Have you ever wondered what is exercise addition? Is it the same as an addiction to drugs? Do people really have withdrawal symptoms if they don’t workout?
According to some sports psychologists you actually can become addicted to exercise. However, they also say that only a small percentage of people fall into this category.
When I first heard of exercise addiction the first thing that came to mind were those feelings of euphoria one gets after a period of exercise like “yoga bliss” or “runner’s high”. But than I thought it’s highly unlikely that is what they mean by exercise addiction. So I decided to do some research on the subject of what is exercise addiction and thought I would share some of the information I found. Let’s start with the definition of exercise addiction.
Definition of Exercise Addiction
Having said that, more often than not exercise addiction flies just below the radar in comparison to different types of addictions. The problem is defining what exactly is “obsessive” and “unhealthy”.
But make no mistake about this, it might be just as harmful as any other type of addiction for the reason that your mind forces your body to do more than it can ultimately endure. The outcome – injuries, which often further fuel the obsession to workout even though the body is unable to function properly.
Why You Should Worry?
This kind of addiction has both psychological and physical effects. One of the many physical effects could be a higher risk for injury or even an increased overall number of exercise related injuries. While consistent exercise strengthens the muscles and bones, an excessive amount of exercise adds to the risk for stress fractures.
In women, excessive exercise also increases the possibility for osteoporosis. The reason for this is that when the ovaries make less estrogen when subject to excessive exercise, that leads to reduced bone density or thickness. Anyone who has existing injuries might irritate their injuries and prolong the length of time necessary to totally recover.
Below are a few kinds of injuries caused due to excessive exercise:
- Loss of muscle mass
- Joint damage
- Muscle strains
- Muscle sprains
- Torn muscles
An additional physical concern connected with exercise addiction happens to be the female athlete triad. This is actually the appearance of 3 signs or symptoms in women.
These warning signs are listed below:
- Eating disorders
- Missed periods
- Reduced bone density
Who’s Really At Risk?
Exercise addicts can easily be vulnerable to other kinds of addictions. Studies carried out by the University of California concluded that 15% of exercise addicts were actually also obsessed with alcohol, cigarettes,or illicit drugs; they speculated 25% could also possibly be addicted to sex or shopping.
In fact it’s quite interesting to learn a number of previous addicts resort to exercise as being a method for filling a void. That being said if not kept under control, it could possibly come down to trading one addiction for something else.
What Are The Signs Of Exercise Addiction?
Similar to most kinds of addiction, there are a number of telltale signs that you could be hooked:
- uncontrollable desires to exercise
- feeling “high” after exercising
- experiencing withdrawal symptoms after long periods without exercise
- long periods spent preparing for and recovering from exercise
- reduced activities in other areas of life in order to make time for exercise
- inability to stick to a reduced exercise routine
Generally if the continuously thinking of working out or doing exercises and it’s controlling your daily life, and when starts to have an impact on your friends and family and work, you might have an exercise addiction problem.
Like with most addictions, your body gets “used to” the high with a specific amount of exercising and it might also take steadily more exercising to generate that same high that you’ve grown used to expecting. With most people who are not obsessed with exercising, they receive the same high again and again with the same amount of exercising but you continue craving increasingly more and more.
How Can You Change?
Curing the compulsive craving to exercise is almost the same as curing other different kinds of addictions. First, in case you have other addictions, like maybe a disorder in eating, think about curing that first simply because that addiction might be a driving force behind your exercise addition. Second, rehabilitation can begin only after you acknowledge that you truly have a problem.
When you have the awareness, use self-control so as to modify and therefore reduce the existing length of time spent exercising. Quite often abstinence until such time as the desire has past may well be required. This can take from several days to several weeks or even months.
If you would like to find out more about “what is exercise addiction” and how it’s diagnosed you can learn more from this Source.
What are your feelings and ideas about Exercise Addition? How much exercise is too much? Do you think we should be concerned about it when in America there is an Obesity problem even in children?
Finally do you or anyone you know suffer from and be sure to let us know in the comments below.
