Running and Addiction

[adam]

Defining what we believe to be essential for life and what really is essential for life is difficult.

I love to run, and it is part of what I do everyday. It is essential to my overall physical and mental health and helps me gain confidence. But, if I were to lose my legs today, I would not die in the coming months. I would still live. I could still live in great physical health and happiness. I do not have to run, but I do. It helps balance out everything else. It does not define me. It is only a portion of the many things that do. I would rather have people see me as a good man than a great runner (though that does not mean I can't go for both).

Sometimes I do get addicted to running. I get caught up in mileage goals that may be unecessary. I go for times during runs that probably do more damage than good sometimes. I've run on stress fractures believing that I could run through it or that running would help heal me. I've rewarded myself with runs and punished myself with runs. I've let it consume me to the point of pages of split times and pace calculations. I have let it close me off from friends and family. I am not addicted now though. Right now I am running well.

[Bob]

Well said Adam.  I have very similar feelings and thoughts.  At times I struggle to keep running in check and not let it define my existence.  I do most of my running early in the morning and/or at lunch because I feel guilty for not spending more time with my family.  Not sure if this is valid medically, but I do feel I have addictive tendencies.  I have to keep an iron fist on the reins or I'll eventually harm myself.

[Josse]

Adam I like the way you said that.  It was what I was trying to say, but you said it much better.  Running doesn't have to be an addiction but either do a lot of things.  It is how we handle ourselves with what we are give.  BALANCE.

[Kory Wheatley]

Anything that you put to much devotion to and that's all you think about is an addiction, and running can be an addiction.  I know because it happened to me last year.  If you don't balance your life properly than anything can happen especially if your mindset is not devoted to God.  Running can be unhealthy if you can't stop doing it when your injured, and if it's all you think about.

[Benn Griffin]

I'm a hopeless addict. Running is all I think about and having been injured all of last year, it was all I thought about! Why does running make us so nutjobby?

[Sasha Pachev]

If you go without food or with limited quantities of it for long enough, food would be all you'd think about. If you've lived off bread and water all your life, you do not know any different. But once you've had a normal meal, and then go back to bread and water, a normal meal would be all you think about for a long time until you forget, if ever.

Running is natural to human body. Once you train it to do it properly, you experience a sense of balance that you begin to depend on.

[Rob Rohde]

I think Sasha is onto something here, imagine how fast you could run without that pesky "air" addiction.

[Jason McK]

For me, running takes time; sometimes it takes precious time, but mostly it takes about the same amount of time I used to spend wasting on addictions of sorts: TV, lying awake not sleeping, idle internet surfing...