There are no limits to the human imagination and it seems that there are no well defined barriers to the somewhat "strange" needs that we can experience. There are people who show an exacerbated and irrational concern to maintain their skin with dark tones and therefore experience the obsessive desire to tan, to the point of causing skin damage. This disorder has been called: tanorexia.
The tanorexia, has existed since ancient times but now, like anorexia nervosa or bulimia, the number of people who swell their ranks has increased because "being tanned" corresponds to the canon of beauty that Western culture shares.
The term was baptized by some North American dermatologists who found a group of patients who came to their consultations showing skin lesions caused by ultraviolet rays and, despite this, continued to expose themselves to them.
The population at highest risk are women between 17 and 35 years of age, although lately men are also becoming addicted to sunbathing; so much so that in an investigation developed at the University of Richmond in Virginia, where 400 students took part, symptoms of tanning dependence were found in 25% of the cases!
People who suffer from tanorexia, despite being tanned, always see their skin pale, wanting to obtain an even darker color. The fact of not being able to reach a sufficiently tanned tone generates feelings of anguish, of guilt and anxiety. As they always perceive their pale skin, they alternate sessions of sun baths with UVA rays and if they can not receive their dose of daily radiation they can manifest the effects of a true withdrawal syndrome. Most of these people do not realize their addiction and are only discovered by the dermatologist.
But beware! The experts warn us about the addictive nature of tanorexia, that is, sunbathing is not a simple whim that allows us to "be in fashion". The UVA rays of solariums trigger the production of endorphins, brain chemicals that produce the feeling of euphoria and relieve pain. Something strangely similar to the known effects of traditional drugs.
The World Health Organization already refers to a real epidemic of skin cancer: in the US alone, more than one million new cases are registered annually; while in the United Kingdom, one in five people get skin cancer throughout their lives. Even so, 30 million Americans and 3 million Britons go to tanning salons every year even though 90% of skin cancer is associated with ultraviolet radiation.
Why does this happen?
- We have no perception of risk, many think: "skin cancer is a disease that will never touch me" and,
- We are too busy following the beauty models imposed by the media to stop us from thinking about the evil we can cause or the futility of following empty patterns or ideals imposed by advertising campaigns.
Draw your own conclusions.
