From normal, to fit, to absurd. Source: Supplied
BEN Carter is addicted. Not to drugs or alcohol, but to something which is potentially just as dangerous. Exercise.
It started innocently enough back in 2011. Ben was struggling through a period of acute anxiety and depression when his therapist suggested exercise as a way to manage his symptoms.
"The first couple of weeks were easy because I felt good for once. From there it was a slippery slope," Ben tells news.com.au.
Over the next two years, Ben's exercise regimen grew ever more intense and obsessive. By late 2012 he was exercising for five hours a day, six days a week. As the workouts piled up, Ben developed an eating disorder and started shedding kilos at an alarming rate.
"I guess I began with anorexia athletica, which developed into anorexia nervosa when I quit running," Ben says. "I lost, in 18 months, around 33 kilos, and I was definitely not overweight to begin with."
By the time Ben stopped running in January of this year, his social life was in ruins and so was his health. He's still fighting the addiction, struggling against the urge to pick up a dumbbell or go for a run.
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Exercise addiction: Ben Carter tells how an obsession with exercise threatened his health | News.com.au
