Loyola University Medical Center psychiatrist Dr. Angelos Halaris describes the effects this has on the brain and offers tips on how fans can cope.

Halaris explains that when a person engages in a pleasurable activity, such as watching a football game, a neurotransmitter (brain chemical) called dopamine is released in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens.

When the pleasurable activity ends, the person is left with a feeling of deprivation. It’s similar to what a smoker feels when deprived of a cigarette – except there’s no quick fix like a cigarette for the football fan.

“When the football season is over and there’s no other game on the schedule for months, you’re stuck, so you go through withdrawal,” Halaris said.

• For hard-core fans, the feeling can be similar to post-holiday blues, Halaris said.
  Halaris offers these tips for fans who suddenly have to face months without football:
• Don’t go cold turkey. Watch football on YouTube, or on recordings, in gradually diminishing amounts.
• Share your feelings of withdrawal and letdown with a friend or spouse.
• While it can be unpleasant, football withdrawal is not serious enough to require antidepressants or other medications. And do not self-medicate with drugs or alcohol.
• Most important, buck up. “You’re just going to have to basically tough it out until football starts up again,” Halaris said.

Halaris is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and medical director of Adult Psychiatry at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Source: Loyola Medicine