So, where is the line? When does a healthy passion for sport turn into a compulsion that feels impossible to quit<\/a>?<\/p>\n Defining that boundary isn\u2019t easy. While exercise addiction is estimated to affect 3\u20137% of regular exercisers<\/a> \u2013 with even higher rates among elite athletes \u2013 it is not yet recognized as a standalone clinical disorder in the World Health Organization\u2019s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). This remains true despite a growing body of research and countless athlete experiences suggesting that compulsive exercise can cause significant, real-world distress.<\/p>\n To explore this, we sat down with three experts who have spent years in the trenches, both as elite endurance athletes and as researchers in sports psychiatry and addiction, to uncover what it really means to train hard, stay healthy, and find your value outside of your race results.<\/p>\n Roundtable: Navigating the fine line between discipline and exercise addiction Jill Colangelo<\/a> (JC): Expert in the study of mental health and ultra endurance sport, focusing on helping athletes avoid and recover from overtraining, burnout, and more; triathlete and ultra-runner.<\/p>\n Flora Colledge<\/a> (FC): Researcher specializing in exercise addiction; elite triathlete and ultra-runner.<\/p>\n Joanna Brown Fear<\/a> (JF): Retired pro triathlete, 2021 Olympian, medical student, and self-admitted \u201cexercise addict.\u201d<\/p>\n Triathlete: Endurance athletes are praised for their discipline and ability to push through pain. But when does that relentless drive become problematic? Joanna Fear (JF): It\u2019s a fine line. When you\u2019re in it, especially at an elite level, you are so driven that there really is no other option for you. You just do whatever training volume<\/a> you think will make you better, or whatever the coaches recommend. Honestly, I haven\u2019t seen an athlete reach that elite level without some degree of obsession. But it makes you vulnerable because it\u2019s so easy to let things creep up. You tell yourself you\u2019re just going to run five miles a day, and the next week it\u2019s 10, and suddenly you\u2019re running 100 kilometers a week because you need that stimulus just to feel okay.<\/p>\n Because exercise is inherently healthy, it\u2019s a lot harder to convince an athlete that it can be maladaptive or actually harmful. When it gets to the point of causing distress, you\u2019ve crossed over into addiction. But the typical reaction from the outside world is usually just, \u201cOh my gosh, it\u2019s so awesome that you\u2019re addicted to exercise. Good for you!\u201d<\/p>\n Jill Colangelo (JC): Exactly. We\u2019re praised for going above and beyond, and society tends to put people on a pedestal even if they aren\u2019t healthy.<\/p>\n There is this whole idea that we have no limits. But the human body does have limits. Still this is a sport that invites us to ignore these parameters and keep going.<\/p>\n True discipline is being judicious: Being able to ask yourself, \u201cIs today the right day for that 20-mile run? Maybe I should eat more or sleep more before I undertake this. Maybe today is better for a rest day, or maybe I need to modulate stress in other areas of my life.\u201d But if you\u2019re inconsolable, or you can\u2019t handle it because they don\u2019t feel like themselves on that day. And that\u2019s a deeply discordant kind of feeling.<\/p>\n Flora Colledge (FC): That burden manifests both physically and mentally. A huge red flag is when your training causes multi-day suffering, yet you push through it anyway. While it\u2019s common to lack intrinsic motivation on any given day or to feel a little soreness, that\u2019s different from a constant psychiatric burden.<\/p>\n You might be feeling like you are constantly under stress, where every minor demand feels like too much. You become incredibly irritable: everything from sitting in traffic to someone cutting you off in a store sends you spiraling into a rage. That constant state of stress is a major warning sign.<\/p>\n Then there are the physical problems. There are athletes out there who take painkillers basically every day and think it\u2019s normal. It\u2019s not.<\/p>\n Is there a certain demographic you\u2019ve seen in your research that seems particularly vulnerable to exercise addiction?<\/p>\n FC: The research is still very patchy, and pinpointing specific demographics remains a challenge. Anecdotally, I\u2019ve seen it split pretty close to 50-50 across genders. And in our samples, the individuals weren\u2019t necessarily young; they were typically in their mid-40s. It\u2019s not just the young guys in the gym or young women with eating disorders \u2013 it\u2019s adults well into middle age. Again, that\u2019s anecdotal, not scientific, but the trend is clear.