OCD + Triathlon

[Bluetree]

I always thought my tri buddies suffered from some sort of OCD. After all, one has to be a little obsessive to devote that much time to training. But when a non-tri friend joked about my own OCD-tendencies, I kinda went "Whaaa?!
So I googled "OCD" and "Triathlete" and found this article on Slow Twitch:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1194956

I can't deny that some of the aspects in that article (and the following comments) hit a nerve. Can't say all of it does, but it certainly would explain a lot...

Any thoughts?

[rocknrollgirl]

Well, I do not think I am depressed and I do not have OCD, but I do have an addictive personality. Two of the 4 children in my family were addicts/alcoholics. It cost both of them their lives. My surviving brother and I channel all of that in to sports. That is why I loved climbing so much, it REALLY fed the addictive demons.

Now that I have given that up and slowly morphed in to training and racing, it is also keeping my inner beasties quiet.

So, I don't smoke, gamble, do drugs, no eating disorder or compulsive cleaning, no shopping for shoes, a glass of wine every now and then and LOTS of exercise. Oh and a small issue with cheese. I love cheese.

Could be worse given the genes. Right?

[Kimmyt]

RnR you should come down to Philly for a ride sometimes and afterwords we can hit DiBruno Bros. and have a cheezgasm

[Artisan]

I find the article pretty interesting, I'll have to spend the five bucks and read it in it's entirely. I've always struggled with depression and anger. I was diagnosed bipolar a few years back. Best way for me to deal with my moods is through exercise. When I don't work out my mood starts to spiral downward.

[rocknrollgirl]

Kimmy, you are on! Mmmmmm...cheese...ah...big sigh....

Do you mt bike? We could go to Wissahickon.

[Kimmyt]

Haha I don't mountain bike so much as, 'walk my bike up hill and then slowly ride the brakes down hill'

Actually I don't even have a bike. Are you doing the Philly Tri?

K.

[margo49]

Rings true for me too.
But at a sub-clinical level. Just because one is aware of using the bike to keep one's demons under control doesn't mean one is ocd as in the clinical sense.
A lot better than some other "self-medication" I could think of (gynnantonnyx, anyone?) like wot RnR said.
As a cancer survivor I really identify with Lance A. and see some of the emotional-psychological roots of his achievements. So what? You have to get through and over that stuff somehow.
I knew a guy who was born at 27 weeks gestation weighing 1 kg / 2 lbs. He reckoned that experience, coupled with his innate personality and frequent subsequent health problems and hospitalisations, meant he met everything aggressively. Of course *without* that personality he probably would have spat the pacifier while still in the incubator.
So it's both who you are *and* what's going on in your brain chemically and electrically.
Like the song says "You can't have one without the o-o-o-ther"

[rocknrollgirl]

No Kimmy, no Philly tri for me, I am going XTerra. I am however going to take full advantage of their swim clinic.