Link between mental illness and endurance athletes who don't let go?

Yup, everyone's the same. Just because one person might run a lot to self-medicate, that must mean everyone does it.

Please.

People have all sorts of different reasons for running. For some, it's a needed stress relief that's much healthier than, say, getting drunk every day. For others, it's an hour of peace and serenity in a life that's increasingly noisy and chaotic.

Do people use running as therapy? Sure. Is that a bad thing? Only if it gets in the way of happiness, satisfaction, or success.

Some mice get on the wheel and run ALL DAY. Do you think they give a s*** about "running away from their problems"? No, they just like to run. Some people just like to run man.

Bender had no problem piling up Saturday detention because it was a good excuse to stay away from his abusive father. (The Breakfast Club)

As a youth I ran loads to hold back far too many demons to mention. Decades later I continue to run to hold back time, and to feel brief glimpses of myself decades younger.

I worked for about 20 years with people who had been diagnosed with mental illnesses. None of them ran. I'm sure there are runners with what we'd call mental problems. The same is true for baseball players, jockeys, cab drivers, and any other identifiable group.

How else would you like them to cope? LOL Also you should read MANIAC MAGEE and get some perspective-You are still a sick person and are coping by lashing out at others. Get help, and run again. Just do it.

This is what I turn to when struggling with the things you mentioned...

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains-- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

He is like a man who built a house and dug deep and laid the foundation on a rock; and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock.

been at it since 1974

never thought about it

just go jogging

Yourallmental wrote:

I think there is a strong positive correlation between the mileage/obsessiveness people have with running and their mental health. .

Does anyone else see this? It's like runners think everything is ok as long as they are running.

If you don't believe me look it up. And I'm talking peer reviewed research from both sides.

Not a good way to write a persuasive essay. First you start by proposing a thesis and and trying to seduce the reader into agreeing with you, but then you pull the rug out from under it all by declaring that someone else has already provided the evidence -- but you don't give the evidence. Care to provide it?

My own hypothesis? You're a former runner who was OK but not memorable. You're now just old enough the realize what you're secretly known for a while: there's no coming back. You're not especially good anything else. Running was your entire source of external and internal satisfaction, and kept you mostly out of the reach of your own demons, but now it's gone and you have nothing to turn your energies to. As a result, you take aim here at the very thing you yourself are: a one-time runner with mental problems (and who doesn't have them?) who can't let go.

I'm betting you've also been spurned by a lover or parental figure, recently or fairly recently.

This is classic sour grapes (and classic Letsrun, with the misuse of "AKA and "your" at the end) as well as classic projection.

"You're a former runner who was OK but not memorable."

Lol what an easy statement to say about most of the people on here. And your wrong but that's ok because we are both playing here. I just wanted to get the convo going.

Also you have more problems than me. Fact.

Yourallmental wrote:

I finally got out and am on the "road to recovery from running" which is kinda how I look at it now even though it didn't start like it.

I've read a lot about and know a bunch of ultra marathoners and runners in general who have very addictive personalities, were abused as children, or were prior drug addicts.

OK, so you say you're "in recovery" from an activity that a lot of people actually view as a recovery tool to deal with drugs and abuse histories. You sound like someone who has gotten away from booze by going to AA but now thinks you're hooked on 12 steps and God talk instead.

So what are you doing instead to deal with your feelings of meaninglessness and sorrow? If there's something better than drugs or exercise than I wanna hear about it.

"Link between mental illness and endurance athletes who don't let go"

AKA I'm butthurt -n- starved for attention, so I'm going to post a buncha crap about "runners who don't let go" on a running forum.

Makes sense.

That's a scientific link, y'all. Loads of sciency stuff in this thread!

Yes, I found the Lord and go to church. Much better. Also drugs and running are not the only thing that ruins your life. Anything that blinds you from reality is just as bad.

