Exercise Addiction: Symptoms, Diagnosis, Epidemiology, and Etiology

Abstract

Regular physical activity plays a crucial role in health maintenance and disease prevention. However, excessive exercise has the potential to have adverse effects on both physical and mental health. The scholastic and empirical discussion of excessive physical activity focuses on obsessive and compulsive exercising, and uses several labels. However, in this review, we argue that the most appropriate term for this phenomenon is exercise addiction, emphasizing that excessive physical exercise fits the typical and most common characteristics of behavioral addictions. The aim of this review is to synthesize the current knowledge on symptomology, diagnosis, epidemiology, and etiology of exercise addiction.

Healthy aging and age-adjusted nutrition and physical fitness

“…Furthermore, graduated physical activity programs should be coupled with long-term goals, whereby small increments of progress contribute to long-term health [83]. Despite all the advantages there is a small risk of becoming dependent on/addicted to exercise; a potential problem that has to be more carefully investigated [84]. Long-term excessive sustained exercise may be associated with cardiovascular side effects like myocardial fibrosis with arrhythmias, diastolic dysfunction, and artery wall stiffening but these effects probably do not affect other than extreme athletes after long time exercising [85].…”

Exercise Addiction and Alexithymia

“…There is still a debate about the question of contextualizing exercise addiction within the biomedical addiction model and to explain the phenomenon as a physical addiction (Cox, Orford 2004). However, there is a sufficient consensus (Berczik et al 2012) that the term addiction should refer to a behavioural process, which results inthe provision of pleasure or relief compared with negative internal states, such as anxiety or stress, but is characterized by loss of control (state of powerlessness) and by its maintenance even in the face of negative consequences. The assessment of the intensity of the symptoms in order to distinguish committed exercisers from addicted exercisers (Warner, Griffiths 2006) is however crucial.…”

A Qualitative Exploration of Facebook Addiction: Working toward Construct Validity

“…This notion is supported by the fact that some individuals develop the same kind of symptoms seen in substance-related addictions (i.e., salience, euphoria, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, and relapse) when they engage in repetitive behaviors. Behavioral addiction is therefore defined as addictive patterns of behavior that occur in the absence of an addictive substance (Albrecht, Kirschner, & Grüsser, 2007) and include gambling (Griffiths, 1990;Griffiths, 1996), exercise (Berczik et al, 2012;Warner & Griffiths, 2006), video-game play (Chappell, Eatough, Davies, & Griffiths, 2006;Hussain, Griffiths, & Baguley, 2012), and Internet addiction (Griffiths, 1999;2000), among others.…”