Understanding and Treating Compulsive Over-Exercise
What happens to human health when a culture becomes overrun with misinformation and misrepresentation? The answer for many individuals is they get ill. This is not surprising. The 21st Century finds us with a daily influx of unqualified “health influencers” spewing information that is not only false but is toxic and damaging. One aspect of day-to-day life that these influencers are affecting is how we exercise. For some, it is creating a disorder more commonly referred to as “compulsive over-exercise.”
Now, it is certainly true that social media messaging is not the only influence on compulsive over-exercise. However, it is believed to be a large contributor. No, officially documented awareness of compulsive over-exercise goes back to the 1970s when it was first referred to as “exercise addiction.” Unfortunately, compulsive over-exercise was then considered by many in the mainstream to be positive.
Of course, compulsive over-exercise is anything but positive. Compulsive over-exercise can act as any other mental illness, or more explicitly, eating disorder, and create total distraction and devastation in everyday life. This is why cultivating a better understanding of compulsive over-exercise is crucial, as well as developing a better understanding of how it can be treated.
What Exactly Is Compulsive Over-Exercise?
The journal Psychology Research and Behavior Management offers a concise and distilled definition of compulsive over-exercise. Compulsive over-exercise “is characterized by a craving for physical training, resulting in uncontrollable excessive exercise behavior with harmful consequences, such as injuries and impaired social relations.” Exercising can create feelings of joy and elation, causing individuals to compulsively over-exercise to experience these feelings at heightened levels.
It expounds from there in describing six general characteristics of compulsive over-exercise, which one can see would also apply to most mental health disorders. These six characteristics are as follows:
Salience: Exercise becomes the most important aspect of life
Conflict: Created between the individual struggling and those that are close to them
Euphoria: The “heightened feeling” that an individual receives from the act of exercising
Tolerance: The “amounts” of exercise must be increased to induce the “heightened feeling”
Withdrawal: The unpleasantness an individual feels when they stop or reduce their exercise output
Relapse: When an individual goes back to their old compulsive behaviors even after trying to stop
These are not only characteristics of compulsive over-exercise; they can also act as warning signs that someone is struggling with the disorder. If these warning signs aren't noted, severe symptoms and consequences can occur.
Potential Symptoms and Consequences From Compulsive Over-Exercise
A few of the symptoms that an individual can experience if struggling with compulsive over-exercise include the following:
Feelings of guilt, anxiety, and depression if unable to exercise how they wish
Maintaining a strict exercise regimen, even when it interrupts everyday life
An inability to relax or rest
Using exercise to “purge” calories or using exercise as “permission” to intake food
Exercising in secrecy
Lacking self-worth, self-confidence, or self-esteem
Withdrawing from everyday life, including withdrawing from loved ones
Now that we have seen some of the symptoms, here are some of the very real consequences that can arise from compulsive over-exercise:
A feeling of “constant exhaustion”
Losing bone density, such as showing signs of osteopenia or osteoporosis
Feeling persistently sore in the muscles and joints
An increase in exercise-related injuries, such as stress fractures, pulled muscles, etc.
A loss of menstrual cycle in women
An increase in physical illness due to the body being unable to rest and regenerate
A loss of sex-drive
Before things get worse, these examples and instances of symptoms and consequences should lead to one conclusion — proper and professional help.
Creating a Customized Plan for Long-Term Recovery
The key to a compulsive over-exercise recovery plan is the same as any other mental health recovery plan. It must be created in a customized and personalized way. For individuals struggling with compulsive over-exercise, therapy can be highly beneficial.
Therapy can mean many things. It can mean individualized therapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which can reduce how we interact with negative or obsessive thought processes. Therapy can also mean group or community therapy, in which individuals can relate to others that are struggling with the same issues and can help with support and advice when times get tough. Therapy may also mean “nutrition therapy,” which may be especially beneficial to those struggling with compulsive over-exercise because it will help reestablish a healthy relationship between food, exercise, and the individual.
When it comes to recovery from compulsive over-exercise, it is critical to reengage with three important aspects of life. One is to reconnect with our authentic selves, to get ourselves back. Two is to nourish ourselves fully, to love ourselves again. Three, to believe in ourselves. Recovery is possible. We just need to remember that we deserve it.
Compulsive over-exercise is a disorder that is often either overlooked or minimized in today's culture. This is either due to the false and often dangerous fitness standards that currently saturate our cultural landscape or due to the lack of quality information on the disorder. Regardless of the reason that it hasn't happened yet, compulsive over-exercise needs to be given the proper attention it deserves because, for the individuals that struggle with it, compulsive over-exercise can be devastating to their everyday lives. If you feel that you or someone you love is struggling with compulsive over-exercise, we can help. For further information on compulsive over-exercise, other eating disorders, and treatment options for eating disorder recovery, call be Collaborative Care at (401) 262-0842.
