Passion or Problem? When Exercise Becomes an Addiction

Getting Help and Treatment Some athletes suffer from an unhealthy addiction to exercise. This can arise for a variety of reasons, including an obsession with perfection or winning, avoiding other aspects of life, and feeling addicted to the physiological changes caused by exercise. Addictive exercisers may use extreme training as one way to expend calories and maintain or lose body weight in an attempt to improve performance or achieve a desired body shape or weight. They often justify their behavior by believing a serious athlete can never work too hard or too long at their sport. Discomfort, pain or even injury will not keep an exercise addict from training. Nearly all compulsive exercisers suffer from overtraining syndrome.

Arrange a fresh start. You come en route for exercise with emotional baggage from ancient attempts that failed. Time to cleanse it up! Time to start fresh! Do you feel guilty for not exercising? Get over that guilt absolute now. There is nothing wrong along with you! Especially, if exercise for you means suddenly devoting excessive amount of time e.

Attitude What is exercise addiction? Exercise compulsion is an unhealthy obsession with animal fitness and exercise. Exercise causes the release of certain chemicals in the nervous system. These chemicals create a sense of pleasure or reward.

Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, Ph. Share on Pinterest Dr. Charlie Seltzer says he had to hit astound bottom before he could see the exhausting cycle of exercise addiction he was in. At one point, Seltzer was averaging 75 minutes of cardiovascular exercise a day, six days a week, and living on minimal calories. But like any other addictive behavior, Seltzer quickly realized he needed add and more to get the alike effect. However, the link between attention-grabbing exercise and disordered eating often attempt hand in hand. While the band of compulsive exercise is broad, body able to identify signs early can help you stop the cycle ahead of it reaches the level of compulsion. Candice Seti, PsyD.

Anger or Problem? The many iterations of my rigid fitness schedule — as well as but not limited to two hour-long sequences of the same set of yoga postures every single day, en route for a minimum calorie burn on an elliptical machine, or a twenty-five-minute climb up a Stairmaster followed by a thirty-minute session on a Cybex backpacker — has quite literally controlled my life for the past ten years. How Healthy Becomes Harmful Addict before not, exercise undeniably makes everyone air better. Just ten minutes of animal exertion has been shown to bring down depression, improve our mood , call down anxiety, make us less annoyed, relieve bodily aches and pains , and reduce mortality Exercise duration after that mood state: how much is a sufficient amount to feel better? Hansen, C. Northern Arizona University. Health Pyschology, Improved physical strength, endurance, and a tighter waistline are additional pros of accomplishment our gym on. But problems appear when the pursuit of these amazing payoffs starts taking over our lives.