Tanorexia is a serious addiction to sunbathing. People who suffer from tanorexia want to get as tan as possible in the sun outside or under a tanning bed and know no limits in this regard, they feel they cannot live without a tan. Also, no matter how brown they are, they feel like they are very pale. Tanorexia is a relatively unknown addiction, but with serious and lifelong consequences for the addict.
What is tanorexia?
People who suffer from tanorexia, or compulsive sunbathing, feel they cannot live without a tan. The addict has become psychologically dependent on sunbathing. People who suffer from tanorexia never consider themselves tanned enough and feel ugly if they do not get even tanner. Tanorexia is an increasing problem, especially in England, where the addiction is also called ‘tanning dependence’.
Some addicts use the sunbed less often than others, but apply tanning cream several times a day to get the same tan. In 2005, a study into tanorexia was conducted in England. This research by dermatologists showed that people who sunbathe regularly at a certain point lose control over the frequency with which they sunbathe and the amount of sun to which they expose themselves. This process corresponds to the beginning of an addiction to, for example, smoking or alcohol.
What is the danger of tanorexia?
Tanorexia is a life-threatening addiction, because excessive skin exposure to the sun or tanning beds can increase the risk of skin cancer. So if you sunbathe daily or even more often, so much UV radiation reaches your skin that this causes a very extremely increased risk of skin cancer.
People who suffer from an extreme or long-term form of tanorexia often have a form of BDD: body dysmorphic disorder. If you suffer from this, you see your own body very differently from how the outside world sees it, and this in a negative way. For example, people with anorexia see themselves as much fatter than they actually are. People with tanorexia see themselves many times whiter than they actually are and this makes them feel ugly, causing them to sunbathe even more and increasing the risk of skin cancer.
There are no figures available yet on tanorexia in the Netherlands, the reason for this could be that people who suffer from tanorexia want to hide this and, for example, only use the sunbed at home. In England, 25% of young people indicate that they can no longer live without the sun.
What does tanorexia look like?
People with tanorexia often have a very deep brown, sometimes almost black color with a leathery, wrinkled skin structure. When you are cured of tanorexia, the deep brown color disappears, but the structure of your skin will never be the same again. The damage to the skin cells that can lead to skin cancer also never disappear.
How do you get rid of tanorexia?
Getting rid of tanorexia is just as difficult as with any other addiction. It often takes years of psychotherapy before an addict is completely cured. The therapy is mainly about improving the addict’s self-image and making the dependency disappear. This does not exist in the Netherlands, but in England and the United States there are special rehab clinics where addicts are treated by reducing exposure to UV radiation in combination with therapy.
