Community » Get Advice » Exercise and Fitness » Are you addicted to exercise? Take this quiz.

It never occurred to me that exercise could be a dangerous addiction for some people. I am in the 0 - 3 category. Where are you?

Answer True or False to the following questions.

The way my body looks to me depends on whether I have exercised that day or not.
I often exercise when I have an injury or don’t feel well.
For one year or longer, I have exercised five or more times a week for one hour or more.
I feel depressed and/or irritable if I miss exercising for three days or more.
I find myself continually adding newer and stricter goals to my exercise routine.
I will dramatically alter my schedule in order to work out.
I feel anxious if I miss even one workout.
At times I have used exercise to avoid dealing with work or relationship problems.
I often feel like I hate my exercise routine, but feel unable to stop it.
I exercise primarily for weight control and muscle tone.
I keep detailed records or logs of my workout sessions.
It would be very difficult for me to change my exercise. (For example, if you are a runner, you would be unwilling to switch or alternate with aerobic dance or bicycling.)
I frequently find myself thinking about exercising in between workouts.
While I am exercising, I often find myself daydreaming about the possibility of a “new, improved” physique.
Scoring: Give yourself one point for every true response. Add up your total points and see where you fall on the exercise continuum as follows.

0-3: You are normally in control of your exercise schedule. Like many of us, you may at times have mixed feelings about your exercise schedule – sometimes enjoying it, sometimes not. It may be helpful to assess your exercise motivation to see how “looking good” fits in. However, your answers suggest that you are not presently at risk for overexercising.

4-6: You are in the borderline range of overexercise. It will be important to assess your exercise behavior to see how it may be affecting other areas of your life. Even if it is not, your pattern of responses suggests that you are not getting a lot of enjoyment out of your current exercise pattern.

7 or more: You are likely to depend on exercise for a sense of self-worth. This dependency may cause problems in other areas of your life, or you may be feeling like exercise is controlling you rather than the other way around.

3 ... maybe 4 :)

3 for sure.