Er, yeah, literally all of life is chemically mediated.

Your love for your family is chemically mediated, as is your desire to eat food or get out of bed in the morning.

I guess their point is that in this case the chemicals are addictive.

You could have just said you don’t feel like working out

But then I would have been lying.

That's an interesting extrapolation, but you do realize exercise itself releases the same endorphins as opiates?

Sure, you do go through a form of withdrawal once you stop doing it, but it has nothing to do with opioid abuse.

Same thing makes fast food "addictive" (unnatural levels of salt and fat), caffeine, and capsaicin (peppers).

That is exactly what I was saying. Those ”endorphines”, i.e. endogenous morphines, are opioid molecules and have opioid effects in the human body, including addiction, dependency and withdrawal.

Some do anything for a fix.

Many vehemently deny this and that they like getting high from it.

Interesting that you would compare ”unnatural” food ingredients to the exercise high.

Getting addicted to exercise? Sounds fantastic.

There is a difference between ”exercise” and ”power lifting”.

Cardio is definitely good for you, even though it releases the same peptides. In cardio you progress by going longer.

Lifting is a different beast. In it you progress by increasing weights, because increasing reps does not gain muscle as fast. Each trip to the gym causes muscle damage, which also releases opioids, and it is completely possible to become dependent on that in the same manner that someone cutting themselves becomes dependent on the opioids released by cutting.

Good, get addicted to things you can do to your body that are good for you.

Does that include, in increasing sense of doublethink:

1) using illegal drugs to treat debilitating illness, such as autoimmune disease?

2) using nootropic drugs to increase cognitive performance?

3) using illegal drugs to increase general physical and cognitive performance?

4) parking in a handicap spot to shop quicker and with less stress?

5) speeding on the highway when you know it’s gonna be okay and it’ll cut down an hour of your daily commute that you’d rather spend with your family?

6) smuggling conflict diamonds and stolen gold bars in your rectum to get away from the rat race once and for all?

I have no idea how to view upvotes/downvotes on other posts or my own, but I see this one is greyed out, which I guess means it was downvoted by someone.

Since I don't see a reply explaining why, and it's at least an interesting point of view, I upvoted it.

So how much endorphins are released by intense exercise, and how much are introduced by opioid abuse?

That is a loaded and oversimplified question.

Addiction and dependence are not matters of how much drugs someone has in their bloodstream; they are matters of why there is drugs in the bloodstream.

A terminal pain patient could be having a daily dose of morphine equal to an opioid abuser’s, but we usually don’t consider them addicts, because they have a reason to use opioids for pain management.

An opioid addict could be consuming a quarter of a codeine tablet a day and still be considered an addict, because emotion management is not usually considered a valid reason to use opioids.

For some reason, a lot of people recommend going to the gym as a first-line treatment for various emotional issues. I find this doublethink hilarious.

The only “loaded and oversimplified” rhetoric here is your refusal to consider even the simplest facts of the matter beyond “opioid receptors are activated at all!”

The only “doublethink” is how you claim not to be opposed to exercise in one comment while denigrating the very thought of going to the gym in another, in spite of clear evidence that lack of exercise is broadly detrimental to one’s mental state, rather than your narrative of “self-medication with endorphins that induces dependence and withdrawal symptoms where none existed before”. And claim that some source of endorphin release is good when that contradicts your only rationale for equating exercise with opiate abuse.

I have not denigrated anything except power lifting, which is what many equate with ”going to the gym” in my peer circles. That is certainly a source of confusion here.

It is a fact that power lifting can be addictive, for the very reasons I’ve mentioned. It is not for all people. Those with genetic and psychiatric predispositions (work stress included) are much more at risk.

The risk, however, is very real, and some don’t realize it before they have made permanent damage to their musculoskeletal system and are forced to deal with serious pain issues—and some turn to opioids. THAT is the real apogee of why ”exercise can be a dangerous drug (for some people)”.