 Hooked On Pain - Understanding Exercise
Addiction
By Debbie Eisenstadt Mandel While most
of the country is concerned with the epidemic of obesity and a sedentary lifestyle
(and rightly so), on the other end of the spectrum, exercise addiction needs attention
too. Running on a treadmill for hours, spinning out of control, or climbing stairs that
lead to nowhere, exercise addicts have lost their physical, emotional and spiritual
balance. Most of the fanatics are women thirty-five to sixty. All are desperately afraid
of aging in a youth-oriented society. They are unhappy about their physical appearance and
their life. Some wonder, as they approach mid-life, if they have accomplished anything
significant. If they overeat, so what? The next day they can work out even longer than
their usual three to five hours. Exercise addiction is an eating disorder like anorexia
and bulimia.
The Personality of an Exercise Addict - After many conversations with
exercise addicts, I realized how fundamentally unhappy these female ‘worker
outers’ really were. Even the loveliest woman I spoke to expressed frustration,
“I’m too heavy”, “Not sculpted enough”, “I should eat more
protein and fewer carbs.” When I told her how beautiful her face and body truly were,
she scoffed, “You’re just being nice!” She confided that part of the reason
for her rigorous exercise program was that her young son was an obsessive-compulsive,
hyperactive child with attention deficit syndrome. The burden of his care rested with her.
In addition, when her husband was home, he didn’t pay attention to her.
Another over-exerciser I met was in her mid-fifties and adhered to a
painful exercise program. Working out between four to five hours, seven days a week, I
have observed this petite brunette lose weight (which she didn’t need to) along with
muscle mass. Now she is gaunt, with noticeably more wrinkles on her face, and her body is
much flabbier than it used to be. In-between her aerobics and weight training sessions,
she showers at the gym and puts on layers of makeup. She dons the mask of youth, but in my
eyes, she looks like an old woman with layers of makeup. She runs a successful business,
but her husband ignores her. They no longer have sexual relations, so she invests that
primal energy into her workouts.
I observed that, periodically, exercise addicts break the addiction for
months at a time, working out more reasonably and then resume the frenetic pace once
again. One woman I interviewed during her reasonable phase said that when she looked at
herself objectively, she realized how crazy the whole thing was. “I’m not going
to look like an eighteen year old at forty-five. I realize that when I have family
problems, I over-exercise. When things ease up at home, I can step aside and see this for
what it is - crazy! Also, working out near the other crazies, I get sucked into it. It
gets hard to break away from them.” Apparently, exercise addiction is contagious.
These women carry the expression “no pain, no gain” to the
extreme. If they do not hurt physically or feel exhausted, annihilated so to speak, they
keep on exercising.
How Can We Solve this Problem? - This raises the ethical question: Is
it a trainer’s responsibility to pull in the reigns on a runaway horse? Many trainers
are reluctant to speak up since these over-exercisers are the consumers; other trainers
try to reshape their client’s mindsets.
Like any addiction, exercise addiction requires the motivation and
commitment to quit. The first step is to stay away from exercise sessions for a month.
During that resting phase, the addict needs to meditate even just five minutes a day,
using a personal affirmation for serenity as a springboard to developing the
emotional/spiritual components of personality. Alternatively, taking a nature walk, a
walking meditation, will help align the body and mind. Journaling during the day is
helpful to get to the root cause of personal unhappiness. Many deep thoughts emerge when
one is writing them down and reading them later on for greater objectivity.
Finding the Still Point Within - The goal of meditation and journaling
is to increase focused attention. Instead of generating wild, distracted energy, the
exerciser should be fully focused on her workout, making it concentrated and effective
instead of unruly momentum. Another goal would be to cultivate an open presence which
means to be acutely aware physically and spiritually of every action - to be in the
moment, participating and observing at the same time. The last goal is to cultivate
compassion for the self and for others by reinterpreting negative, irritating situations
with compassion, love and forgiveness.
In other words, instead of eroding the joints, doing internal organ
damage, and perpetuating the depression, the over-exerciser needs to develop these basic
Zen attributes to heal both mind and body. That means to rediscover the truth through
personal experience and to increase flexibility regarding workout time. Make stretching an
integral part of the routine. By stretching the body instead of contracting or pounding it
into submission, the spirit will begin to yield to this more flexible thinking.
Ultimately, relationships at home and at work will become more pliant and less stressful.
Like any addiction, recovery begins with the first step. In this case,
recovery begins with rest, contemplation, and not taking any physical steps. The
over-exerciser needs to change her word choice; she needs to begin her statements with
“I feel,” instead of “I think.” She needs to constantly ask herself
the question, “How does it feel?” because the exercise addict no longer feels
her body or sees how beautiful she really is. Remember the mind can rationalize anything -
even an addiction. Feelings are more honest.
Debbie Eisenstadt Mandel, MA, of Busy Bee Group, is an author,
stress-reduction specialist, motivational speaker, personal trainer & mind/body
lecturer. She has been prominently featured on radio, TV & print media. Visit her at www.turnonyourinnerlight.com
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