Substance abuse is a way to hurt your body, but not the only one. Drug abuse is easily vilified; the other forms of self-abuse are harder to identify than villains are to fight. Things like not exercising enough and eating poorly are the next step up – people know they shouldn’t do those things, but it’s hard to avoid them.
It’s even possible for self-abuse to appear noble, as in the case of the student who is studying too hard and suffers sleep deprivation. This, too, is a form of taking the body’s capabilities for granted and pushing them past the limit.
Nothing quite compares to what people do to their bodies in the name of fun. Sports players, for instance, are payed big money to play a game for a national audience, which might seem like the perfect job, but players are under tremendous pressure to perform. This stress, caused by an audience with no tolerance for mediocrity, leads players to push their bodies as far as they can go. Not all of them use the steroids that seem to be in the news every few days, but it’s a safe bet all of them go through exhaustive physical training regularly, and that’s before they even step onto the field and offer themselves up to orchestrated violence.
Most people would probably think that the mid-thirties are when they’re just coming into their prime, certainly in terms of career, but for a sports player that’s when the prime ends. This is partly because peak physical condition is in the mid-twenties but it certainly also has to do with all the beatings those players give their bodies in the service of their sport.
Alcoholics seek out alcohol treatment at the end of their frenzy; sports players seek out chiropractors. In both cases some come out okay and some do not. Such is the nature of abuse.
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