Escape from common sense: when sport becomes a bad habit

Everything is good in moderation and even overzealous sport can cause harm. Before the veracity of this truth was seen of professional athletes, but in recent years due to mass entrainment healthy lifestyle and fitness with the problem we began to face and overzealous Amateurs. At what point is physical exercise that we find useful, turn into a harmful habit?

BBC journalists met with Valerie Stefan, who started running 10 years ago for General health and has become dependent on exercise. Run itself, the woman wanted to test themselves in competition. First, she ran 5 miles, then 10, and then a full marathon.

Valerie Stefan

Very soon, the sport became a priority in the life of Stefan and she specially got up early to have the opportunity to run an extra half hour.

However, Stephen began to realize that because my Hobbies changed, and not in the good way. No, the physical form Valerie are the envy of many, but that's psychological condition began to cause concern as her relatives, and her own.

Than became stronger attachment to Valerie for the sport, the further away she got from friends and family. Stefan first started to be late everywhere and to carry meetings and events, and then began to avoid companies. If she was meeting friends, she has appointed them on the squash court or in the pool. Relax woman could only fully fulfilled their daily rate for the run.The athlete admitted that she was very eager to chat with everyone as before, but before the meeting is imperative to a full workout. If the run has taken place, the Valerie feels a sense of guilt and discomfort. A constant search of compromise between sport and human communication prevent proper rest.

Valerie didn't relax and hardly spent time at home. All she needed was to show what she is superhuman. The years of living on the high capability led Stefan to severe depression, from which it was possible to get a long good rest. So Valerie took on the job four months vacation and he only helped her to recover.

Psychologist Even Kang from the London hospital Priory Hospital argues that the case of Valerie Stefan has not been common. But unfortunately there are all prerequisites to believe that the pathological dependence on the sport will soon become one of the scourges of civilized society.

Dr. Saz Nachman specializiruetsya on child and adolescent nutritional disorders. She told me that she sometimes meets with people, overly-enthusiastic exercise. The psychologist noted that while there is no clear systematization of these States and even of the term, which more or less accurately to be determined. Dependence on exercise, compulsive exercise, obligatory exercise — experts call this problem differently.

Typically, physical exercise is good for the mental state of the person, but it works as long as the observed sense of proportion. The condition can aggravate fitness apps, especially if the person suffers from perfectionism and obsession with their achievements.

The ability to share achievements in social networks adds to this obsession with the element of publicity and competition, which further affects the psyche of such a person. But this problem is not purely psychological, as it can cause serious problems with the immune system, osteoporosis, decreased libido in men and digestive problems.

Is it possible to deal with an obsessive attraction to physical activity independently, without resorting to psychologists? Martin Turner is a sport psychologist from Manchester Metropolitan University, for more than 10 years working with athletes. He has repeatedly faced with cases of excessive thrust loads and I am sure that the dependence has the same nature as that of many other habits, including harmful. Therefore, to abandon portions of endorphins and adrenaline, which are used by the athletes, is not easy.

Valerie reducing stress was very hard. She felt anxiety, self-doubt and even guilt. Appeared in women and some other unpleasant symptoms:

The important point for Valerie Stefan was also her habit to use application to monitor physical activity and to share achievements with associates. Surprised young woman said that was seriously dependent on the review and positive feedback. Being a kind of injection to increase self-esteem, they became more and more involved Valerie dependent on the sport.

Psychologist Martin Turner thinks worse of all, when the achievements have an impact on the self-esteem. He can cite many examples when reading applications, talking about reducing the results, immerse the person into depression and make him feel like a loser.

The first step to solving the problem of dependence on physical exertion Turner considers the schema definition. Athletes should be well aware of their goals, to understand the thoughts and motives, to guide them in the right, constructive direction and to fight the destructive activities for the sake of exercise.

Herself Valerie, which is still on the way to getting rid of your unhealthy addiction to sports, believes that it is important to let go and get rid of obsessions and convince yourself that it is not necessary to become best of the best, to be admired.