Exercise and Sobriety

Exercise and sobriety go hand in hand. As a part of addiction recovery management, exercise is a crucial element of a holistic approach. There’s research involving exercise — some researchers maintain that exercise itself can become addictive. If I’m forced to choose between heroin addiction and exercise addiction, I’ll choose exercise, although these aren’t the choices. So far there’s no evidence that exercise is harmful for people in recovery — in fact, exercise increases brain chemicals that enhance mental and emotional well-being. There’s anecdotal stories, like in the link above, of people exercising in recovery but still committing suicide — however, there are many reasons why a person would commit suicide. I don’t think we’ll find exercise as a major cause of suicide or that it’s necessarily harmful in recovery — it just doesn’t seem likely. Sure, some people might not be physically able to exercise, but that could be true for anyone, even those who have never had a problem with addiction.

An analogy can be made between the process of addiction recovery and starting an exercise regimen. Just as people in early addiction recovery might relapse several times before maintaining abstinence and developing a disciplined recovery program, many who first decide to exercise start and stop before developing a disciplined and consistent exercise program. Some never start an exercise program. If a person can develop discipline to exercise on a regular basis, this not only makes the person feel better physically, but it also helps with self-esteem and emotional balance. Relieving frustrations in a gym is not a cure-all for stress and emotional turmoil by any means, but it helps. It’s never good for anyone, in addiction recovery or not, to sit around, inactive, and dwell on life’s pressures and twists and turns without developing healthy ways to maintain mental and emotional health. I can attest to the beneficial results of exercise. When I exercise, I feel better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

As I wrote above, there are biological reasons for feeling good when exercising, as Serotonin and other brain chemicals are produced, but just the satisfaction of developing discipline and consistently working out plays a part in maintaining a sense of well-being and accomplishment. Sometimes, if we’re physically inactive, we can become emotionally, mentally and spiritually lazy. All aspects of ourselves work together to build a synergy — at least this is what I believe. I’ve never seen moderate exercise hurt anyone, but you should talk with your doctor, or a physical fitness professional when starting an exercise regimen from scratch. There might be medical reasons why exercise is not right for some people, and some people might need a designed exercise program to meet their special needs and limitations. It’s all a part of good addiction recovery management.