<\/p>\n JC: Right. The research on gender is still inconclusive, in my opinion. But from 10 years of working with athletes, I\u2019ve noticed that men often have a much harder time navigating the later stages of exercise addiction. I think that\u2019s mostly because they tend to recognize the problem much later than women do. Women often have those concrete physiological red flags \u2013 like losing a period \u2013 that act as an early warning system. Men don\u2019t always have those markers, and they aren\u2019t usually socialized to be as in touch with their somatic sensations or emotions. By the time they realize something is wrong, they\u2019re often left feeling completely bereft, asking, \u201cWhat has happened to my body and mind?\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond gender, the people who struggle the most are usually the ones using sport as a compensation for something else; they need sport to demonstrate their worth. Maybe they\u2019re moving away from a substance addiction, or they\u2019re people who didn\u2019t feel successful in other areas of life and are using sport to fill that void. That\u2019s why I have to push back when people say, \u201cRunning is my therapy.\u201d It really shouldn\u2019t be. You see this vulnerability in people going through a divorce, a major life transition, or anyone who hinges their entire sense of purpose on their training.<\/p>\n Joanna, do you feel like this is a taboo topic among athletes? Nobody really ever wants to admit that they\u2019re exercising too much. We all just want to do more and more.<\/p>\n JF: Among my retired friends, I\u2019ve had a really easy time talking about it. I joke with friends that we\u2019re members of \u2018Exercise Addicts Anonymous.\u2019 Retired athletes are probably willing to talk about their struggles and accept them, especially after a career where they were expected to train and exercise every single day.<\/p>\n However, if you broached the topic with somebody currently training 30-plus hours a week and said, \u201cHey, I think you might be addicted to exercise,\u201d or \u201cYou might be relying on this for your identity and your energy,\u201d I doubt they\u2019d agree. If you had asked me when I was training full-time, I wouldn\u2019t have even thought about it! I was just doing the training that was put in front of me.<\/p>\n That brings up the concept of \u201cidentity foreclosure\u201d \u2013 the idea that \u201cI am only a triathlete,\u201d and if I\u2019m not training, I am nothing. How does this fuel unhealthy habits?<\/p>\n FC: A sports psychologist once explained to me, and I find it quite convincing, that this is essentially a primal feeling: \u201cI need to be of value to my tribe.\u201d If I\u2019m not of value to my tribe, they will essentially abandon me, and I will be left alone in the wild to starve. Humans rely on community; they rely on having a specific role within that community, and others assign value to that role. That\u2019s how we work.<\/p>\n You latch onto that, and even if triathlon isn\u2019t bringing anyone real-world value in that primal sense, you cling to the idea that \u201cI must do a thing, and I must do it well.\u201d When that isn\u2019t happening, you experience this existential dread. It\u2019s hard to say exactly how much that factor drives this, but it\u2019s certainly significant.<\/p>\n JF: I definitely felt that. Retiring after the Tokyo Olympics<\/a>, I had to untangle my identity from being a triathlete. I was actually fortunate because I had school lined up. I knew I needed somewhere else to put my energy. But for the first year, I still thought about coming back. There\u2019s always this feeling of \u201cunfinished business.\u201d If you don\u2019t have something else fulfilling you, it\u2019s incredibly hard to step away.<\/p>\n JC: Triathlon communities are incredibly insular \u2013 very in-group\/out-group based. That can encourage you to feel the need to be included, particularly if you\u2019re already vulnerable to feeling insecure in other areas of life.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve had fascinating conversations lately with folks who have been in these sports for years but are \u201ccoming out\u201d as not wanting to race anymore. They struggle to tell their friends, because the standard greeting is always, \u201cWhen\u2019s your next race?\u201d or \u201cWhat are you signed up for?\u201d If you\u2019ve hinged your entire life\u2019s purpose on participating, you are more likely to keep wanting to do it, even when you no longer know where the cutoff point is.<\/p>\n Okay, the million-dollar question: What are the signs that an athlete has crossed over from being \u201cdriven\u201d to being \u201caddicted\u201d? FC: I would say if you\u2019re driven, you have drive in certain phases of the year, but you\u2019re willing to let it go in others. I\u2019d argue that 50% to 70% of the time, you should have a sense of excitement and joy about your training or racing \u2013 not every single second, but at least some of the time.<\/p>\n Crucially, you are willing and capable of drastically reducing your planned training if life gets in the way<\/a>, whether that\u2019s an injury, a family commitment, or something else. And most importantly, doing that shouldn\u2019t send you into a complete tailspin, because training shouldn\u2019t be the only method you have for regulating your life.