Dr. Alok Kanojia (Dr. K)

I'm working on a couple of things.

But one of the most dangerous things that can happen is when improvement becomes the goal.

So this is where if we think about the nature of improvement, improvement is a means to an end.

So why do I want to improve my communication?

Because I want to get better in my relationship.

Why do I want to learn a new language?

Because I want to be able to travel to that country or whatever.

So like this is where we have to understand something.

Generally speaking, the reason that human beings, the way that your brain is wired to improve is to accomplish a certain goal, right?

That's how we know.

I don't know if this kind of makes sense, but like if I have trouble running a mile,

my body will sense that physiological stress, will increase my cardiovascular capacity, my muscles will start to grow and strengthen.

So we have this very simple, anytime you go to the gym, if you lift heavy weights, why do your muscles grow?

Because your brain and your physiology recognize that if I'm trying to do a task and I'm not good at it, I need to get better at that task.

So our brain and our body are trying to adapt to ideally succeed in various situations.

That's why improvement exists, okay?

What happens with some people is that improvement becomes associated with some kind of psychological

deficiency so here's what i mean by that so let's i'll give you an example so when i work with patients with body dysmorphia this is what tends to happen they have an abstract idea of beauty right what does it mean to be beautiful there's an abstract idea that is not clearly definable then what happens is this idea of beauty becomes associated with certain measurable things like thinness

or musculature.

So men with body dysmorphia who are bodybuilders, they want these huge muscles, right?