How a workout helps in beating any type of addiction

When it comes to treating any type of addiction, people usually think about some counselling, group sessions or talk therapy to help the person come to terms with the addictive behaviour, and enable them to find more effective ways of managing the underlying feelings.

Although such approaches are helpful, many feel that they must tackle the problem with a physical, instead of an emotional or mental approach. For many, exercise also helps in managing their cravings, while complementing the talk therapy. Today, in the times when you can possibly even overcome gambling addiction with a nasal spray, exercise can work as an excellent self-help tool for people to recover from addictions. Not just that, it has also been recognised recently as an independent treatment for addictions, effective on its own.

How exercise might help

Whenever you discontinue an addictive behaviour or the usage of an addictive substance, such as gambling, overeating, compulsive sex, drugs, alcohol etc., you start experiencing something unpleasant known as withdrawal symptoms. These might vary in intensity depending upon the person, the addictive behaviour/habit as well as the nature of the exact symptoms. However, central to all such withdrawal syndromes is intense craving for more of that behaviour/substance.

The person might experience feelings of anxiety, despair, irritability, digestive problems, lethargy, anger and nervous system-related symptoms like muscle tension, headaches, watery or dry mouth etc.

Exercises can help significantly in reducing depression, anxiety and stress while experiencing such withdrawal symptoms. Nicotine withdrawal is one specific type of withdrawal which can be helped greatly by exercising. Studies have shown time and again that smokers who exercise on a regular basis experience better moods, less cravings for cigarettes and a reduction in many other withdrawal symptoms compared to non-exercising quitters.

Exercise also has an effect on withdrawal symptoms associated with drug and alcohol abuse. Research has even revealed that exercising can potentially repair the damage caused to brain’s reward pathways because of methamphetamine use. Here are 6 science backed ways in which exercise benefits both body and brain.

Exercising for relapse prevention

People have often used exercise to reduce the chances of relapsing to addictive behaviour/substance. Anyone who is recovering from alcohol abuse and has passed through the withdrawal phase, experiences lower cravings when they regularly engage in workouts. The same way, people recovering from marijuana usage, when engaged in regular exercise, experience reduced cravings for cannabis.

Exercise has been proven to work very well when combined with other treatments and therapies as well. For instance, contingency management, which is a reward-based system and not therapy per se, proves to be highly effective when used along with regular exercise.

Please note, while voluntary exercise leads to less likely chances of a relapse, forced exercise can have an opposite effect.

Limits and potential of exercise in this regard

Exercise can potentially work as an excellent supplementary treatment while overcoming addictions. The kind of beneficial effects it has on the person’s mood as well as on the withdrawal symptoms, makes it the just the right fit for people recovering from addictions. They feel healthier and better, and are more likely to avoid relapse.

However, please remember that exercising alone can’t help you understand the root causes of an addiction, in trigger-recognition or in learning more effective ways of emotion management. It can only improve your mental/emotional state and might also complement the other therapies very well.