Defined by training at least two hours a day unrelated to a career in sport, individuals affected by exercise disorder feel they can’t live without it. They exercise when they’re sick, injured or tired, and often do it in place of normal social activities to the point where it interferes with their lives.
?I had one young man, a lovely young man, with low self-esteem. He’d spent years going to the gym every night only to feel more and more unsatisfied, and in his mid-thirties he desperately wanted to have a relationship and a partner but he’d never developed social skills,? said Professor Jennifer O’Dea of The University of Sydney, who specialises in health, nutrition and body image.

The dangerous quest for an ‘ideal’ body, Luke Malone

Yep. I don’t think I suffered this, but I can certainly relate to it.

I wrote about the lifestyle changes I undertook a few months ago now. It’s undoubtedly a positive change but it can take you to some pretty dark places if you aren’t careful.

It can be easy to focus on being disciplined at the expense of other things. Generally, the other things, social things, involve the stuff you are trying to avoid, and it can often be easier to opt-out altogether than be cajoled or jibed for your choices. My social life was worse during my big cut, of that I am certain. It probably needn’t have been, but I really had the blinkers on at times there.

None of these things are excuses for not making these kinds of changes. Whatever difficult times I went through then, I think it has proven well worth the sacrifice. But the general thrust of this article is true. I’m sure there are heaps of men who run and lift thinking that the inevitable outcome will be physical perfection and by extension, happiness. Unfortunately, it just isn’t that simple.