Western Mail: Exercise addiction in women linked to manic behaviour

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[http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=16247112%26method=full%26siteid=50082-name_page.html Western Mail: Exercise addiction in women linked to manic behaviour]
Exercise addiction in women may be linked to manic personalities, according to new research. The study, carried out by the University of Manchester found the manic behaviour usually associated with addictions such as gambling and drinking was also present in women reliant on keeping fit.

Fitting their lives around their fitness programme, missing work to exercise and feeling anxious when they couldn’t get to the gym were all signs of addiction. And of those found to be addicted many also had hypomania, a mild form of mania characterised by excessive, over-the-top behaviour, which can lead to mania and disorders such as bipolar.

Researchers from the University of Manchester studied 200 people, and asked them to fill out three questionnaires. The questionnaires measured exercise dependency, depression and hypomanic personality and were designed to find out how much exercise impinged on their lives.

After analysing the results a link between exercise dependency and hypomania was found, but only among women. Brigit Cooke, a psychology student who carried out the study along with supervisors, said, ’A lot of people who have pathological addictions tend to be hypomanic and depressed.

’If exercise dependency is an addiction you would expect someone who was exercise dependent to show these same traits and we did find a link. ’We didn’t find a link to depression, which is usually a sign of pathological addiction but this may be because of the anti-depressive effects of doing exercise.’

Exercise psychologist at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, David Wasley, said exercise addiction was more common among women than men because it’s linked to how people perceive their body.

He said, ’Very rarely is exercise the primary cause of an addiction. Usually you will find an exercise addiction will be linked to an eating disorder which is linked to perception of body image.’

Are you an exercise addict?

Analysing exactly how exercise-dependent you are requires a complicated scientific formula, but how strongly you agree or disagree with the nine statements below were all used in the study and go some way to indicating how dependent you might be.

1. My level of exercise makes me tired at work.
2. After exercise sessions I feel happier about life.
3. If I cannot exercise I feel irritable.
4. The rest of my life has to fit in around my exercise.
5. After an exercise session I feel less anxious.
6. I sometimes miss time at work to exercise.
7. After an exercise session I feel I’m a better person.
8. If I cannot exercise I feel agitated.
9. I hate not being able to exercise.

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