Women May Be Addicted To Tanning

A new study identifies that tanning may be an addictive behavior, similar to an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

This has important implications for education about sun-safety. If tanners are truly addicted to tanning, messages like, “don’t tan” are not going to be that effective.

Since these endorphins make you feel good, it’s natural that you’d want to seek more of them. If tanning is one of the ways you get your endorphin rush, it makes sense you’d want to do more of it.

The study examined participants tanning habits and feelings about tanning, through use of questions like these:

Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your tanning?
Have people annoyed you by criticizing your tanning?
Would others say you tan “too much”?

Women were more likely to score high on this survey, suggesting [tag-tec]UV light[/tag-tec] addiction. Women were almost three times as likely as men to have positive symptoms for UV light addiction. Looking for a safer way to tan?