Sports addiction

and Carola Felchner, science journalist

Carola Felchner is a freelance writer in the medical department and a certified training and nutrition advisor. She worked for various specialist magazines and online portals before becoming a freelance journalist in 2015. Before starting her internship, she studied translation and interpreting in Kempten and Munich.

More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.

Sports addiction is one of the behavioral addictions such as shopping addiction or gambling addiction. The health-promoting physical activity turns into excessive training that causes psychological and physical problems. The training is increasingly intensive and compulsive, other interests and tasks are neglected. Read here how to recognize sports addiction, what physical and psychological effects it has and what treatment options are available.

Brief overview

• Symptoms: If there is no training, symptoms such as restlessness, irritability and even depressive moods
• Diagnosis: social isolation, neglect of other interests and tasks, thoughts revolve around sport, training despite illness, training is constantly being expanded and intensified
• Causes: Release of the happiness hormone dopamine during exercise, dysregulated reward center, stress relief that gets out of hand, striving for health, beauty / fitness ideals
• Therapy: behavior therapy, individual and group sessions, relaxation techniques
• Prognosis: If left untreated, there is a risk of social isolation, physical damage from overload

Sports addiction: symptoms

Sports addiction is the same as with all other addictions (e.g. alcohol or drug addiction): The "addict" has to regularly administer his "addictive" dose so that he is or remains calm and satisfied. He no longer trains independently because he wants to and the movement is good for him, but because he has to train out of an inner compulsion.

Since the body gets used to regular training, however, sports addicts have to keep increasing the scope of training, i.e. train longer, more often and more intensively in order to achieve the desired effect. That quickly leads to too much sport. If the body then sends warning signals, a sports addict ignores them. For example, he continues to train when he's sick or injured.

How a sports addiction expresses itself in individual cases, however, is very different - not all symptoms occur in all "addicted" athletes. In addition, one or the other symptom can also be seen in athletes who exercise a lot, but not compulsively.

A typical feature of sports addiction, however, are physical withdrawal symptoms when the person concerned does not do their daily exercise. These withdrawal symptoms, which are based on a deficiency in the neurotransmitter dopamine (see below), include, for example:

• Headache or stomach pain
• Restlessness, nervousness
• Irritability
• Feelings of guilt
• depressions

Sports addiction: frequency

How many people in Germany suffer from sports addiction can only be estimated because there is probably a high number of undiscovered addicts: Experts assume that at least one percent of the population is addicted to sports. There are probably more among endurance athletes. In the case of triathletes in particular, experts suspect the proportion of those affected to be slightly more than four percent.

Sports addiction: diagnosis

If you are concerned about whether your exercise schedule is still okay or above normal levels, that's a good sign. You are still capable of honest self-criticism and are aware of the first warning signs. The chances of taking countermeasures are then still quite good.

The situation is different with high-grade sports addiction: Then those affected often suffer from false perception: They dismiss their addiction as an important and beautiful hobby and no longer recognize the alarm signals. This denial of an existing sport addiction can go so far that the person concerned mostly surrounds himself with people who also do too much sport and for whom sport addiction tests (see below) would indicate compulsion.

Furthermore, the following phenomena are signs that one's own sporting activity is slipping into addiction:

• Make arguments and keep silent: Sports addicts often try to first discuss their scope of training with friends and family using arguments such as health, necessary preparation for a competition or the like. to justify. They are downplaying the situation. In the event of (justified) misunderstanding on the part of those around them, those affected begin to conceal the fact that and how much they train in order to avoid conflicts.
• Social withdrawal: Sports-addicted athletes are less and less involved in non-sports-related social activities. They prefer to spend their free time training. In addition, due to the fixation on sport, the common topics of conversation with people who do not have much to do with sport continue to decrease.
• Reduction does not succeed: Even if the athlete tries: He does not manage to reduce the volume or train less without becoming restless and feeling bad. Regeneration does not take place; Often those affected by sports addiction behave self-harming because they continue to train despite injuries etc. and dismiss pain as "harmless".
• Bad sleep and not very hungry: Both of these can indicate overtraining.

Sports Addiction Test: Are You Sports Addicted?

