Agents of Orange? Tanning Addiction Explored

Fall is only a few weeks away and some of us have a hard time letting go of summer. Ditching bathing suits in favor of scarves and long pants for yet another long wait until spring doesn’t bode highly with those who worship the burning star in the sky or those of us who just appreciate dressing down instead of under a few layers. For most people the disappearance of summer means their skin will soon dry up like cracked paint and turn pale once again—or in my case paler—but for a good percentage of the population this transition only means more trips to the salon. Tanning salons are more popular than ever and everywhere you look you can always spot an unnatural orange hue during the more dreary months. Assuming some of them just got back from the Caribbean, the rest may have an addiction that’s more harmful than it may seem.

A new study done by researchers from Philadelphia’s Fox Chase Cancer Center examined 400 students between the ages of 18 and 24 according to the same parameters used to define substance abuse. Trying to assess symptoms of withdrawal, obsessive patterns, and temperament related to desiring a “healthy-looking” skin shade.  We have known for years that indoor tanning beds are still harmful to your health, but there are more people willing to take those risks than dare to show their true colors. The students from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond were asked questions similar to, “Does you feel the need to spend increased amounts of time in the sun to achieve a ‘perfect’ tan?” or “If you believe that skin cancer can be acquired through tanning, does that stop or lessen your time in tanning beds or out in the sun?” Along with questions about Body Mass Index (BMI), smoking habits, and exercise, out of the 400 teens and young adults questioned, 27 percent showed signs of being “tanorexic”.

The term “tanorexic” (a combination of the words tanning and anorexia) has been used as slang for someone who thinks they can never be tan enough, similar to the medical disorder anorexia nervosa in which sufferers tend to think they can never be skinny enough. Many celebrities and well-known figures have been branded both too-skinny and too-tan by the media in recent years adding to the popularity of a term the medical community doesn’t approve of.

The author of the Fox Chase Cancer Center’s study, Carolyn Heckman, comments on this pattern, "People value attractiveness and they're willing to take health risks to be attractive, especially since the health risks may not show up for 20 or 30 years…they want to look good now." Heckman goes on to say that some scientists are hypothesizing about tanning possibly being linked to the release of endorphins in the brain creating a similar effect to a high that runners can encounter during their exercise. Tanning could also be helping to raise the moods caused by a weather-induced depression of those who never want summer to end. "Tanning may feel relaxing or people might have seasonal affective disorder in the winter and they like to indoor tan to help their mood," Heckman continues, "So those are possibilities of why people might want to tan besides appearance."

In the United States alone, with over a million cases of skin cancer diagnosed each year, maybe “tanorexia” shouldn’t be considered just a fad anymore. With over 1 in every 4 college-age young adults becoming reliant upon slathering up in oil to bask in the sun or donning goggles and laying in a claustrophobic booth a few times a week, a few decades down the line skin cancer will be multiplying quicker in this generation than ants at a picnic. I have only been tan one time in my life, I was seventeen and I admit that I was glad to look at my shoulders and see tan lines that were never there before, but with my ghostlike skin and assortment of freckles, I now pray for a fad that hails, “Pale Skin is In”.