The Sports addiction a much more present topic than previously assumed. This can also be traced back to a study by the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, which came to the conclusion that around 4.5 percent of endurance athletes suffer from sports addiction. This is a social problem that is often associated with ideals of beauty or increased performance. Running and endurance sports are particularly affected.
What is sports addiction?
Ever more extreme demands on athletes, such as various tri or marathons, mean that many of those affected overwhelm themselves, resort to unfair means and thus slide into sports addiction. The body's warning signals are ignored and one's own limits are regularly overcome.
This problem will therefore be explained in more detail below. A definition and distribution in the population is followed by a differentiation between primary and secondary sports addiction and other forms of addiction that are related to sports.
The fine line between healthy training and addictive behavior should also be mentioned in this text before the various therapy options are presented. A summary concludes this essay.
- definition
- According to Dr. According to Nonnenmacher, there is an addiction disease if the behavior of an affected person is characterized by an uncontrollable desire for a certain substance or an activity. This can include alcohol, nicotine, drugs or even sport.
An initial definition of sports addiction was provided by W.P. Morgan in his publication "Negative addiction in runners", in which he oriented himself on the criteria of addiction and applied them to sport. According to Morgan, exercise addiction is a condition in which a person has to compulsively exercise daily to avoid symptoms of withdrawal.
If he cannot practice this sport, he falls into a depressed mood, which can be manifested by aggressiveness, restlessness or sleep disorders. These and other definitions and background information on the subject of sports addiction can be found in the study below.
Sports addiction in the population
Sports addiction is not yet established in society. There are critics who claim that the symptoms are not caused by exercise, but because of other disorders. The disease is only an accompanying phenomenon. According to Prof. Dr. Schack from Bielefeld University is nonsense.
In addition, the sports scientist and psychologist claims that a reduction to purely biological factors is not possible. Accordingly, the addiction does not arise, as is often assumed, from the release of the happiness hormones, but is a combination of social, psychological and biological factors.
Within the population, the volume continues to be played down, especially since the percentage rate is currently only one percent. Women between the ages of 15 and 25 are most frequently affected, as they often try to achieve an ideal of beauty. Men between 40 and 50 years of age also tend to behave more and more, which can culminate in a sports addiction, since the pressure to succeed at work and privately increases at this time.
Empirically, it is not difficult to find those affected. A look at the compulsion to run in long-distance runners, bodybuilding or strength training offer enough examples. But also in weight-based sports such as boxing, ski jumping or wrestling there are diagnoses that confirm sports addiction.
Accordingly, sports addiction is a phenomenon that occurs in many sports on the one hand and can affect all sections of the population on the other. Kleinert and Breuer have shown in their publication "Primary Sports Addiction and Exercise-Related Dependence - Description, Explanation and Diagnostics" the frequency of sports addiction in society.
Primary versus secondary sports addiction
Oliver Stoll, Professor of Sport Psychology and Sport Education at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, explains the causes of the addiction to the magazine Die Welt:
- "I would see the compensation factor as crucial. Does someone do sport because something else does not work in life? Sport is then a non-functional coping behavior."
This is closely related to a "health imperative", because people almost have to justify themselves if they do not do sport, which is why experts claim that there is also a connection between the social compulsion to do sport and sport addiction. That is why a distinction must be made between addiction to sport and addiction to the ideal of beauty.
The division into the two groups is supported by many experts, although the criticism in this regard is also great. The proponents agree, however, that a classification is important, since it is relevant for therapeutic reasons whether or not there is an eating disorder. Correspondingly, there is the primary sports addiction, which occurs in connection with sports activity itself, and the secondary sports addiction, which also includes an eating or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Primary: sport to improve performance
- 1. Lack of connection to a mental disorder
- The primary sports addiction is an independent disease that is particularly intended to improve one's own performance. Unlike secondary sports addiction, this is not related to mental disorders such as pathological eating behavior. Sport is done for the sake of its own end and not to conform to an ideal of beauty. However, there is a high divergence in the definitions here, especially since the disease has not yet been included in the ICD-10 or DSM-IV. In the foreground is the increase in performance, which is also often tried to achieve through illegal substances. Accordingly, it is not unreasonable that some addicts, mostly those who do not suffer from an eating disorder, resort to doping or other illegal means to improve performance.
