The aspects of life in which human beings are prone to losing control of our actions and perceiving ourselves in a deceptive way are as varied as our different cultures are complex. Anorexia, bulimia or even orthorexia are examples of this, but these episodes are not limited only to areas related to food. Today there is also the tanorexia a psychological condition in which the person looks excessively pale and dedicates great efforts to trying to tan, overlooking or underestimating the costs that this may have.
As occurs in the case of orthorexia, tanorexia is not a theoretical construct that enjoys wide recognition in the scientific community partly due to its novelty and the lack of studies focused on this phenomenon. However, it can be understood as a type of culturally mediated addiction in which the person experiences a loss of control over the time they spend sunbathing or using alternative methods of tanning.
Although some studies suggest that behind tanorexia there are abnormal biochemical patterns that occur in the nervous and endocrine system of those who experience this addiction, we must talk about the cultural elements that make their existence possible. Tanorexia could hardly exist in a historical context in which the majority of the population was dedicated to agriculture to barely survive and beauty standards tended towards paleness, but today the situation is very different.
Thus, the causes of the existence of tanorexia are supported in part by a change in these beauty standards. In today’s Western countries, a good tan denotes youth and wealth, something desirable and worth showing off.
The reasons could have something to do with the fact that today the poor population is usually employed for many hours in large industrial complexes, far from sunlight, as fields have been replaced by factories. Therefore, the white population that shows uniformly tanned skin is the one that has time to go out to leisure places during daylight hours, goes out to the beach practices swimming or is fond of hiking and traveling.
Furthermore, in certain areas of the body it is more difficult to detect wrinkles and skin imperfections when the complexion has acquired a darker tone, which would make tanning a good ally to hide the signs of aging.
The risks
The dangers of tanorexia are obvious. Excessive exposure to sunlight carries serious risks to the health of both our skin and, by extension, the rest of the tissues in our body. Ultraviolet radiation can cause cancer in some cases, but in almost all cases it is equivalent to a worsening of the quality of the skin over time.
Furthermore, as in any other addiction, tanorexia could feed off from cyclical habits that are poorly adaptive and generate stress and problems with social roots. In this way, a person could learn to try to reduce the high levels of anxiety produced by this problem by exposing themselves to more ultraviolet radiation, until reaching a point where this habit completely escapes the person’s voluntary attempts to control the situation.
Symptoms of tanorexia
Some of the symptoms associated with tanning addiction are:
Alert status continuous related to the degree of tan that is preserved.
Anxiety related to the way you perceive your own level of tanning.
Constant comparison between one’s own degree of tanning and that of other people, whatever the latter may be.
The person tends to perceive their skin as if it were much lighter than it is.
