A beautiful, bronze tan is attractive. On hot days, whenever possible, we put on bathing suits and indulge in the sun. There are people for whom tanning and still brown skin tone is an end in itself. People addicted to UVB and UVA rays have a hard time admitting that they have a problem. Often even psychological intervention is needed here.
The basis of addiction is the pathological perception of oneself as a person that is still not attractive enough, and self-esteem increases when the skin becomes chocolate-colored. The obsession with tanning and the fear of looking pale is called tanorexia. It is a kind of personality disorder, a disease resulting from the cult of the beauty of one’s own body. Tanorexics are slaves to bronze, they constantly think about their appearance. They believe that in order for their body to look good, it must be brown, intense sunbathing makes them feel better, and they consider paleness to be a symptom of disease and ugliness. Specialists have dealt with this phenomenon only recently, and yet the fashion for tanning began in the XNUMXs. To this day, a tan is considered a symbol of beauty and health. Unfortunately, there are more and more victims of excessive sunbathing.
Who can be addicted and what are the consequences
Anyone can become addicted to tanning. However, the observations show that these are rather young people, mainly women, but also the opposite sex is increasingly fascinated by brown. It turns out that men love the gym as much as they love the solarium.
The obsession with brown doesn’t just last during the holidays. Tanorexics go to the solarium all year round, even several times a week, regardless of the huge risk of contracting melanoma – skin cancer.Extremely rarely, such people realize on their own that they are addicted. There are cases where tanorexics with diagnosed melanoma on the skin still go to the solarium. Usually, however, they begin to realize the problem when there are health complications or strong intervention of loved ones.
Excessive preoccupation with your body causes a distorted view of reality, and constantly looking for opportunities to catch a tan leads to conflict with the environment. Such people are unable to take care of others because they either spend time in a solarium, on hot days they can lie in the sun for hours, if not on the beach, then on a balcony or terrace, then visit beauty salons to beautify their tan. Everyday duties then fade into the background. Tanorection can therefore even lead to the breakup of the family.
threats
Tanorexic skin changes very quickly. While at the beginning warm, summer brown looks healthy and nice, later the condition deteriorates significantly. Red spots, discoloration appear. The skin becomes drastically dry, cracks and wrinkles become visible, which is why the skin ages prematurely. As a result of strong irradiation, burns can occur, and the pain is then unbearable. These changes may already be irreversible. According to American research, as many as 90 percent. skin cancer is the result of habitual sunbathing. In Poland, there have been several cases of women who suffered cardiac arrest as a result of using a tanning bed. One of these women bought as many as 3 sessions at the solarium in one day. She probably suffered from tanorexia.