- 2. Preventive measures in the dietary supplement industry
- Warnings from manufacturers
- In bodybuilding in particular, the addiction to a perfect body plays a major role, which is why the susceptibility to doping is particularly high here. For this reason, the manufacturers of dietary supplements have the following information ready to warn and protect athletes from doping, whether consciously or unconsciously. In addition, athletes who depend on the purity of the products because they take part in competitions are dependent on the manufacturer's statements. In the same context, they distance themselves from doping in general and advise everyone to refrain from these additional illegal drugs. Rather, the training should be well planned and the diet thought out. This agrees with the statements on the prevention of sport addiction, because a responsible approach to sport and nutrition can improve both health and sporting goals.
- Quality guidelines for the prevention of doping
- For this reason, the quality of the products should also be continuously improved. There are now various seals and quality guidelines that guarantee the purity of the products. The manufacturers distance themselves clearly from doping and any other means to achieve unhealthy goals. One example of this is the ISO standard 9001: 2000, which controls the quality of production, from the raw material to the finished product. Peak Performance Products S.A. provides information about the various guidelines and seals that are relevant in the manufacture of the products in order to avoid the preparations being stretched with doping additives. In addition to the standard already mentioned, the Hazard Analysis Critical Point Concept also plays an important role, as it relates to the prevailing hygiene regulations.
Secondary: sport based on an ideal of beauty
This modification of sports addiction is closely related to anorexia, especially a pathological fear of gaining weight. In contrast to primary sports addiction, this compulsion does not result from a sporting motivation, more precisely the goal of sporting success and competitiveness, but only from the incentive to lose weight.
This conscious loss of body weight begins with anorexia athletica, which provides for weight loss to improve athletic performance and, in the worst case, ends in anorexia nervosa, a condition in which the increase in athletic performance increasingly takes a back seat and instead the personal sense of beauty is gaining in importance. Accordingly, secondary sports addiction is closely related to mental illnesses such as anorexia or anorexia and bulimia.
More forms of addiction
Adrenaline addiction
Adrenaline is a hormone that is made in the adrenal glands and released through overstimulation. This can happen in stressful situations or when there is an increased lack of oxygen. What many people call madness or a longing for death is part of everyday life for others.
It starts with everyday amateur athletes who drive their adrenaline level to the top with obstacle races. However, some also take significant risks in order to satisfy their addiction, such as base jumpers or highway racers. These behaviors are often irresponsible and also put other people at risk. It's about positive tension by increasing the adrenaline level. Control over the situation is essential.
The increasingly extreme activities can culminate in mortal danger despite the controls. The addiction factor arises from the fact that the cross-border commuters successfully get things over with and want to increase this next time. This effect is caused by the release of dopamine, which has to be higher and higher in order to continue to satisfy the desire.
Running & perseverance addiction
Running addiction has been increasing in the USA since the 1970s, but also in Europe, because at this point in time the number of extreme competitions such as triathlons or long-distance runs over longer distances increased. However, the urge to exercise should not be equated with an addiction to sports.
After all, addiction is not defined by the activity itself, but by the withdrawal symptoms that arise when those affected do not participate in sport. Addiction occurs when physical signals of overload are disregarded, psycho-physical withdrawal symptoms occur or an obligation to do something arises, so that the behavior controls the person and not the other way around.
Muscle addiction
While anorexia is often in the foreground in women, it is muscle addiction in some men. However, it must be clearly differentiated that this is not an eating disorder, but a misperception of the body image.
Nevertheless, there are many similarities between both clinical pictures, for example increasing perfectionism, low self-esteem or dissatisfaction with one's own body. However, one's own claim and the social ideal of beauty diverge widely.