<\/p>\n JF: Withdrawal is the biggest indicator. After I retired, for the better part of two years, I had trouble adjusting from a lifestyle of training 35 hours a week. I couldn\u2019t sleep. I was super anxious. I just didn\u2019t feel right in my body. There\u2019s this feeling of guilt, almost a sense of worthlessness \u2013 like you didn\u2019t do anything productive that day, even if you had a crazy productive day at work. You literally experience physical and somatic symptoms from not working out.<\/p>\n JC: I think the difference is that a driven athlete isn\u2019t willing to put their psychological needs ahead of their health. Often, when we\u2019re training, we\u2019re not actually training for our legs \u2013 we\u2019re training for our brains. We\u2019re using exercise for emotional regulation. That isn\u2019t being \u201cdriven\u201d; that\u2019s being in need of care.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re truly driven, you can operate in that gray area where you\u2019re capable of stepping back from a program when necessary. You can make decisions that actually support your overall health. But when you\u2019re addicted, you lose the ability to see that nuance. It becomes entirely black and white: you\u2019re either training or you\u2019re not, you\u2019re either \u201cgood\u201d or you\u2019re \u201cbad.\u201d That is a very small, suffocating way to live.<\/p>\n Jill, what are the most problematic impacts of exercise addiction you\u2019ve seen in your work? Obviously, burnout is a common result, but how much deeper does this go?<\/p>\n JC: It starts with a hidden mental health burden. Even if an athlete looks fine on the surface, they are often navigating an immense, internal struggle. You see this manifest in their rising stress levels and the uncomfortable trade-offs they\u2019re forced to make, like skipping a child\u2019s birthday or squeezing in a 50-mile ride before Christmas dinner. These choices inevitably create significant friction and stress within their personal lives and families.<\/p>\n When that compulsion escalates into high-volume addiction, the psychological burden is compounded by a total physiological breakdown. You\u2019re no longer just dealing with anxiety or mood regulation; you\u2019re facing the acute fallout of chronic overtraining: hormonal dysfunction<\/a>, metabolic issues, GI distress, and clinical depression. At that point, the athlete is forced into a painful reckoning. They aren\u2019t just struggling with the psychological withdrawal of losing their dependency; they are faced with the terrifying reality that their body is physically falling apart.<\/p>\n So, if an athlete recognizes they might have crossed that line, how do they move forward healthfully without having to abandon sport entirely?<\/p>\n FC: If you\u2019re questioning your relationship with exercise, don\u2019t fear it, lean into it. There is a lot of power and agency in that realization that maybe you are drifting into that unsafe area. If you\u2019re asking yourself these questions, don\u2019t shy away from them. Always be willing to consider the hard truth: Is this really what\u2019s best for my health?<\/p>\n JF: I think it\u2019s crucial to have education around how powerful exercise is as a mental and physical stimulus, and how heavily we rely on it. You need to learn how to take breaks during the season and actually give your body a rest when you\u2019re supposed to. For me, acceptance has been key. Now that I\u2019m in medical school, I\u2019m sometimes in the OR at 7:30 a.m. for 12 to 14 hours. I don\u2019t really have an option to exercise on those days unless I want to be completely gassed. Having a busy schedule has actually forced me to be a lot more chill with my rest days.<\/p>\n JC: The essential piece of moving forward is doing the work to decouple your worth from your athletic identity. You have to recognize your intrinsic value. I tell athletes this all the time, and they often look at me like I\u2019m crazy, but it\u2019s true: the people who love you do not care if you podiumed. They don\u2019t care about your splits. They love you for you.<\/p>\n If you can realize that you are a beautiful, imperfect human being whose value doesn\u2019t hinge on a race result, you can re-engage with your sport or transition to a different sport or level with so much more perspective. Hopefully, by doing this, you avoid falling back into that same rut, because you\u2019ve created a new path, a new mindset, and a new way of looking at the world.<\/p>\n If you or someone you know feels that exercise has become compulsive (causing significant physical or emotional distress, or interfering with daily life, relationships, work, or overall well-being), please consider speaking with a qualified healthcare professional, sports psychologist, or mental health provider<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nOur expert panel:<\/p>\n
\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exercise-addiction-1-1200x675.jpg\"\/)
Exercise addiction, gone unnoticed, can lead to real-world distress and problems beyond training. (Photo: T100)<\/p>\n
\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exercise-addiction-3-1200x675.jpg\"\/)
Exercise being a compensation for something going on in your life may rewire the entire purpose of your training. (Photo: T100)<\/p>\n