Yes. Combine endorphins/dopamine (i.e. the exercise high) with the obsessive pursuit of a goal and you have a recipe for addiction.

Like you, my mood is crap on my days off. I imagine this is due to some down-regulation in the dopamine system or something similar. This, combined with the fact that I feel like I'm not progressing towards some fitness "goal" on my days off enhances the negative mood.

I think you have to be a little addicted to put in the work to be a legitimately serious endurance athlete.

As to whether this "addiction" is as bad as an addiction to candy crush or something, I think it's all relative and becomes more of a philosophical question about what the hell we're all supposed to be doing with our lives.

It's Runner's World for chrissakes

#fakenews

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

It may be, or not, but there are many Ultra athletes who come from addictive backgrounds; essentially, trading the drug of choice

https://www.outsideonline.com/.../drug-addict-ironman

https://ultrarunning.com/...t-another-addiction/

http://www.news.com.au/...cf27f5c6f3467570fa20

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I can quit anytime I want.

My wife say I am OCD on exercise. Does this also make me an
addict?

---

Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

I don't think it's all about volume, but rather things like
- how you feel if you can't work out - do you have withdrawal symptoms, get really anxious
- if your exercise interferes negatively with your life (e.g. showing up for work late because you HAD to run those final 2 miles)
- feeling like it is something you have to do rather than something you want to do (that might be more compulsion than addiction)

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

possibly, but who cares and/or maybe we just don't know how to do "balance." I also feel better when I workout at least an hour a day, if not more. It hasn't negatively affected me so far in life, save for the occasional ditching of friends or SO to spend a few extra mins on the bike.

---

"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

Many athletes are Add/Hd. My self being one I find that riding and racing bikes, is better than any med. Being 63 and living with it since I was 11 years old.

helps me focus...till i run off the road staring at the C130 doing a low pass...I seriously do think better on a bike! And swimming is my meditation

---

"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

The best example and really inspiring: Lionel... such a fan of that guy!

Exercise addiction quiz related to the book The Haywire Heart - https://www.velopress.com/...ction-quiz-athletes/

I scored 21.

We've gotten addicted to labels. The problem is, I would argue a combo of the 1) constant need for doctoral dissertations and tenure, and 2) our culture is turning into a bunch of navel gazing, self-absorbed, no personal responsibility nor self-discipline sorry-ass whackjobs.

Leisure time is a fairly new thing for our species. It started in the realm of only the rich and powerful. They spent that leisure time mostly becoming fat alcoholics. Now the middle class has leisure time. Most of them spend it becoming fat alcoholics too. But some of use get a bunch of exercise which, on the surface would seem to be a good thing. So lets dream up a bunch of ways to criticize it because we're desperate to write papers and have our "ology" taken seriously as a hard science.

Only in our screwed up Western culture could we dream up ideas so screwed up like "the unwillingness to put down those last cookies isn't a self-discipline problem it's a "disability". Oh, but then it's a "disease".

Screw the labels. It takes self-discipline to work out. When I do so, I'm pleased with myself. When I, in a moment of weakness, occasionally skip a workout, I'm pissed at myself for days for being an undisciplined slug. The label one puts on that doesn't matter. Labels, in this context, are just desperate pleas for attention from the author. Screw him (or her). Let him obsess over his own self-discipline challenges and leave me alone.

---

Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

I don't think you need to worry about being an exercise addict.

It is a lifestyle. People create goals for whatever reason they want. There is a difference between me, who might get up at 6 on a saturday to head out for a long bike ride vs the other 20 something year old that is looking for a new place to "brunch" in Nashville. Sure, I like to go out and stay out late every now and again but it is all in moderation. If people are worried about others working out too much, this is a effed up society.

Are most people that go out every weekend alcoholics? maybe, functional? sure. Healthy? maybe.