Accordingly, opinions about the perfect muscle mass differ by up to nine kilograms between the social ideal of beauty and that of people who suffer from muscle addiction. For more information on muscle addiction in men, see this article.
The line between healthy training & addiction to exercise
Often people do not even notice that they are slipping into an addiction. Many amateur athletes feel bad when they skip a training session. However, if psychosomatic symptoms are added, the risk is high that the sport has developed into an addictive factor.
The fine line between health, the pressure to succeed and the demands placed on athletes and the increase in performance in the case of primary sports addiction or the subjectively perceived beauty and a resulting addiction, in the case of secondary sports addiction, are omnipresent.
This was also the result of a study by the University of Erlangen, which mainly dealt with the occurrence, but also with the vulnerable groups of people and the gender differences. The results of the investigation can be found here.
Vulnerable groups
The study evaluated the statements of 1026 athletes who took part in various endurance competitions. The average age of the respondents was 41.12 years and an average of 4.47 training units were given per week.
Of these respondents, 4.5 percent were at risk of sports addiction and 83 percent had some symptoms of sports addiction. Only 12.4 percent of those involved could completely rule out the risk of sports addiction. However, the value cannot be projected onto the entire population, since in this case only endurance athletes were surveyed.
With regard to the groups, the triathletes and those groups of people who have an extremely high training volume are particularly at risk. Furthermore, the younger athletes are more often affected by sports addiction, because they were significantly more susceptible than the other groups.
Gender difference
A difference between the sexes could not be determined in the study. The situation is different when it comes to the differentiation between primary and secondary sports addiction, because the number of women is far higher than that of men, especially with the latter.
Different possibilities & goals of the therapies
Basic principles
The treatment of compulsive behavior is central to the treatment of sports addiction. In addition, the treatment of basic social problems is essential, because as already mentioned, the compensation of everyday problems plays an important role in the development of sports addiction. Sport serves as a vanishing point for too great family or professional problems and can thus culminate in an addiction. Therapy is therefore only successful if the framework conditions in the treatment are also taken into account.
Forms of therapy
Much of the literature recommends “cognitive-behavioral therapy”. It is widely used in the treatment of addictions and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The effectiveness was tested by the psychology professor Aaron T. Beck in a study. Biographical-analytical approaches are also being used more and more frequently, as these are related to behavior with child or adolescent learning experiences that have to be worked through in the course of therapy.
Therapy goals
The goals of therapy relate to the realization that something has to change. This knowledge is also called the motivation for change and is extremely important, since there is often no admission about one's own illness, especially with addiction to sports and exercise.
If this insight is available, then a complete renunciation of sport should be avoided. Rather, the long-term goal is to change physical activity behavior so that it is in harmony with social activities, i.e. doing sports together, and physical well-being. In this context, however, unconditional increases in performance and borderline experiences should be avoided.
Other activities should also be encouraged so that physical activity is not necessarily the focus. The overriding goal is to achieve a positive body image. In addition, the body should not only be used as a means to reward itself, but also to satisfy the need for rest and relaxation.
Conclusion
Sports addiction is still relatively uncommon in Germany, but the disease is a serious problem, especially in connection with eating disorders. That won't change in the future either. Although the study by the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg could not show any difference between men and women, women are more often associated with secondary sports addiction.
“In our society, it is part of the process that men train their bodies. In addition, eating disorders are just a women's disease for many. ”Carolin Martinovic confirms this in this article in the Munich evening newspaper. This can mean that sports addiction is not even recognized in men.
This tendency can also be confirmed in connection with an eating disorder, as only one in ten of those who suffer from the disease is male. But precisely because of this social recklessness, a sporting addiction simply threatens not to be recognized and should therefore be put more in the public eye.
Especially in the field of endurance sports there is a latent risk of slipping into this disease, as the majority of those questioned admitted some symptoms to themselves. One more reason not to play down this addictive disease, but to intervene as soon as the symptoms are apparent.
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