They feel guilty if they don’t jog 15 kilometers every day. They lift weights until they drop and skip appointments to work out longer at the gym. In the celebrity district of Malibu near Los Angeles, a private clinic has included the treatment of fitness addicts firmly in its program, and the Internet is teeming with sufferers who publish their tales of woe.
Fitness training as an escape
“You can find more fitness addicts in Los Angeles than in any other place,” says psychologist Irene Rubaum-Keller, who runs a private practice in the movie capital. “Here, everyone wants to look like a Hollywood star.”
Rubaum-Keller, who considers herself a “recovered addict,” used to practice aerobics for two hours a day and lift weights afterward. “But at some point I realized that working out was an escape for me,” she says.
Among the joggers on the beach in Santa Monica, who cover their miles there with or without a walkman, she was not unaware of fellow sufferers: “There was a man who ran there every morning from six to nine, and then again in the afternoon from three to five – he has since stopped jogging and has become a fanatical amateur gardener.”
Until the physical breakdown
While 60 percent of Americans exercise too little or not at all, according to nationwide medical surveys, a minority are ruining their health in pursuit of the “right” body image – from sprained ankles to complete physical breakdown. Both men and women are susceptible to fitness addiction. Comprehensive statistical surveys do not exist.
Among affected patients, psychologists say they often treat anorexic women, former alcoholics and ex-junkies who have chosen a “healthier” addiction.
The well-known American marathon runner Richard Benyo confirms this assessment in an article on the Internet website of the “Road Runners Club of America”: “For some, long-distance running has helped to replace a recently discarded “negative” addiction to alcohol or cigarettes with a “positive” addiction.
Reino, who also considers himself “cured,” presents at-risk joggers with a ten-point catalog to determine their level of addiction. One of the questions is, “Is a day without running like a day without sunshine”?
End of the line isolation
Happiness hormones (endorphins), which are released in the body during intense sports activity, are repeatedly cited as the “medical” cause of fitness addiction. Psychologists, on the other hand, see the responsibility with the addicts: “They are not able to deal with people and talk about problems. Instead, they prefer to go work out,” says one expert. And in the fitness center, isolation can even get worse: “Everyone exercises by themselves. You can’t even dare approach someone on the treadmill next door,” says a student in Los Angeles.