Are most criminals going to become repeat offenders? yes. Because I see it everyday. Go to a courthouse on a Tuesday morning at 9am and you'll see the same person in every city. But doctors are worried about people doing something healthy. (I know this is off topic but its annoying the docs are writing articles like this)

---

USAT Level II- Ironman U Certified Coach

That article sucks. It's comparing average nonathletes to competitive serious runners.

You don't have to be an addict to fulfill all their weak criteria. I check all their criteria but there is no way I'm an addict.

 

Your day off 'issues' are not due to lack of exercise in the way that you have perceived it.

When your body goes into repair mode (on your off day you are giving it a chance to do that) you will feel crappy. I can't think of a great analogy, perhaps taking a car into a garage, but it's a bit like a mini version of feeling unpleasant to make you rest while your body recovers from illness. (which is a function of the symptoms of illness)

Possibly. Certainly many long term endurance athletes that I know are pretty habitual exercisers who rarely miss a day and can get pretty obsessive about fitting in exercise and be pretty grouchy if they can't exercise.

Is it an issue? Not unless it goes to extremes e.g. forcing yourself to train when you're sick or injured, or becoming so obsessive about performance that your diet, sleep, training, etc take front and centre in your life to the detriment of everything else.

Agreed, their comparison is nonsense. What would you hope to learn about exercise addiction by comparing the proportion of instances in runners versus general population?
Since a minority of the population are, or have been involved in regular exercise, only a small proportion of the general population will even capable of fulfilling the addiction criteria so of course the figure is much smaller. Without first presenting figures for the number of participants involved in other forms of exercise on a regular basis, this data is worthless. Obviously someone who doesn't exercise regularly is not going to be classed as an exercise addict. I mean how do you think they'll answer the question "Is exercise consuming all of your time?" Hmmmmm. Let me think.

It's like saying 25% of those who use cocaine are hard drug addicts versus 0.3% of the general population.
Would anyone be surprised that those using a hard drug are more likely to be addicted to it? Duh!

There's a whole lot of "research" that's either stupid or more often simply being reported stupidly and out of context. This seems to be most prevalent in the fields of medicine, psychology, sport science, and nutrition. Obviously there's a big overlap between these too. In most cases I think it's the fault of reporting that tries to find something exciting to say and misrepresents the intent, context and findings of the studies they're referring to.

No, I'm not an addict.
Why?

Because , while I do enjoy it for the most part, it often takes an effort to keep going. It takes very little effort to stop. It's the conscious displeasure with having abandoned something I wanted to do that upsets me if I skip a training session or two. But if I planned a rest day or a rest week for that matter, I manage just fine!

I'm sure there are plenty of you who are exercise addicts (I've suspected as much for a long while) but it's certainly not a prerequisite for being an endurance athlete.

If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. As the saying goes.

---

Proud Member of Chris McDonald's 2018 Big Sexy Race Team "That which doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger"
Blog-Twitter-Instagram-Race Reports - 2018 Races: IM Florida 70.3, IM Raleigh 70.3, IM 70.3 World Championships - South Africa, IM North Carolina 70.3

Maybe... not worried about it, I'm enjoying what I do and try to do my best to balance life.. family, work, church, me time. I don't do a lot of social stuff because I lean on the introverted side, love my quiet moments training. This predates my rediscovery of being active. I'm much more complex than simply being called an addict.

Step number 1: "Admit I am an exercise addict"
Step number 2: "Now I need to manage the addiction such that it is additive to my overall life and those around me"
Step number 3: "Implement Step 2"
Step number 4: "Embrace It"
Step number 5: "Enjoy it every day"

This should solve if there is any "problem".

I have not raced in 2 years and still training 800 hours per year for no good reason other than the daily exercise gives me life and a reason and a purpose outside the others of being dad/husband/career idiot.

A therapist told me that if you don't get an anxiety attack, it's not OCD

Relating alcoholism, I can offer this word of thumb, to adapt as necessary

I think it was Warren Zevon [or maybe Alice Cooper?] that said: "An alcoholic knows exactly how much there is to drink in the house and precisely how long it will last"

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin