Sport and Addictions

 Hi again. Today I want to talk about sport and bad habits. No, I’m not gonna explain that smoking or drinking is bad and especially for those going in for sport. I shall talk about addictions and how it influences not only our body but our internal world and the whole life as well. Nowadays many people have bad habits such as alcohol or cigarettes. It’s no wonder that a lot of sportsmen have them as well, even professionals. And not every sportsman is capable of overcoming this or that addiction. This leads him to losing everything he gained during his career and may ruin his whole life. Why do they start using drugs or drinking? If we are talking about boxing, most professionals are from poor families and they are not used to having much money. They have a very vague idea about managing it. Now that they are rich these people want to try all sorts of things not all of which are safe to get used to. Sadly, in professional sport there is a very short distance between such tries and career catastrophes. And what is the career crush for a sportsman? His sport – it’s all he can do. It’s his only way to get money. Without it he sees no safe future before him and, more than often, sinks right to the bottom. What is to be done to secure oneself? First of all, everything depends on us, and if we do not want to get problems and be kicked away from our carrier, we have to understand that we are in no way different from most people. The idea “I’ll do it only one time just to see what it’s all about” doesn’t work. All addicts begin their new way of life with exactly those words. Don’t try to dupe yourself. Secondly, each professional has his own team with a coach, doctors, psychologist, etc. It’s up to them too to notice that their sportsman got some addiction. No one wants to acknowledge that he can’t live without drugs, so this person must be saved by the people who surround with him daily. Otherwise it’s not the best team to work with. Take Tyson Fury, a boxer from Great Britain, who began struggling with his mental health following his sensational victory over Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015. Apart from other things he became a terrible glutton. He said:” There are 500 calories in a pint of lager and I would go out and drink 18 of them followed by whisky and vodka, then I’d stop off on the way home and eat pizzas and kebabs.“ In 2015 he had 150lb, between 2015 and 2018 he had 400lb. It seemed there was no way for him to control himself. Anyway, he did not give up and now he is even better than he was before. But what easier his life would have been for him in those years if he didn’t plunge into that addiction?! Everything is up to us. One should be careful about his habits to notice something is wrong and start working on it immediately. It’s a dangerous idea to consider himself to be an exception in this or that way and different from other people. One should realize that psychologically we are made in the same way and are subject to the same weaknesses. Everybody should be conscious of the fact that it’s cleverer to keep away from dangerous addictions capable of destroying his career and life than to get rid off them.