{"id":1881,"date":"2009-09-01T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-01T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2009\/09\/group-exercise-helps-addicts.html"},"modified":"2009-09-01T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-01T10:00:00","slug":"group-exercise-helps-addicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/09\/group-exercise-helps-addicts.html","title":{"rendered":"Group Exercise Helps Addicts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"s-TRIATHLETE-large-1.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/71\/import\/imgs\/s-TRIATHLETE-large-1.jpg\" width=\"260\" height=\"190\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span><br \/>\nEven before I read K<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.newsweek.com\/blogs\/thehumancondition\/archive\/2009\/06\/29\/from-excess-to-exercise-group-helps-men-and-women-live-sober-through-sweat.aspx\">ate Dailey&#8217;s Newsweek post, &#8220;From Excess to Exercise: Group Helps Men and Women Live Sober Through Sweat,&#8221;<\/a> I was a firm believer in group exercise as a way to treat addiction.  For a variety of different reasons:<\/p>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The bond and community element is much like those that form in 12-step groups,<\/li>\n<li>The exercise itself has an antidepressant effect: the dopamine release can help to minimize the craving for alcohol and drugs, <\/li>\n<li>A kind of discipline is learned that will benefit the recovery from addiction<\/li>\n<li>A sense of empowerment is achieved.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I relied on group exercise just as much as my meetings when I was newly sober. A few of us would take long bike rides on the weekends that helped me grieve the loss of my best friend (liquor). I look back with fondness on those afternoons, when a dozen of us would bike 20 miles to a pancake place where we&#8217;d consume the calories we had just worked off. I don&#8217;t know if it was the dopamine high or the group support, but those bike rides gave me hope that my life didn&#8217;t have to be stoic and boring just because I was going to stay out of bars.&nbsp;<\/p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In her post, Dailey features a nonprofit group called Phoenix Multisport, based in Boulder, Colorado, that hosts more than 35 athletic activities a week: running, mountain climbing, biking, and yoga. It was founded by Scott Strode, 37, who is a recovering alcoholic and wanted a healthy outlet for folks in recovery.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;Mark Smith, a professor of neuroscience at Davidson University, explains to Dailey how exercise can protect the brain against addiction.  Dailey writes:<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>His research on rats shows that access to exercise reduces the appeal of cocaine. &#8220;Vigorous exercise increases dopamine concentrations in the brain in the same sections that are affected by cocaine,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Exercise mimics a lot of the effects of the drugs.&#8221; Whether this mimicry alone is enough to help wean addicts off their addiction has yet to be established, but it&#8217;s clear that there&#8217;s far more to Phoenix&#8217;s appeal than brain chemistry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nBut the group is about much more than exercise. The social dynamic hopes to replace some of the social withdrawal many addicts feel once they get sober.<br \/>\nWrites Dailey:<\/p>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Groups like Phoenix are just what those committed to sober living need, says Kitty Harris, director of the Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery at Texas Tech University. &#8220;When people are actively using drugs and alcohol, they don&#8217;t care about taking care of their bodies, so getting into sports like this give them a motivation to become healthy,&#8221; she says. Athletics also add a sense of accomplishment and help rebuild broken self-esteem. &#8220;Most people, by the time they decide to sober up, have been pretty beaten down. Picking up something they can achieve gives them a sense of, &#8216;Oh my gosh, I can cross that finish line.&#8217; The healthiest people in recovery have some kind of activity passion,&#8221; she says.??&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&nbsp;Of course, recovering addicts in Tulsa or Seattle or Pensacola needn&#8217;t wait until Phoenix expands nationwide to start reaping some of the benefits of exercise. Todd Crandall, author of Racing for Recovery: From Addiction to Ironman, and founder of a group by the same name in Sylvania, Ohio, says that what&#8217;s most important is that recovering addicts find something that engages them. While the social structure of groups like Phoenix and Racing for Recovery are a big part of their appeal, it&#8217;s possible to reap some of themore basic rewards from just strapping on sneakers and hitting the asphalt.  &#8220;People need to find their own ways&#8211;what fits for them, For me, and others, it&#8217;s exercise,&#8221; says Crandall. &#8220;It helps open your mind to the possibility that you are more than a drunk, more than an addict. And once you realize that, then the possibilities of who you can be are amazing.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>To read more <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\">Beyond Blue, go to http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue<\/a>, and to get to <a href=\"http:\/\/community.beliefnet.com\/beyond_blue\">Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/community.beliefnet.com\/beyond_blue\"><\/a><i><br \/><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedburner.com\/fb\/a\/emailverifySubmit?feedId=611738&amp;loc=en_US\">To subscribe to &#8220;Beyond Blue&#8221; click here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"rss.gif\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/71\/import\/imgs\/rss.gif\" width=\"45\" height=\"44\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even before I read Kate Dailey&#8217;s Newsweek post, &#8220;From Excess to Exercise: Group Helps Men and Women Live Sober Through Sweat,&#8221; I was a firm believer in group exercise as a way to treat addiction. For a variety of different reasons: &nbsp; The bond and community element is much like those that form in 12-step&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Group Exercise Helps Addicts - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/09\/group-exercise-helps-addicts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Group Exercise Helps Addicts - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even before I read Kate Dailey&#8217;s Newsweek post, &#8220;From Excess to Exercise: Group Helps Men and Women Live Sober Through Sweat,&#8221; I was a firm believer in group exercise as a way to treat addiction. 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