Yes…it’s possible! The term “addiction” give us images of individuals in dark rooms, listening to bad music and sticking needles within their arms, but many addicts are available 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 all the more alluring. Despite the positive media, health addicts did as much damage to their families and lives as any other kind of addict. In this article, we’ll look beneath the surface of health addiction and find a path to recovery.
How Can Something SO EXCELLENT Be Bad? Inside our modern Western culture, those willing to pay the purchase price for fitness are to be applauded. You can find just so many temptations to do otherwise. Exercise is mostly boring, painful and smelly, so those that endure it for about an hour, 3-5 days weekly, have achieved a level of discipline most only dream of.
Health and fitness addiction isn’t about health or fitness…it’s in regards to a compulsion to use healthy activities to fill a void we see in ourselves. Addicts are compelled, not disciplined. The addictive chemicals involved in exercise are much the same 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: They are addictions to the actions of health and fitness, instead of 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 program doesn’t matter. It’s an addiction once you feel compelled to accomplish it.
How Do I Know I’m Addicted? We addicts don’t often recognize addiction because a common symptom of addiction is denial, which is even simpler to have about health. That is why it’s easier to find out from a friend or cherished one if you have an issue of this type. For health addiction involving eating, see Anorexia Nervosa Quiz. Below are a few 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 members of the family 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 about 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 End Of Life Care answered yes to any of these questions, you should think about yourself at risk of addiction. In the event that you answered yes to 3 or more, you’re probably addicted.
How Do I Recover From Health And Fitness Addiction? That is the effect of a negative self-image, like any other addiction. Instead of alcohol, you utilize exercise to fill a void you are feeling in yourself. Since 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, some fitness activity is necessary for health, so, you can’t just quit. Instead, we must hold ourselves to only an hour a day, 3-5 days a week.
Spend the rest of the time you used to exercise going to AA or other addiction meetings and participating in self-development activities. You could read, get back to school, join a volunteer group. You could take up a hobby, like gardening or building model airplanes. To 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 the negative, self-defeating, limiting thoughts out of your mind with positive, uplifting, encouraging thoughts.
Because you can find risks that health and fitness addiction could become full-blown anorexia, if you try and fail to control your addiction, please see a doctor. Sometimes medical and psychological therapy can prevent a more serious condition from developing, and invite you the mental energies you need to get control of yourself.
Health and fitness addiction could be just as severe as any other 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 addiction to exercise and other fitness activities. The good thing is, there is expect anyone willing to live in and work on recovery.