The Phenomenon of Sports Addiction

[...] This term paper aims at summarizing the knowledge base about this relatively young subject of investigation that is endurance addiction, representative of sports addiction. Due to the limited focus of this paper, the subject of addiction in risky sports with its very specific characteristics of “pushing boundaries” and “looking for adventure” cannot be included. Likewise, addiction in the bodybuilding sport has to be left out of the discussion. Since sports addiction and herewith endurance addiction is considered a behavioral addiction, it is imperative to first define the term behavioral addiction. Subsequently, the phenomenology of running addiction will be presented extensively, more precisely by deriving a definition in conjunction with the determination of diagnostic criteria. Then the circumstances that can be conducive to sports addiction and the causes of sports addiction are discussed. Another point of interest is the topic of withdrawal symptoms occurring addiction-specifically with refraining from sports. Subsequently, the question about therapeutic approaches and therapy possibilities should be raised. [...]