How Exercise and Healthy Living Helps Fight Addiction

There is no other way to say it—exercise is good for you. This concept in and of itself is not new or groundbreaking. However, recent studies suggest that regular, moderate exercise can help people struggling with addiction stay clean and avoid relapse.

There are several benefits to routine exercise, but it’s the effect exercise has on the reward system of the brain that helps people struggling with addiction avoid the many pitfalls and temptations. This post will explore precisely how exercising—and healthy living in general—helps people live successfully in recovery and stave off withdrawal symptoms.

But first, it must be said that exercise alone isn’t enough to treat addiction. Exercise should be considered a supplemental treatment for addiction, alongside psychotherapy and medication-assisted treatment.



With that said, let’s dig in.

What Regular Exercise Does to the Brain

Regular exercise helps support brain health by improving blood flow, improving working memory, and improving feelings of wellbeing through euphoria or “runner’s high.”

Exercise Improves Blood Flow to the Brain

The brain requires a lot of energy—and blood flow—to operate correctly. Exercise increases the rate of blow flow to the brain, replenishing its supply of essential nutrients and stimulating the creation of chemical molecules that aid in memory and function.

This is important because addiction adversely affects structures in the brain. Exercise can help by giving the brain everything it needs to heal.

Exercise Improves Working Memory

Exercise improves a person’s working memory in several vital ways. First, it increases synaptogenesis, which means it stimulates the growth of new connections in the brain. This facilitates learning and improves brain function.

Exercise Improves Executive Function

Secondly, exercise helps to improve executive function (EF). EF is a set of mental skills that help people focus their attention, regulate their behaviors and emotions, and plan for the future. In essence, a person’s EF helps them maintain self-control over their emotions and behaviors and also inhibits them from acting impulsively.



People with executive functioning disorders, like ADHD, are more likely to be addicted to drugs and alcohol because they have deficits in controlling urges, impulses, and cravings.

Exercise Reduces Stress and Creates a Sense of Euphoria

When a person exercises, their body produces beta-endorphins, which are chemical compounds that act very similar to morphine in the brain. These beta-endorphins connect to opiate receptors in the brain and produce feelings of euphoria and wellbeing—or what’s known colloquially as a “runner’s high.”

In this sense, exercise can help alleviate urges and cravings by literally creating chemicals that occupy a person’s reward receptors in the brain. Put another way, exercising can produce euphoric feelings similar to those caused by opiates like morphine.

Other Ways Exercise Helps With Addiction Recovery

So, we’ve established that exercise helps a person’s brain function better , making them more resilient to succumbing to relapse. But there are still other ways a regular exercise routine can aid someone living in recovery.

An Exercise Routine Adds Structure to a Person’s Life

Anyone who has been through a residential rehabilitation program will tell you—structure is everything when it comes to avoiding relapse. A regular exercise program will keep a recovering addict on a schedule and give them goals to strive toward.

Plus, if that person joins a sports league, they are accountable to their teammates. A person is less likely to relapse if they have a whole team depending on them.

Exercise Improves a Person’s Sleep

Many people who struggle with addiction experience poor quality sleep for a number of reasons. They may be experiencing cravings or withdrawal symptoms that keep them awake, or their living conditions prevent them from getting enough restorative sleep.



Exercise helps a person’s body fall into a more natural sleep rhythm because it effectively tires them out. During sleep, a person’s body repairs itself and recovers from the strain it experienced during the day.

It Helps Improve Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

Depression and anxiety are often associated with low levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine , among others. Regular exercise helps your brain produce more of these essential neurotransmitters, flooding your synapses with these necessary feel-good chemicals.

Exercise is often recommended alongside therapy and medication as a supplemental treatment for anxiety and depression—two disorders that can lead a person to relapse.

It’s Time To Hit The Gym!

Regular exercise is a valuable supplemental treatment for addiction. Not only is it good for the human mind and body generally, but it has specific benefits that can help people recover from a drug or alcohol addiction and avoid a relapse.

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Author Bio:

Jenn Walker is a freelance writer, blogger, dog-enthusiast, and avid beachgoer operating out of Southern New Jersey.

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