Exercise Addiction Is More Harmful Than We Think—Here Are the Risks

While it may not necessarily sound like a bad thing to everyone, exercise addiction can lead to real challenges, so you may wonder, what are the harms of exercise addiction? After all, numerous studies have demonstrated the physical and emotional health benefits of regular exercise—it is essential to our well-being.

Unlike many other addictive behaviors, we are encouraged to exercise more. However, there is such a thing as exercise addiction—and it can have negative consequences.

What Is Considered Exercise Addiction?

Several characteristics distinguish healthy regular exercise from exercise addiction. According to research, exercise addiction is identified based on the following (modified from the DSM's criteria for substance dependence):

• Tolerance: This may look like one increasing their amount of exercise in order to achieve that feeling, whether it's a buzz, a high, or even just a sense of accomplishment
• Withdrawal: The person experiences negative effects such as anxiety, irritability, restlessness, and sleep problems if they can't exercise
• Lack of control: Inability to reduce their exercise level or stop exercising for a certain period of time
• Intention effects: Inability to stick to their intended routine (for example, exceeding the amount of time exercising or consistently going beyond the intended amount of time)
• Time: A great deal of time is dedicated to exercise—whether it's preparing for it, engaging in it, and recovering from it
• Reduction in other activities: As a direct result of exercise, social, occupational, and/or recreational activities have lessened or stopped altogether
• Continuance: Continuing to exercise despite knowing that it's negatively affecting physical, psychological, and/or interpersonal health

Secondly, it is persistent, so an exercise addict exercises too much and for too long without giving the body a chance to recover. We all overexert ourselves on occasion and usually rest afterward. But people with exercise addiction exercise for hours every day, regardless of fatigue or illness. As the individual’s principal way of coping with stress, they experience anxiety, frustration, or emotional discomfort if they are unable to do so.

The Confusion and Controversy About Exercise Addiction

Exercise addiction is probably the most contradictory of all addictions. As well as being a widely promoted health behavior, important for preventing and treating a range of ailments, exercise can be an effective part of treatment for other mental health problems.

Exercise is even promoted as part of a complete program of recovery from other addictions. It forms part of new and effective approaches to treating mental health problems that commonly co-occur with or underlie addictions such as depression and borderline personality disorder (BPD). It's understandable that some are confused by how exercise could be an addiction.

Like other behavioral addictions, exercise addiction is a controversial idea. Many experts balk at the idea that excessive exercise can constitute an addiction, believing that there has to be a psychoactive substance that produces symptoms—such as withdrawal—for an activity to be a true addiction.

Exercise addiction is currently classified under "behavioral addiction" in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the gold standard for the diagnosis of mental disorders. It is also considered a "compensatory behavior" used to prevent weight gain, along with self-induced vomiting, and misuse of laxatives, among individuals with the eating disorder bulimia nervosa.

How Is Exercise Addiction Like Other Addictions?

There are several similarities between exercise addiction and drug addiction, including effects on mood, tolerance, and withdrawal.

Neurotransmitters and the brain's reward system have been implicated in exercise and other addictions. For example, dopamine has been found to play an important role in overall reward systems, and regular, excessive exercise has been shown to influence parts of the brain involving dopamine.

Like other addictive substances and behaviors, exercise is associated with pleasure and social, cultural or sub-cultural desirability. People who develop exercise addiction tend to be inflexible in their thinking, similar to people with other addictions, and this can reinforce the pattern of addiction by helping them to exercise regularly. In addition, research shows that even people at high risk of developing exercise addiction are supported in exercising by family and friends.

Healthy Fitness vs. Exercise Addiction

Only 8% of gym users meet the criteria for exercise addiction. In the classic pattern of addiction, exercise addicts increase their amount of exercise to re-experience feelings of escapism or the natural high they had previously experienced with shorter periods of exercise. They report withdrawal symptoms when they are unable to exercise, and tend to go back to high levels of exercise after a period of abstinence or control. Three percent of gym users feel they cannot stop exercising.

People at risk for exercise addiction have difficulties in other areas in their lives that drive them to exercise to dangerous levels. They feel strongly that exercise is the most important thing in their life, and they use exercise as a way to express emotions including anger, anxiety, and grief, and to deal with work and relationship stress. Some know that their excessive exercise has caused conflicts with their family members.

A central function of exercise addiction is the sense of control—over mood, the body, the environment—that exercise provides. It also provides a sense of structure. Ironically, as with other addictions, the attempt to exert control eventually leads to a loss of control over the ability to balance the activity with other priorities in life. People who are addicted to exercise tend to miss out on family, social, and work events or tend to neglect work, school, or personal responsibilities because of the need to exercise.