A kind of sports addiction test can be used to at least partially find out whether you are in danger of doing a lot of physical activity or have already developed a sports addiction test. The test is based on characteristics that suggest an existing or developing sports addiction. So if you answered "yes" to the majority of the questions below, then this will apply to you:

• Do you constantly strive to improve your physical performance even further?
• Do you get nervous, irritable, restless, aggressive, anxious or do you feel sad / depressed when you cannot do sports?
• Do you skip appointments (more and more often) to be able to train instead?
• Do you neglect friends and family for sport?
• Do your thoughts constantly revolve around the sport, when you can exercise and how much? Is it the main purpose of your life?
• Do you keep training even if you are in pain, injured or sick?

Sports addiction: causes

What makes exercise addicting? For a long time, researchers believed that the body's own opiates (endorphins) were responsible for this. Because endurance stimulates the body to produce more such pain-reducing happiness hormones.

However, more recent research advocates a different theory: it is possible that the addictive state is caused less by endorphins than by the neurotransmitter dopamine. As animal experiments show, the body releases dopamine, which triggers feelings of happiness, even before a sporting activity. This creates the desire for more exercise - and thus for more of the "drug" dopamine and the positive feelings it evokes.

Despite these verifiable internal "happiness drugs", the typical sports addiction is probably triggered even more by external pressure. Social constraints and norms as well as given ideal images (e.g. six-pack stomach) can lead from healthy sport to pathological addiction. Your own personality (such as a lack of self-confidence) also plays a role. Those affected discover the possibility of getting closer to the generally valid external ideal through more and more sport. Successful experiences and recognition from others (“Great, how disciplined you are!”) Initially confirm what those affected are doing.

Sports addiction: therapy

Sports addicts often find it difficult to break their obsessional patterns without professional help. If you are affected yourself, i.e. if you do too much sport, you should therefore contact a psychotherapist, sports psychologist or psychiatrist. This can determine whether you actually have a sports addiction and how pronounced it is likely to be. He can then suggest a suitable therapy for you:

In several therapy sessions (group or individual therapies are possible), you will learn how to deal with your addictive behavior. It can also be helpful to learn relaxation techniques (meditation, autogenic training, etc.) in order to be able to counteract emerging restlessness or fears.

If you have already suffered physical damage from too much exercise, you should be treated appropriately by a doctor. Under certain circumstances, an inpatient stay in the hospital may be necessary for this.

Sports addiction: the environment can do that

The main problem with sports addiction: the addicts do not perceive themselves as sick and therefore do not seek help. If you have someone in your family or circle of friends who does too much sport and you suspect that they are addicted to sport, you should try to address them openly - even if they are unlikely to show insight and may even react aggressively. Or, they may be trying to reduce their amount of exercise (if only to prove to you that they are not addicted). In most cases this does not work. Then you should try to convince them to seek professional help. Offer him your help and support, for example by accompanying him to family therapy.

Conclusion: Doing sport to stay healthy and feel fit is right and important. But too much of what is healthy is too much, which ultimately causes more harm than good. This also applies to sports addiction.

Sports addiction: prognosis

Those who seek therapeutic treatment have a good chance of overcoming sports addiction. The prerequisite is to realize that you have a serious problem.

For sports addicts, physical activity has long since become the main thing, the other areas of life are taking a back seat. Those affected get into a "tunnel of activity". The following applies: Always further, ever faster, always more and nothing else, think, live, breathe as sport.

Anyone who is so deeply into sports addiction no longer recognizes the negative effects: dwindling social contacts, neglect of the job, isolation.

Last but not least, physical structures also suffer from compulsive activity. Because sports addicts ignore signs of fatigue. The result: You overload your bones, tendons and ligaments, which significantly increases the risk of injury.

Sports addiction and anorexia - a dangerous alliance

Sports addiction often accompanies an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia (bulimia nervosa). Conversely, however, it is also possible that a special form of anorexia develops through sports addiction or the compulsive pursuit of the perfect body and / or the lowest possible “competition weight”. The so-called anorexia athletica. Here, those affected try to train off the calories they have taken in as too much and stressful.

The combination of sports addiction and an eating disorder is very dangerous for health: the body no longer receives enough nutrients, vital body fat is lost, and hormonal disorders can occur. Women often do not have a menstrual period. The resulting lack of estrogen can also cause osteoporosis.

Further consequences of reduced food intake: muscle mass shrinks and physical performance decreases.

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