Yes…it’s possible! The word “addiction” give us images of individuals in dark rooms, hearing bad music and sticking needles within 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. Actually, the positive nature of the word “healthy” makes health addiction all the more alluring. Despite the positive media, health addicts have done as much damage to their families and lives as any other kind of addict. In this post, we’ll look under the surface of health and fitness addiction and find a way to recovery.
How Can Something SO EXCELLENT Be Bad? In our modern Western culture, those ready to pay the purchase price for fitness are to be applauded. There are just so many temptations to accomplish otherwise. Exercise is mostly boring, painful and smelly, so those that endure it for about an hour, 3-5 days weekly, have achieved an even of discipline most only imagine.
Health and fitness addiction isn’t about health or fitness…it’s in regards to a compulsion to utilize healthy activities to fill a void we see in ourselves. Addicts are compelled, not disciplined. The addictive chemicals involved in exercise are quite similar as those in sex and porn addiction. This might explain why many people suffer from both sexual addictions and health addictions.
Types Of Health And Fitness Addiction: They are addictions to the actions of health and fitness, instead of it, Internet and shopping addictions that could involve health themes. Health addictions are compulsions to activate in “healthy” activities, like exercise, dieting, etc. Actually, anorexia and bulimia nervosa have both been referred to as severe health and fitness addictions. Two key symptoms of these mental disorders are exercise and dietary control to a compulsive and excessive extreme. The specific exercise or diet program doesn’t matter. It’s an addiction when you feel compelled to accomplish it.
How Do I Know I’m Addicted? We addicts don’t often recognize addiction just because a common symptom of addiction is denial, which is even simpler to have about health. That’s 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 a few things to look out for concerning fitness exercise addiction:
1. Do you regularly spend more than 8 hours weekly exercising and is the time you spend increasing?
Health Care Guide 2. Does your exercise schedule interfere with normal family activities, home or work responsibilities?
3. Do friends or family members complain concerning the time or money you may spend on fitness?
4. Have you wondered if you’re being too compulsive about your fitness routine?
5. Have you lied to your loved ones, friends, or employers concerning the time you may spend in fitness activities?
6. Can you often see fitness as a way to gain acceptance or praise from others?
7. Have you ever pushed so hard in your fitness routine you hurt yourself?
If you answered yes to these questions, you should consider 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 feel in yourself. Since the relief produced by exercise is temporary and you also become conditioned, you will need regular increases in the activity 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 have to hold ourselves to no more than an hour a day, 3-5 days a week.
Spend the rest of the time you used to exercise likely to AA or other addiction meetings and engaging in self-development activities. You could read, go back to school, join a volunteer group. You could take up a spare time activity, like gardening or building model airplanes. To greatly help in building yourself up, avoid negative mental inputs, like the news, drama, negative, insulting friends. Replace those with good music or reading or alternative activities that build you up. Push all of the negative, self-defeating, limiting thoughts out of your mind with positive, uplifting, encouraging thoughts.
Because there are risks that health 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 allow you the mental energies you have to get control of yourself.
Health and fitness addiction can be just as severe as any addiction. It can imprison us into destructive, compulsive activities. We are able to place our families, our careers, even, ironically, our health and wellness at risk through dependence on exercise and other fitness activities. The good news is, there is hope for anyone willing to reside in and work on recovery.