Are You An Exercise Addict?
The desire to exercise compulsively interferes with all aspects of a person’s life. Does missing an exercise session make you feel this way?
Believe it or not there is such a thing as exercise addiction and it affects 1% of the adult population.
Today let’s look at the other end of the fitness spectrum, an area that most people may not be familiar with, it’s called exercise addiction or over training. For most this poses no danger, however there is a small percentage of the population (1%) that is affected. Exercise addiction can be characterized by excessive exercising, usually to the point of neglecting other areas of one life i.e. family, work and relationships. The addiction can be fueled by any number of reasons-avoidance, mood manipulation, a desire to control, and as a general method of coping with life. This addiction can also cause physically, psychologically and emotionally damage or imbalances.
As the addiction grows stronger, expectancy and fascination accelerate and an increasing desire to contrive exercise opportunities amplifies. Ironically, as the stimulation or high received from the exercise diminishes progressively, the individual may begin to experience symptoms of depression, anxiety, social/emotional isolation and/or sleep disturbance. The addict will resort to whatever tactics provide exercise opportunities.
Exercise addiction may require intervention such as counseling or hospitalization to squelch the condition. This is generally due to the high associated with exercise. Patrick J. Bird, Ph.D. states, “Researchers have shown that during exercise a morphine-like substance, beta-endorphin, is released by the pituitary gland. Some scientists speculate that this release of beta-endorphin may be responsible for the feeling of euphoria following physical activity.”
Fortunately for most of us this is not the case, in fact as William James put it,” Exercise is not a panacea for our psychological problems. But most people do feel better after the activity. Why this is so will probably remain unclear for the foreseeable future, due to the complex interactions of mind and body. Still, we do know that something pleasant happens to the psyche of the active person. "Even if the day ever dawns in which it will not be needed for fighting the old heavy battles against Nature, muscular vigor will still always be needed to furnish the background of sanity, serenity, and cheerfulness of life, to give moral elasticity to our disposition, to round off the wiry edge of our fretfulness, and make us good humored and easy of approach." Williams James.
"I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." Henry David Ttoreau