So for example being an avid biker could be sinful. Think about it. Are you really biking because you like it or it helps you run away from god and your problems. Also for the record I'm not saying every runner does this - I'm just saying it's highly correlated.

Go back to stats class!

I actually found that runners who had big problems dealing with life were more likely to quit than runners who were well adjusted. The big head cases usually over train badly and get injuries that are too severe for them to have the patience to rehab properly and get back into it. And big endurance events like the marathon have pretty high failure rates. You really have to be on an even keel to get past the big bonk race to get out there and do it again.

For the most part, the people who I see hanging on to running long past their best days do so for very healthy reasons. Running becomes their social circle as they lose track of friends from college. It gets them outdoors every day and gives them goals to work towards, which helps them keep from being one dimensional about work or family. Races are fun events and are very social. Distance running is also something that a lot of people can share with their kids.

Poster wrote:

"You're a former runner who was OK but not memorable."

Lol what an easy statement to say about most of the people on here. And your wrong but that's ok because we are both playing here. I just wanted to get the convo going.

Also you have more problems than me. Fact.

To sum up so far:

"yourallmental" and "Poster" are the same person. He or she admits this, then seems oblivious to the admission in a subsequent post, when he or she starts using "yourallmental" again.

Then, this person takes offense at being called out as a has-been, and declares it a fact that I, a total stranger, have more problems than he or she does.

Verdict: nutbag with antisocial tendencies. A lot of burned-out elites and quasi-elites haunt this place, but most of them at least have the brains to disguise their motives. This idiot comes blundering into ground zero of raucous Internet running talk and expects to be taken seriously with "I'm over it and you're not!" This is like screaming "You're a bunch of perverts!" while being serviced by an 11-year-old prostitute.

Precious Roy wrote:

I actually found that runners who had big problems dealing with life were more likely to quit than runners who were well adjusted. The big head cases usually over train badly and get injuries that are too severe for them to have the patience to rehab properly and get back into it.

Yes. I've known a few runners who had all the drive in the world to excel and tasted the fruits of this for a time, but this work ethic didn't represent "motivation" in the usual sense; it stemmed from being depressed, emotionally unstable, intermittently detached from reality itself, and (not surprisingly) unemployable. These people (usually female) needed to run as close to continuously as their bodies allowed in order to minimize the damage and despair of their internal mental environments.

When such people have some talent, they can do some amazing things, at least in the short term. But with these "things" (like high race finishes) comes a degree of recognition, and mentally unstable people are not prepared to handle this, especially when they conduct their lives almost entirely online and in fantasy form. They are also very bad at consistently taking direction and learning from experience, two attributes than anyone looking to be successful over time clearly requires.

These types usually enjoy a few good years, but thanks to injuries and even a basic inability to carry out the tasks of daily life without help (e.g., shopping, food prep, personal hygiene), they are usually cooked before age 30, and have no identity thereafter because they lack the social functioning and the education to convert the energy they once put into training into anything useful. If they are fortunate, they get on public assistance and the right meds, find someone to take them in and support them, or both. Ideally, they return to some form of exercise just for basic wellness (and to keep them from pestering others for no good reason, as may be happening here).

Yourallmental wrote:

I've been in the running community for 15 years and finally got out.

When you lead off with "I'm out of the running community" in an online running community, it is a safe bet that whatever comes afterward is disjointed nonsense. You did not disappoint.

mouse on the wheel wrote:

Some mice get on the wheel and run ALL DAY. Do you think they give a s*** about "running away from their problems"? No, they just like to run. Some people just like to run man.

Some people found out they were good at it. Therefore they started to like it.

Then they got physically fit. They liked it. It turned all the girls heads, they like that. AND on it goes.

L I N D G R E N

I re- started running and trolling LR about 5 years ago. My marriage and everything else is awesome now!

I used to make 30k, Now I make at least 250k, I run a 14 minute 5k and my wife went from a 5 to a 10.

No pic's , FO.