What is exercise addiction?

Causes and Risk Factors

Exercise addiction may be caused by emotional disorders, personality characteristics, and social influences. The desire to control one’s weight and body image is typically a common rationale for exercise addiction, and the addiction often accompanies eating disorders such as bulimia. The pleasurable sensation associated with endorphin release (for example, the runner’s high) can provide the exercise addict with a motivation for pursuing exercise beyond moderation. Oftentimes, regret about lapses in regular activity can give way to inappropriate guilt about missing any opportunity to exercise.

Persons with tendencies toward obsessive-compulsive behavior, persons with body- and self-image concerns, and endurance athletes are most vulnerable to engage in physical activity for its own sake. Participation in extreme exercise beyond that necessary for health benefits, pursuing increasingly greater exercise accomplishments, and comparing progress with others of similar behavior can place one at risk for developing an unhealthy addiction to exercise. Participants in other-than-team sports and those who self-coach are at highest risk.

Signs, Symptoms, and Diagnosis

Exercise addicts may exhibit one or more of the following:

• activity sessions repeatedly lasting over one hour

• feeling remorseful about missing an activity opportunity

• substituting activity for social interaction

• exercising to and through pain

• adherence to a regular and rigid routine

• being overly concerned about exercise goals

• inability to maintain an overall sense of relaxation and acceptance when not active

• amenorrhea (in females), fatigue, and depression

Researchers have found that many people diagnosed with bulimia possess tendencies toward exercise addiction (and are therefore considered exercise bulimic). The anxiety felt when not exercising are lifted when one resumes the regimen.

Exercise addiction is not recognized as a primary disorder in the fifth version of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
of the American Psychiatric Association, and diagnosis is challenging. The confirmation of exercise addiction ultimately rests with determining the importance and role of activity in a person’s life while still exploring other conditions that may be present.

Treatment and Therapy

Exercise addiction is similar in concept to other addictions in that it shares a link with an underlying condition. Since regular physical activity is a desired behavior of health promotion and maintenance, efforts should be redirected to maintaining an active lifestyle while rebalancing the role that exercise plays in one’s life. Because physical exercise is often recommended as a desirable substitute for many compulsive acts, it can become compulsive for those inclined to addictive behavior. Therefore, treating the exercise addict necessitates a multipronged approach, and it is unlikely that self-help or nonprofessional approaches to its cure will be effective.

Initially, a health care provider should determine the person’s present state of health, including his or her physical and emotional well-being. Further analyses should focus on the patient’s nutritional status and dietary habits, motivation for recovery and redirection of goals, capacity for implementation of coping strategies, and a health-focused activity prescription.

Treatment therapies would include the development of healthy eating habits; strategies for improving and maintaining a healthy self-esteem and body image; gradual incorporation of healthy, alternative recreational pursuits; and the monitoring of progress over time. It is likely that recovery from exercise addiction may take months and even years, and it must address underlying issues or other conditions. Even as the research into treatment efficacy progresses, individual counseling and monitoring will remain critical to achieving success.

Bibliography

Cole, Cheryl. “Addiction, Exercise, and Cyborgs: Technologies of Deviant Bodies.” Sport and Postmodern Times. Ed. Genevieve Rail. Albany: State U of New York P, 1998. Print.

Friedman, Peach. Diary of an Exercise Addict. Guilford: Globe Pequot, 2008. Print.

Johnson, Marlys. Understanding Exercise Addiction. New York: Rosen, 2000. Print.

Kaminker, Laura. Exercise Addiction: When Fitness Becomes an Obsession. New York: Rosen, 1998. Print.

Powers, Pauline, and Ron Thompson. The Exercise Balance. Carlsbad: Gurze, 2008. Print.

Skupien, Robert. Wired to Run. Kansas City: Andrews, 2006. Print.