Yes…it’s possible! The word “addiction” give us images of individuals in dark rooms, hearing bad music and sticking needles in their arms, but many addicts can be found in the gym or on the local school track, getting in the same way addictive a fix. In fact, the positive nature of the term “healthy” makes health addiction even more alluring. Despite the positive media, health addicts did as much damage to their own families and lives as any kind of addict. On this page, we’ll look under the surface of health and fitness addiction and find a path to recovery.
How Can Something So Good Be Bad? In our modern Western culture, those ready to pay the price for fitness are to be applauded. You can find just so many temptations to accomplish otherwise. Exercise is mostly boring, painful and smelly, so those who endure it for about one hour, 3-5 days a week, have achieved an even of discipline most only dream of.
Health and fitness addiction isn’t about health or fitness…it’s about a compulsion to utilize healthy activities to fill a void we see in ourselves. Addicts are compelled, not disciplined. The addictive chemicals involved with exercise are quite similar as those in sex and porn addiction. This may explain why many people suffer from both sexual addictions and health addictions.
Types Of Health And Fitness Addiction: These are addictions to the actions of health and fitness, as opposed to the TV, Internet and shopping addictions which could involve health themes. Health addictions are compulsions to activate in “healthy” activities, like exercise, dieting, etc. In fact, anorexia and bulimia nervosa have both been described as severe health and fitness addictions. Two key outward indications of these mental disorders are exercise and dietary control to a compulsive and excessive extreme. The precise exercise or diet plan doesn’t matter. It’s an addiction when you feel compelled to accomplish it.
HOW DO YOU Know I’m Addicted? We addicts don’t often recognize addiction just because a common symptom of addiction is denial, that is even better to have about health. health That is why it’s easier to learn from a friend or cherished one if you have an issue in this area. For health addiction involving eating, see Anorexia Nervosa Quiz. Here are some things to watch out for concerning fitness exercise addiction:
1. Do you regularly save money than 8 hours a week exercising and is the time you spend increasing?
2. Does your exercise schedule interfere with normal family activities, home or work responsibilities?
3. Do friends or family complain about the time or money you may spend on fitness?
4. Have you wondered if you’re being too compulsive about your fitness program?
5. Have you lied to your loved ones, friends, or employers about the time you may spend in fitness activities?
6. Do you often see fitness as a way to gain acceptance or praise from others?
7. Have you ever pushed so hard in your fitness program you hurt yourself?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should think about yourself at risk of addiction. If you answered yes to 3 or more, you’re probably addicted.
How Do I GET OVER Health And Fitness Addiction? This is caused by a negative self-image, like any addiction. Instead of alcohol, you use exercise to fill a void you are feeling in yourself. Because the relief produced by exercise is temporary and you become conditioned, you will need regular increases in the experience to produce the same relief. Unlike alcohol, a certain amount of fitness activity is required for health, so, you can’t just quit. Instead, we need to hold ourselves to only an hour each day, 3-5 days a week.
Spend all of those other time you used to exercise going to AA or other addiction meetings and engaging in self-development activities. You can read, get back to school, join a volunteer group. You can take up a spare time activity, like gardening or building model airplanes. To help in building yourself up, avoid negative mental inputs, just like the news, drama, negative, insulting friends. Replace those with good music or reading or alternative activities that build you up. Push all the negative, self-defeating, limiting thoughts from your mind with positive, uplifting, encouraging thoughts.
Because there are risks that health and fitness addiction could become full-blown anorexia, if you try and fail to control your addiction, please see a medical expert. Sometimes medical and psychological therapy can prevent a more serious condition from developing, and invite you the mental energies you should get control of yourself.
Health and fitness addiction can be just as severe as any other addiction. It can imprison us into destructive, compulsive activities. We can place our families, our careers, even, ironically, our health at risk through addiction to exercise and other fitness activities. The good thing is, there is hope for anyone willing to live in and work on recovery.
