To be perfectly honest we could all stand to be a bit more healthy, particularly when it comes to getting exercise. There is, however, a point when a good, healthy habit turns into a harmful addiction that is actually doing damage to the person with the addiction instead of improving their life.
What Is Exercise Addiction?
At it's most basic, exercise addiction is a behavioral addiction, but it really stems from body image issues that can drive the afflicted to push their exercise regime past the point where it's healthy and beneficial to where it can have lasting long-term destructive effects on the body of the person.
While the point at which exercise moves from healthy habit to harmful addiction will vary from person to person, the standard for the shift is when exercising starts having a detrimental effect on the addicts life, including having an impact on their body, mind, work, and social interactions. Whereas a person with a healthy exercise routine will skip a session if work or their personal life impedes their ability to exercise, an addict will eschew work or social interactions just to work out, and will actually have withdrawal symptoms if something prevents them from exercising.
Effects of Exercise Addiction
Unlike addictions to things like drugs or even alcohol and gambling, the ramifications for exercise addiction are different because the addiction can easily progress to dangerous levels before being noticed. In addition to avoiding social and professional obligations in an effort to exercise more, those afflicted with exercise addiction also face real health problems associated with the disease.
While a healthy work out schedule factors in time to let the body recover from the activity, those with an addiction will not only push their bodies past the point of exhaustion within their work out, but will not allow their bodies to recover from the work out before doing another one, which can cause damage to muscle and joint tissue. In addition to damage to joints and muscles, lack of sleep and eating disorders are also closely related to exercise addiction as the addict will not take in the nutrients they need or get a healthy nights sleep.
Treatment
Treating exercise addiction is much like treating an addiction to gambling, as both are focused on the release of endorphins within the brain. While there are no medications approved for the treatment of exercise addiction, exposure and response prevention treatments are the most popular way to help those with the addiction. Those with both an exercise and eating disorder will often receive treatment concurrently since the conditions are often linked and treating them both allows the mental health professional to get to the root of the problem.
If you or somebody you know has an exercise addiction, the best thing you can do for yourself or your friend is to have them reach out to a professional that specializes in behavioral addictions before they do irreparable damage to their bodies.
Aiden Owens has battled his own addictions, including a gambling addiction that pushed him to visit Williamsville Wellness, a leading Virginia substance abuse treatment center. To learn more about Williamsville Wellness and how they can help you with your addictions, visit them online at: WilliamsvilleWellness.com.
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