question about borderline

i was wondering if there was any relationship between having borderline and exercising obsessively. i exercise 2-4 hrs a day and was wondering if there was any correlation. your thoughts would be appreciated. thanks.

Good question.

Not to my knowledge , but we all cope differently, this could be a coping mechanism, but it is hard to identify from here.

If it makes you feel safe and keeps you from self harm, and anxiety it could be.

I hope we can both get more responses on this....

anyone????

I know that I tend to exercise obessively and I too have BPD, so maybe they are related. It could be an impulse thing.

exercising obsessively is a form of anorexia called "anorexia athletica"...it is also a way to "purge" calories with bulimia...and eating disorders can be a part of the borderline diagnosis

~*^*Brittanie*^*~ wrote:i was wondering if there was any relationship between having borderline and exercising obsessively. i exercise 2-4 hrs a day and was wondering if there was any correlation. your thoughts would be appreciated. thanks.

I am borderline and I have done lots of things obsessively. It isn't so much what you're doing; it's that you feel you are doing it obsessively. You may choose to take a step back and be glad that it's exercise you're doing. I often do things with obsession as a way to focus, or escape the boredom of being in a world where I am thrown away. I actually wish I exercised instead of other activities that I throw myself into.

I would say yes. Borderlines tend to have poor self-image and self-control leading to more compulsive behaviors. Many also have eating disorders and people who anorexic and bulimic tendencies obviously have an invested interest in exercise.

I am going throught the exact same thing....I see it as a way to avoid the self-mutilation. At first I'd only go for an hour...now I go for 2 hours twice a day and am developping an eating disorder.
You know, for me the thought of getting smaller and smaller makes less of me, therefore less of a problem to others.

First find out if that actually is exercising obsessively. 2 - 4 hours a day is alot, but is it on a par with a professional athlete or a personal trainer employed in a gym? If it's something you enjoy doing alot of, rather than pathologizing it, check and see what the actual norms are. I spend 2 - 4 or more hours a day quilting, sometimes, for example, or writing. I don't consider that to be obsessive or even ununusual, nor do other people who do the same thing. Intense involvement in something doesn't have to be a bad thing. Now, the eating disorder, that's something else again. People who are really into fitness don't necessarily develop eating disorders. In fact, one of the benefits of working out is being able to eat whatever I want.

If you enjoy working out so much, maybe you should check out a career as an instructor or personal trainer. Other than that, I would just stay on top of the injuries and the physical stress to the body. If you're forcing yourself to work through injuries, I would be concerned. But again, this isn't pathological, necessarily; tons of people do that.

What I guess I would be aware of is over-focus. Sometimes when you're really competent in one area of your life, it's tempting to just "stay" in that activity as much as possible. After all, it gives you good feedback, it's a positive, non-self-destructive thing, so it's very comforting. But it has the effect sometimes of narrowing our interests, much as workoholics find that their interests are narrowed down so that they don't have much of a life beyond work. Try not to let other areas of your life suffer as you focus in on the one(s) you're especially good at.