Unhealthy Addiction to Fitness
Working out and staying active can hardly seem like a problem, right? While this is true, an active and exercise-focused lifestyle is a healthy one that brings lots of benefits, when pushed to the extremes, the situation can change. Paracelsus said it best with “Sola dosis facit venenum” which roughly translates to “The dose makes the poison”.
In other words, too much of anything can harm you. Exercise is not excluded from the list. In this article, we’re exploring exercise addiction, a growing concern among health specialists and fitness experts. So, if you want to find out more about the addiction to exercise and the main signs indicating that someone is suffering from it, just scroll down and keep reading! Also, be sure to consider healthier fitness routines and explore the best Fitbit alternatives if you’re looking for a balanced approach to tracking your physical activity.
What is exercise addiction?
Since this is not a very common addiction, before talking about the main indicators that someone you know may be suffering from exercise addiction, we should clearly define it. It’s very interesting that there is a pre-existing link between exercise and addiction recovery. Many patients struggling with addiction or who have overcome various unhealthy behaviors find balance and comfort in working out regularly and living an active life.
However, just like many addictions, the one focusing on fitness and exercising comes from an unhealthy obsession with working out and the inability to stop even when injured or feeling pain. Even though the phenomenon is getting a lot more attention these days, it’s not yet classified as a mental health disorder, even though it has a strong link with eating and body image disorders.
Exercise Addiction Key Signs
Next, we’ll explore some of the most obvious signs of exercise addiction that you should look for if you think you or a friend may be at risk. We can’t really call them symptoms of exercise addiction since there’s no formal diagnosis yet for this issue. However, it’s crucial that you know how to properly identify this affection and start taking action in case you notice too many of these signs apply to you.
Inability to Control the Desire for Fitness
In most cases, when you’re just feeling too tired from not sleeping well the previous night, or when you’ve caught a cold, the normal response is to skip the gym session and focus on getting some rest. Maybe get a hot soup and relax, enjoying your favorite no deposit slots for entertainment. However, if you’re suffering from exercise addiction, even if you know you’re not physically capable of going through the workout, you’ll want to attempt it anyway.
![Signs of Unhealthy Addiction to Fitness - Exercising Regularly is Healthy but Watch Out for Fitness Addiction Signs of Unhealthy Addiction to Fitness - Exercising Regularly is Healthy but Watch Out for Fitness Addiction](https://charismaticplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/can-you-become-addicted-to-exercise-1-696x464.jpg)
Similarly, if you manage to convince yourself to reduce exercise levels or take a short break but seem unable to keep your word, you may want to talk to someone about an ongoing addiction to working out.
Anxiety and Depression
If, whenever you’re forced to skip a gym session or the daily jog, you start feeling depressed and anxious, you could be suffering from exercise addiction. While it’s natural to feel better after a workout, you shouldn’t chase the feeling or change your mood in the opposite direction when you can’t exercise. Strong feelings of guilt are often associated with anxiety and depression for people who are prone to fitness addiction.
Self-Esteem Imbalances
Another one of the most common exercise addiction symptoms is the tendency to have low self-esteem. People who are obsessed with fitness and working out will always measure their progress in terms of speed, strength, or size, and eventually, they will start to have unrealistic expectations. Up to the point where, no matter if their results are excellent for their age and fitness level, they’ll feel they need to accomplish more and improve.
Biased Body Image
Individuals suffering from fitness addiction will often develop various forms of body image disorders. In most cases, it leads to eating disorders fueled by the belief that exercise alone isn’t enough to get the body they want.
![If whenever you’re forced to skip a gym session or the daily jog you start feeling depressed and anxious,](https://charismaticplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/unnamed-696x464.jpg)