Ciarán Dalton Psychology, LLC.
  • Home
  • Services
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • Blog/Running Thoughts
  • Testimonials

Just Play

Tolerance, Running, and Addiction

1/10/2018

0 Comments

 
Addiction can change the course of an individual's life in unimaginable ways. Many experts call addiction a progressive disease, meaning it worsens when untreated or it progressively does more damage. One key factor to addiction is tolerance which is medically defined as "the capacity of the body to endure or become less responsive to a substance with repeated use or exposure." Simply put, as an addict progresses with their drug use, they need to consume more of the substance more frequently to feel high.

Many runners experience a runner's high which is defined as "a feeling of euphoria that is experienced by some individuals engaged in strenuous running and that is held to be associated with a release of endorphins by the brain." It is that moment where pain becomes pleasure, confidence is soaring, and the runner feels like a powerful machine in the midst of suffering. It seems to me the runner's high has a type of tolerance opposite to that of drugs or "reverse tolerance." Previously mentioned, addicts need more of the drug to get high. Let's say it takes someone one pill to feel high as a recreational drug user. As the addiction progresses this individual now needs four times as many pills to experience the same feeling. As a runner, I've noticed that I need less of the running in order feel that powerful euphoria. For example, let's say I've returned to consistent running after an absence of a few months or I'm a "new runner." For the first two weeks, I might feel that runner's high late in the run, maybe around mile seven. It takes a lot of running for me to feel good, however, over time, I experience that same feeling at mile six, then five, then four, and so on. I'm experiencing a reverse tolerance in which I need less of the drug (running) on order to experience the high. This might be one of the reasons why people who do not run sometimes think runners are crazy. They've never run for long enough to feel great in the moment or feel the runner's high. They've only experienced the pain of miles one through six before giving up. 

Go out and run, it makes you feel alive.    
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Ciarán Dalton

    Enter your email address above to receive notifications when a new blog entry has been published. Please feel free to comment. Discussion helps increase understanding and directs future blog topics. 

    Archives

    February 2022
    September 2020
    March 2020
    April 2019
    November 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    June 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    June 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.