I recently read that there is now a serious illness, occurring mainly in young men, known medically as muscle-dysmorphia or more colloquially as “bigorexia”. It is an obsession that can evidently compel young men to constantly seek to build up their muscles and (in their opinion) improve their body shape. Once they have reached the level they were initially aiming for  they then start all over again, never happy with what they have achieved and always wanting more. It drives many into depression leading in some cases to suicide.

The idea that we can “improve” ourselves by obsessively spending three or more hours a day lifting weights, taking vitamin-filled drinks and using steroids to look like the Incredible Hulk has always struck me as absurd. Youngsters always want role models and people to look up to but why try to look like a comic book figure?When I was a youngster I was quite happy with Steve McQueen, George Harrison and Tony Currie (a 1970’s footballer who played for…..oh never mind!) none of whom had arms or chests that looked like they could explode at any minute!

It’s all so sad, why can’t we human beings just be happy with who and what we are? Fair enough, we should all watch what we eat and we should take regular exercise to keep ourselves in trim. We can even highlight our good points by wearing make-up (well, women and a certain type of man can!) and by dressing in clothes that we think will flatter our form.

I don’t know the answer to the problem but clearly a considerable number of these young men are insecure or have low self-esteem for one reason or another. Perhaps we should ban so-called “beautiful people” from appearing in the media and feature instead more realistic-looking role models.  Get rid of the Beckhams, the Vin Diesels and the Stallones and in their place feature more normal looking people like Ben Stiller, Ed Sheeran or Rowan Atkinson. Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean!