“Faster, higher, stronger!” In moderate doses, physical activity is good for both health and mood. What if sport replaces everything else? It makes sense to pay attention to this.
My experience
“My work causes a lot of stress, and I need sports to relieve stress. I started running four years ago, gradually increasing the load. I ran for two hours every day. If there was no time for a workout in the morning, I ran before bed. And then I met my girlfriend. She didn’t want to let me go at night. I argued, but I realized that relationships are important to me, so I need to find a compromise. I run two or three times a week, often with her, and I no longer chase results.
“Sport is not just fun, it makes me feel like I own my body, my life,” says 29-year-old Alina, a fitness trainer. She spends three hours a day on simulators, and she also runs and rides a bike. Alina shows a photo where she is 15 years old: “I considered myself fat, the boys did not pay attention to me.” Then she became interested in fitness. “And they began to follow me with their eyes. True, there is no permanent partner, there is not enough time for close relationships, and I have a bad idea of myself as a mistress of the house. “Not only Alina associates sports with benefits and success,” says business coach Maria Makarushkina. “So when he starts to crowd out all other interests from life, it’s not easy to notice. For some women and men, sport becomes a way to avoid other problems in their personal lives or at work and turns into an obsession.”
Stay young. Modern culture glorifies the beauty of the body, creates a cult of youth, giving preference to strength and health, rather than intellectual development. “To be in demand, you need to look good. This condition is unconditionally accepted by those who depend on the opinions of others, emphasizes Maria Makarushkina. “Sport gives them confidence in their value and creates the illusion that they can control time.” At the same time, they can harm their health, ignoring fatigue and bringing themselves to physical exhaustion.
Read more:
- What kind of sport will help to cope with emotions
Fill the emotional void. “I only feel alive when I play tennis,” says Anna, 42, the bank’s head of HR. “In my work, I have achieved everything I aspired to, and I have nothing more to want. And strenuous exercise seems to help me fill the emotional void. And it’s hard for me to stop.” “During age crises, when the value system changes, or after a break with a partner, careful training planning, repetition of movements allows you to escape from unpleasant thoughts and painful emotions,” continues Maria Makarushkina. – The body becomes an armor that protects the vulnerable inner world of the individual from the external, which she perceives as aggressive. In addition, sports are an easy way to quickly increase self-esteem. This also explains the interest of teenagers in training.”
Experience new experiences. Speed, endurance, risk – sport satisfies a wide variety of needs and desires. “It’s also affordable,” says psychotherapist Michel Hautefeuille, a specialist in the field of addictions. – If life is filled with routine, it has only work and eternal stress, there may be a temptation to “revive” it by filling it to capacity with physical exercises and forcing your body to produce endorphins and endocannabinoids – substances that help endure pain. This biological component, an indisputable source of pleasure, is also involved in the formation of the mechanism of addiction.
Read more:
- Go in for sports … today!
What to do?
Often friends and relatives notice the warning signs before the “athlete” himself. If you’re being told that you’re getting bored, that you only perk up when talking about sports and lose interest when the subject changes, you might want to take a closer look at yourself.
Pay attention to how you feel about canceling workouts. If you are very worried about this, you become irritable, become discouraged, or feel guilty if you are eager to continue in spite of injury, this is an occasion to admit that you are going too far and slow down.
Take a look around – what are your friends and family doing? Movies, cooking, travel… Perhaps some of these activities will seem interesting to you. New hobbies will help you communicate more and free you from addiction.
Learn more
In the book Release from Addictions, or the School of Successful Choice, psychotherapist and narcologist Andrey Kotlyarov explores the formation of new preferences (Publishing house of the Institute of Psychotherapy, 2005).