Kudos to you for raising the topic of Exercise Addiction in the Substack endurance community!
It’s an issue that’s often under-discussed, sometimes even taboo — but absolutely worth bringing into the open. A few years back, I wrote a piece for The British Medical Journal to highlight exercise addiction for healthcare providers. At the time, it was well-researched within sports psychology but mostly invisible to clinicians working with athletes:
I’ve been meaning to revisit this on my Substack, to share the story behind that article. In short: I met plenty of distance runners who struggled with this without realizing it. For many, the addictive side became more obvious to all once injury happened — leading to depression, sneaking in workouts against medical advice, and a cycle that made recovery (and in some cases, future sport success) even harder.
To a lesser extent I find myself eating cleaner and sleeping more when I’m training or have a goal in sight. Looking at a box of donuts and salivating then pausing to ask myself, ‘Will that enhance my training?’ Hard pass. Can’t say I’m addicted to sweets, but I eat a lot less when I’m training.
Good stuff Mark, I share many of your sentiments, thanks for being your true grounded self and an inspiration
Jill Colangelo does research on this.
https://www.jillcolangelo.com
I heard her talking on an episode of the triathlete hour. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-triathlete-hour/id1504154493?i=1000570610861
Extremely interesting!
Kudos to you for raising the topic of Exercise Addiction in the Substack endurance community!
It’s an issue that’s often under-discussed, sometimes even taboo — but absolutely worth bringing into the open. A few years back, I wrote a piece for The British Medical Journal to highlight exercise addiction for healthcare providers. At the time, it was well-researched within sports psychology but mostly invisible to clinicians working with athletes:
https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1745
I’ve been meaning to revisit this on my Substack, to share the story behind that article. In short: I met plenty of distance runners who struggled with this without realizing it. For many, the addictive side became more obvious to all once injury happened — leading to depression, sneaking in workouts against medical advice, and a cycle that made recovery (and in some cases, future sport success) even harder.
I'll definitely write more on this in the future!
To a lesser extent I find myself eating cleaner and sleeping more when I’m training or have a goal in sight. Looking at a box of donuts and salivating then pausing to ask myself, ‘Will that enhance my training?’ Hard pass. Can’t say I’m addicted to sweets, but I eat a lot less when I’m training.