Are There Any Mental Disorders That Car Arise From Overtraining for Years and Years?

Question by Common White: Are there any mental disorders that car arise from overtraining for years and years?
Like years and years? Can it add up stress instead of lessen?

Personally, I’ve overtrained certain muscle groups with heavy weights and it’s thrown my physical balance off, and I believe I have packed in stress instead of releasing it. I hadnt stretched properly, and would attack weights nightly with a vengance. Over years, I have muscle groups that would not release and have spent the past two years unravelling my back and IT band and other groups.

I also know a few friends that attack workouts like that, but are hyperstressed all the time as far as personality… One has developed a facial spasm and does triathalons and trains 3 times a day. Another has continuously dangerously high blood pressure and emails me her daily training regiment as if it’s an award… I just wonder if there’s a condition or term or disorder that is associated with compulsive training, even though these people in question are way past the condition of physically fit. If it’s a compulsion and at a certain point relaxation becomes impossible…

Any thoughts? Treatments? Studies? Personal experience?

(and to the person inevitably says : it’s ok, since they arent binge eating or doing drugs… thank you for the comment, but you can save your keystrokes.)

Best answer:

Answer by Judy & Charlie
I’m going to assume that you are a male.
When people “over train” certain muscles, they can cause a lot of metabolic changes within their bodies. For instance, you will crave more protein. You may drink more liquids that will flush out electrolytes from your blood stream and this can cause “cramping”, etc.

And so I have to ask if you have been to see your doctor for a check up and some blood work to ascertain your body’s needs? Because over-training can stress your body’s resources.

Also, do you use steroids? These can cause a whole boat-load of psychological problems, too.

And your female friend….well, she has an eating disorder and her way of compensating is to over exercise instead of eating healthy. Maybe she binges and purges, too.

But if you are experiencing cramping, weakness or muscle soreness, you should pay a visit to your private physician for a check up and some blood work.
I wish you all the best.

Oh, and stop being the ‘audience” for your friend with the eating disorder…stop rewarding her.

Mindful Eating: 5 Easy Tips To Get Started
And some early research into mindful eating would seem to back this up. One study, for example, tracked more than 1,400 mindful eaters and showed them to have lower body weights, a greater sense of well-being, and fewer symptoms of eating disorders. Read more on Huffington Post

Neurologist to speak to ET support group
He completed his residency in neurology at North Carolina Baptist Hospital/Bowman Gray School of Medicine in 1993 and completed a fellowship in electromyography, movement disorders and neuromuscular disorders at Bowman Gray in 1994. He is board … Read more on The Sylva Herald

Chip Wilson Lululemon Pants Comments Spark Social Outrage (TWEETS)
Protective factors for eating disorders in female college athletes. Eat Disorders 1999; 7: 207-218. Source: Sungot-Borgen, J. Torstveit, M.K. (2004) Prevalence of ED in Elite Athletes is Higher than in the General Population. Clinical Journal of Sport … Read more on Huffington Post Canada