Regular sports and exercise are known to benefit both physical and mental health. Research supports the positive effects of physical exercise on many mental disorders, including addiction, and physical illnesses.
Can exercise or sports also become an addiction?
When exercise becomes a repetitive behavior that harms a person's physical and mental health and interferes with their functioning, it needs to be considered an addiction.
Exercise and sports addiction involves exercising increasingly and excessively, being unable to stop oneself, and experiencing harm.
What is exercise addiction?
It is emphasized that, under normal circumstances, exercise needs to be performed at moderate intensity for 30 minutes at least twice a week on average, or at high intensity for 1 hour and 15 minutes, to be beneficial. Exercising regularly at this frequency contributes to mental and physical health. This proportional relationship between exercise and its benefits holds up to a certain level, beyond which exercise begins to cause harm.
Although research in this field is not yet sufficient, the available data highlight that exercise and sports addiction shares characteristics with behavioral addictions and should be studied within the behavioral addiction category.
Exercise addiction is particularly common among adolescents. A detailed assessment may reveal that it accompanies eating disorders, so a thorough assessment for an eating disorder is needed.
Exercise addiction can occur in many sports. The risk of exercise addiction is reported to be higher in people whose lives revolve around exercise and sports, those who exercise for more than 10 hours a week, and those who start sports at an early age and exercise regularly.
The concept of secondary exercise addiction
Another concept that should be mentioned here is ‘secondary exercise addiction’. This occurs mainly in people with eating disorders and involves excessive and inappropriate exercise as a compensatory behavior.
Although exercise addiction is not formally listed in the current diagnostic manual, DSM-5, it can be characterized using the general diagnostic criteria for addiction as follows: over a 12-month period, exercising for longer and at greater intensity than intended, unsuccessful attempts to reduce or stop exercising, loss of control, an intense urge to exercise, impaired functioning (in community life, social life, etc.) due to exercise, continuing despite injury, increasing exercise intensity as tolerance develops, and experiencing withdrawal when exercise is prevented or stopped.
When a person reduces exercise or tries to stop, they may experience restlessness, anxiety, insomnia, depression, confusion, irritability, social withdrawal and self-harming behaviors.
Who is at risk?
Although the data are largely limited to studies of people who exercise, excessive exercise is seen in more than half of those with eating disorders. Exercise addiction is reported in 3% of the general population, 3–7% of university students and 6–9% of athletes.
A 2015 study of people who attended gyms found that 7.8% were at risk of exercise addiction, 10.9% had an eating disorder, 2.3% engaged in pathological shopping, 3.1% displayed hypersexual behaviors and 10.2% had serious levels of alcohol use. This study reported an association between exercise addiction and eating disorders, hypersexual behaviors and pathological shopping.
Exercise addiction is more common in men
While eating disorders are more common in women, exercise addiction is more common in men. The desire to have a slim, thin body in women and a muscular body in men is reported to be a risk factor for compulsive exercise. Research indicates that female weightlifters are at high risk of exercise addiction and body dysmorphic disorder. Perfectionism and obsessive traits in adolescent boys have also been identified as risk factors for exercise addiction. In addition, difficulties regulating internal emotional processes are also considered a risk factor in adolescents.
Younger people are at greater risk
Younger people are at greater risk of exercise addiction than older people. Studies of people diagnosed with eating disorders have shown that eating disorders, perfectionism, obsessions and anxiety are predictors of the development of exercise addiction.
It is also suggested that pressure from family and social circles, or the media's increasing pressure on people to be thin, may contribute to the development of this addiction today. People with high expectations of achievement and performance, those who engage in binge eating, those who place great importance on body image and those prone to dependent personality traits are at greater risk.
In general, the risk of developing an addiction is relatively higher in sports that require endurance (in gyms, etc.) and in ball games.
