Early on, I felt the film doesn't really help someone understand the illness, more just to exploit these people. But eventually it does provide more insight. I've been in and around body building off and on since before Schwarzenegger was famous yet this bigorexia is a newer phenomenon for me, probably because a lot of common things have been given a psychological label since the early days. I can see some of these people have a genuine disorder -- the guy with the massive lopsided biceps is truly disturbing, especially because he clearly made little real effort to sculpt or train any other part of his body -- but the blond guy was probably more brainwashed to believe it's a disorder when really it looked more typical to the profession; there is very hard work and dedication involved but that doesn't mean something is wrong with you. So I feel this film tried to include too much when this is really rare rather than labeling every person who spends 6 hours in a gym for a competition. People have for centuries gone to extremes to be bigger and more powerful. It's just that in modern times we have modern inventions that make the bar much higher. Dolly Parton had her breast enlarged 8 times but no one said she had body dysmorphia except her doctor probably. Which she clearly did. Models would be accused of this, too, yet they are simply fitting in to their industry. I think it's dangerous to try and label everyone who doesn't look like Mr or Mrs Cleaver. Everyone feels the desire to improve themselves and it's always a personal thing. There's a lot of pleasure in weight lifting and sculpting the body. If it's destroying your life, only you can really make that determination.
