How Can A Passion, Habit Or Routine Becomes An Obsession?

This article therefore will discuss how and when exercise can become an addiction and ways to prevent yourself from becoming one.

Many people do not understand the reasons for this disorder, with deniability of an illness. Those who do not suffer from eating disorders cannot accept the fact that it is an illness or even treatable. Other illnesses such as depression maybe caused by thought behavior; the person feels overweight or looks at themselves as being overweight. The depression can be recognized as feelings of being unloved and disfigured. Eating disorders cause substantial weight loss with those who think they are overweight and have a need to maintain a lower weight in order to feel healthy. Anxiety disorders cause those affected to participate in insalubrious activities; it also causes stress to others around the person who has the disease.

Exercise behavior is the study of theories which work to explain actions and phenomenon’s that occur when looking at peoples perspectives of exercise. One overall theory called The Transtheoretical model (TTM), includes elements from “across a variety of theories and models behavior, some of which are social-cognitive in nature and some of which are not” (79). The TTM describes five stages of behavior change: Precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. By using TTM as the base of multiple theories, a greater picture of exercise behavior is created to understand how individuals become interested and continue to make a life style that involves normal exercise.

Drew Halfnight; Mercury, s. (n.d). EATING DISORDERS AMONG ATHLETES LOCAL SPORT MEDICINE DOCTOR DESCRIBES THOSE WHO EAT TOO LITTLE OR TRAIN TOO HARD. Guelph Mercury (ON). Retrieved on October 4, 2012, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=8&hid=108&sid=31311eaf-b919-4f19-89a3-14bb34d54865%40sessionmgr114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=rch&AN=Q4K233229958511

Most people confuse the definiton of addiction with an activity or hobby because of how constantly a activity is repeated. In other words people recognizes the activity not the right definition of the word, addiction. It shouldn't be recognized like this because it's a behavioral problem. “Addiction is a brain disease expressed in the form of compulsive behavior” (Addiction is a brain disease). There are certain behavioral addictions for example shopping, internet , binge eating , even love. These simple tasks causes people to

Addiction is a word that many people would associate with the body and its craving of a substance of any kind. Many individuals feel as if being dependent upon a substance is something that could be preventable and that the human body can live without. Though most substances an individual is addicted to are not needed to live a healthy life, the addiction could potentially kill that individual. Other substances such as food, one cannot live without. Food, unlike other additions, is a substance that the human body needs to survive. In recent years, there has been an upcoming epidemic regarding the obesity rate and the need for individuals to understand that lack of exercise and the increase in amount of unhealthy food is killing them. However, in some cases it may not be the lack of exercise and the unhealthy food choices alone that is keeping some individuals in a category labeled obese; conversely it could be a genetic condition keeping them that way.

Many people start with diets, but these diets do not have fast enough results, so they turn to starvation, eating disorders, and extreme workouts. “Among women, internalization of the thin-ideal has been linked to dietary restraint that may precede eating disorders. Among men, internalization of the muscular-ideal has been associated with various strategies to increase muscularity” (Gudnadottir 151). Reaching the goal of society starts off as a simple diet. When the diet does not have fast enough results, things become more extreme. Women start to starve themselves by only eating once a day or only eating salad and not gaining all the nutrients and vitamins their body needs to survive. They call this being “healthy.” Men, on the other hand, begin to increase their serving sizes and go on an all protein diet to try to gain as much muscle mass as possible. This is followed by extreme weight lifting at the gym, and sometimes can lead to the use of steroids. In severe cases, men and women both begin to develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and binge eating. Men and women do not realize the toll these extreme measures take on their bodies. They think by becoming this way they are being healthy and improving their overall health, but in reality, they are harming their bodies. “However, these practices could increase the

Over the past twenty years, there has been a great increase of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa which have come out as major psychological and health problems. This increase in eating disorders has resulted from the intense societal pressure to diet and conform to an unrealistic weight and body size. For the general population of women, the lifetime number of anorexia nervosa is approximately 0.7%, and that of bulimia nervosa is as high as 10.3% ( Taub & Blinde, 1992). Since many athletes contain almost the same behaviors to those with eating disorders, there has also been an increase in interest in whether athletes are at a risk for eating disorders.

The Article, from the Journal of Sport Behavior, “An Examination of Eating Disorder Profiles in Student Obligatory and Non-Obligatory Exercisers” written by Hilary Matheson, Anne Crawford-Wright (2000). The purpose of this study was “to highlight risk behaviors indicated in a student obligatory and non-obligatory exercise population comparing the result to other previous research” (Matheson & Crawford-Wright 2000). According to the authors there has been extensive research that focuses on the “relationships between

Not only is it difficult to deal with an eating or exercise disorder on your own, it could also lead to long term health problems.

According to the DSM-5, eating disorders are characterized by a persistent disturbance of eating–related behavior that results in non-normative eating patterns which leads to impaired physical and psychosocial functioning, (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating with inappropriate compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain. Binge eating is described as eating an amount of food definitely larger than normal with a sense of lack of control. Compensatory behaviors include misuse of laxatives, self-induced vomiting, diuretics, fasting and excessive exercise, (Comer, 2014) . Another key feature is

Based on the book, “Health the Basics”, people often mistakes addiction with habits, which is not. Habits and addictions can both be annoying and involve a repetition behavior, however habits can be broken easily and addictions can be difficult to because a person can feel hopelessness when the behavior isn't performed.

The altered eating and exercise patterns of those with eating disorders can seriously damage physical and emotional health. The ANAB (n.d.) contends activities associated with eating disorders place one in medical danger. Strenuous over-exercising is often seen in those with eating disorders even though they may be quite ill. The body of an eating disorder sufferer frequently has electrolyte imbalances and gastrointestinal problems. The

64). Perhaps the most poignant example of addictions triggered by biology is iatrogenic drug dependence: while opioids like morphine are prescribed for short-term pain management, recent studies have shown that up to 56% of patients develop a long-term addiction (Beauchamp, Winstanley, Ryan & Lyons, 2014, p. 2024). In such cases, the catalyst for the addiction is pain, not emotional stress, and individuals with genetic predispositions may develop a long-term substance dependency. An example of behavioural addiction triggered by biological factors is exercise, with about 2.5% of the exercising population showing symptoms of addiction (tolerance, withdrawal, lack of control, continuance etc.) and up to 52% for athletes (Berczik et al., 2012, p. 412). Although initiated by a desire for physical fitness, some individuals with genetic predisposition will progress to a full addiction to exercise.

Is fitness an obsession? Many would say yes, but here is the real question. Is the strive for health and fitness a bad obsession to have? In a personal interview with a Jorge Mendoza, who frequents the gym many times per week and also keeps a strict meal plan, how he would define an obsession. Mendoza’s answer was a simple “too much.” The word obsession has such a negative connotation that even if paired with a word as positive as fitness the negativity is still overpowering. Fitness is a wonderful obsession to have because by dieting and keeping a good workout schedule not only do they each have their own separate benefits but together they bring many emotional and mental benefits.