The Phenomenon of Sports Addiction

Dossier / Travail de Séminaire , 2007 , 23 Pages , Note: 1,0

Sport - Sociologie du sport

[...] This term paper aims at summarizing the knowledge base about this relatively young subject of investigation that is endurance addiction, representative of sports addiction. Due to the limited focus of this paper, the subject of addiction in risky sports with its very specific characteristics of “pushing boundaries” and “looking for adventure” cannot be included. Likewise, addiction in the bodybuilding sport has to be left out of the discussion. Since sports addiction and herewith endurance addiction is considered a behavioral addiction, it is imperative to first define the term behavioral addiction. Subsequently, the phenomenology of running addiction will be presented extensively, more precisely by deriving a definition in conjunction with the determination of diagnostic criteria. Then the circumstances that can be conducive to sports addiction and the causes of sports addiction are discussed. Another point of interest is the topic of withdrawal symptoms occurring addiction-specifically with refraining from sports. Subsequently, the question about therapeutic approaches and therapy possibilities should be raised. [...]

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• I. Introduction
• II. Behavioral addiction as a disorder an attempt at defining it.
• III. Endurance addiction
  • 1. Example.
  • 2. Definition and phenomenology
    • 2.1. Category I.
    • 2.2. Category II
    • 2.3. Category III.
    • 2.4. Healthy vs. pathological exercising.
  • 3. Diagnostics..
  • 4. Circumstances fostering endurance addiction..
• IV. Causes
  • 5. Physiological approaches.
  • 5.2 Psychological approaches
• 6. Withdrawal symptoms...
• 7. Therapy...
• Conclusion..
• Literature.....

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte

This term paper aims at summarizing the knowledge base about this relatively young subject of investigation that is endurance addiction, representative of sports addiction. Due to the limited focus of this paper, the subject of addiction in risky sports with its very specific characteristics of “pushing boundaries” and “looking for adventure" cannot be included. Likewise, addiction in the bodybuilding sport has to be left out of the discussion. Since sports addiction and herewith endurance addiction is considered a behavioral addiction, it is imperative to first define the term behavioral addiction. Subsequently, the phenomenology of running addiction will be presented extensively, more precisely by deriving a definition in conjunction with the determination of diagnostic criteria. Then the circumstances that can be conducive to sports addiction and the causes of sports addiction are discussed. Another point of interest is the topic of withdrawal symptoms occurring addiction-specifically with refraining from sports. Subsequently, the question about therapeutic approaches and therapy possibilities should be raised.

• Defining behavioral addiction
• Phenomenology of running addiction
• Circumstances conducive to sports addiction
• Causes of sports addiction
• Withdrawal symptoms

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel

The term of sport, which in its allocated meaning originally was the equivalent to distraction and pleasure, did almost turn into a synonym for physical exertion in the Western societies, where physical work is on the decline. The phenomenon sport reflects the principles of performance, competition, and equality as elevated by our industrial society.' And it is indeed undisputed that regular exercise can of course have a positive effect on mind and body and that it offers the best protection against civilization diseases as overweight, diabetes, hypertension, etc. "Two to three times per week for 30 to 60 minutes of endurance sport, this is recommended”, according to the sports psychologist Gugutzer. But what if the healthy makes room for the pathological? In remembrance of the run by Pheidippides³, the marathon (42.195 km) as the longest running discipline was part of the competition at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens. In the meantime, the multiple of this distance is covered in one stretch. What is today considered traditional is for example the 100-km-run of Biel and the 78.5-km-long Swiss-Alpine-Marathon over the high mountain region of Davos with the challenge of extreme differences in altitude (up to 2,320 meters). The ultra-long-distance-run „Trans-America-Foot-Race" across North America from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean (ca. 4,700 km) can be seen as an extreme escalation of distance.4

Although the phenomenon of sports addiction has been known since 1970, when it was discovered by Baekelund, the potential addictive nature only came progressively to the forefront for the public and the scientific community during the last fifteen to twenty years — among other things, driven by the increasing popularity of the running movement at the end of the 1970s and the almost inflationary proliferation of fitness studios replying to the developing fitness trend in the USA, which was a little later also sweeping to Europe.5 The discovery of the sports addiction phenomenon by Baekelund was more or less accidental. He actually did realize that despite of financial compensation, many athletes did not want to participate in his study about sport and sleep, because they were not willing to give up their sport. From this, he concluded that an excessive practice of sport met the criteria of an addiction and that this could occur in the form of a sports addiction.6 Sports addiction is a behavioral addiction of a non-substance-related nature and can manifest itself in several kinds of sport. The essence of sports addiction is a known entity in the bodybuilding scene - then we speak of bodybuilding- or muscle addiction (muscle dysmorphia) as well as the endurance area (running- or endurance addiction). In addition, high-risk sports and their link with addiction increasingly gained attention.

Schlüsselwörter

The keywords and focus themes of the text include endurance addiction, sports addiction, behavioral addiction, running addiction, muscle dysmorphia, bodybuilding addiction, high-risk sports, and the impact of sports on mental and physical health. The text explores the definition, phenomenology, diagnostics, causes, withdrawal symptoms, and therapeutic approaches related to endurance addiction, providing a comprehensive overview of this relatively young field of study.

• Université: Free University of Berlin
• Note: 1,0
• Auteur: Marc Castillon (Auteur)
• Année de publication: 2007
• Pages: 23
• N° de catalogue: V284166
• ISBN (ebook): 9783656836414
• ISBN (Livre): 9783656836421
• Langue: anglais
• mots-clé: phenomenon, sports, addiction