a lot of time, energy, and money has little rewards for males and even less for females. Of course some can debate that the body itself is a reward but when you are so deep and hardcore in the sport, I think you are more concerned about the placing than the actual physique.
Yes, from a conformist view of society bodybuilders have to be nuts and i mean both men and women, willing to do whatever it takes to make it, breaking vices of society, doing things they normally would never do. I've been there though I have had that train of thought. I don't think you can push those pyschologist definitions on them of "advanced/specific form of Body Dysmorphic Disorder" or however you want to phrase it because in my mind it isn't any crazier than a person working 40- 60 hours a day in a dead end job.
The fact of the matter is that there is no book of rules on how people are supposed to live their lives. Some people like skateboarding, some people like basketball, some people like bodybuilding, and some people like collecting little glass minaturetes...
My thought process was, what is the point of living if you don't do something great with your life, if you don't do something spectacular that you love. I wanted to be the best at something, to say hey this trophy shows that in this place in time I was the best in the world... You only live once, why not do something spectacular something you can be proud of, something that many people wouldn't last a week doing. Yes it is crazy finding a passion and being obsessed with something so much you're willing to just about do anything...sometimes I feel sorry for those that haven't found something that they loved so much that they would take those chances...
Anyways since my shoulders crapped out on me and I have been forced to workout leisurely. I can see how obsessed I was now, it's scary in a way.
I'm kind of losing where I was going with this ... but basically, I wanted to show people how hard bodybuilding can be and how stressing it can be, not to promote society's already biased views of the sport but maybe to say look bodybuilders are just as much people too and this is what goes through our heads and why we do it and we saccrifice and work so hard for it. If people could support us more than break us down it would help us allot... We don't go around saying hey basketball player that practices 9 hours a day you are obsessed and wasting your life, now do we.....
I also, wanted to use this as a warning to some people, that this sport is very hard on your spirits and you have to be strong souled to make it be prepared to go through hell at times mentally and physically.
And lastly, too all the competitors out there if you never win that olympia, it's not the end of the world. I know you might beat yourself up about it but you shouldn't and don't get too crazy and carried away thinking it's life or death because it isn't. You have accomplished more than 99% of the people out there by just having the courage and taking the chance to step out on that stage and give your all. Be happy and always proud of what you have succeeded in doing. You are all winners in my books.
And let's end this with a good quote by Robert Frost.
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life; it goes on."
