A quiet day at work so I thought I would add my pennyworth to the whole 'running is addictive' debate. You may recall that Pavlov had some dogs. He rang a bell and gave the dogs some food, After a time, the dogs salivated whenever they heard the bell. They were conditioned through a process of reinforcement.
Now, intermittent reinforcement is the most powerful means of conditioning. If you go to the pub and put your money in the jukebox, you will quickly notice if it is broken and stop wasting your cash. If the one armed bandit is broken, you will keep piling your pennies in for much longer because it operates on an intermittent reinforcement schedule- It doesn't pay out every time.
So to running. Some good runs; runs where you are running the dream. These are interspersed with runs that are less great and some that are painful or hard. So you are being reinforced on an intermittent basis; always chasing the positive, reinforcing feeling. Running doesn't pay out every time either. You are conditioned to want to run.
Now, it's really important to keep running in a routine.... Eventually, the gambler will notice that the bandit is not paying out and will stop feeding it. Their behaviour has been extinguished. If you don't run enough, you will miss the positive reinforcement and you are at risk of your running behaviour being extinguished also.
And now my dog is making the little noises that suggest it is time for his walk. He has conditioned me and I have to go now
Absolutely spot on about intermittent reinforcement: it is incredibly powerful.
I play golf; I only started because my son was a talented Junior golfer and needed a regular partner ( and Dad's Taxis on speed dial). He was good, very good indeed, and 'could a' been a contender': he chose other paths however and is now an architect. I was absolutely rubbish and after years of practise am still absolutely rubbish...in fact, worse. BUT, every now and again I take aim and swipe in blind hope, then watch as the ball sails toward the hole and nestles near the flag...I stand, holding the pose, as if I had the slightest clue what on Earth I had done differently. It happens a couple of times a year...but the feeling, the rush, the sheer joy is incredible...and is enough to make me cough up the membership fee every year and suffer the heartache of the thousands of other shots that don't go anywhere near their target.
My wife wrote GUM on my head and suggested I look in the mirror.
I think 'addiction' is a term that gets used rather loosely these days, rather like 'depressed'. There is definitely such a thing as exercise dependence and it is a legitimate disorder like alcoholism, substance addiction or binge-eating. It can cause people to continue exercising through serious injury, prioritise exercise over their well-being or family and lose control over their ability to stop exercising. They suffer withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety attacks, insomnia, depression etc. There may be a correlation between this and the number of people who turn to exercise to cope with other forms of addiction.
Unfortunately it tends to get used to mean 'I enjoy running' and worn as a badge of pride. Being an 'exercise junkie' is seen as something quite cool. There isn't really anything cool or to be aspired to about addiction to anything.
Nice to know that you are responding correctly to the Pavlovian stimulus.
Of course, underlying this conditioning is the whole issue of body chemistry. My current cancer treatment has really made me question how much of our actions are dictated by the chemical balance of our bodies, especially hormones.
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A running tip
Running etiquette?
