Obssessive exercise as an addiction or a mechanism of compensation in eating disorders
Abstract
The paper from psychological praxis presents two case studies of clients who have sought professional help because of their problems with obsessive exercise having a negative impact on their personal and work life and affecting both their health and mental state. In today's society that puts great pressure on performance and physical appearance, the regular exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle is a desirable strategy for increasing strength and perseverance. It can, therefore, be easy to appreciate even the excessive exercise and to consider it a proof of physical and mental strength. In the following case studies, it is obvious that both women did not realize the real impact of their behavior until after several years of intense day-to-day workouts lasting from three to six hours a day when they had to organize their personal and work life around exercise units instead of working out for health or joy. The first case study presents a problem of obsessive exercise as a compensatory mechanism in a client with a history of anorexia nervosa, currently suffering from a binge-eating disorder. The second case study looks at obsessive exercise as a form of the addiction syndrome in a client with a family history of alcohol addiction and a personal history of features of alcohol addiction. Different causes and development led to different intervention procedures in both cases, which are described in the study. The main factors of an effective treatment were clients´ self-awareness of the need for help, strengthening the social support system, and intervention based on the real causes of obsessive exercise in terms of either addiction or compensation of binge eating.
https://doi.org/10.29364/epsy.312
(Fulltext in Czech)