Having a panic attacks WHILE you exercise

[EricC]

I get this too. For me what usually triggered panic was exercise-induced hyperventilation.

I'd become conscious of my breathing, and I would end up breathing too much. Normally when this happens Lucinda's breathing techniques work great - but during strenuous exercise you can't really employ slow breathing techniques because you need to breath faster.

Anxiety would keep me locked into focusing on my breathing and I'd over-breath while exercising. The thing that worked for me was simply doing all of my strenuous exercise at home. That way if I began to feel tingly and anxious during exercise I always had the option to stop running and resume at a later time. It's much less pressure than if you're 3-4 miles away from home and it comes on and you know you still need to go all the way back...

Just knowing that I can stop whenever I want was enough to stop most of my panic. Please don't give up on exercise!

[Jan82]

Steve I have the same problem. I been working out for about 3 years now, but recently started having issues with it. My big problem is that I go to the gym and I feel like I have NO energy! I take vitamins and eat before I work out, so I have no idea what it could be. I tried also changing the way I eat, but the same.. I drag the through out my work outs and I don't work out at all like I used too. After the gym I go home & I feel soo drained. Any ideas any one?

[Sunriver]

Like many of you that have posted there experiences in dealing with anxiety and panic, specifically while exercising, I to have run the gauntlet of a multitude of medical tests to reach the conclusion there is nothing physically wrong.
Although I press on with exercise, I have yet to find viable techniques or solutions in overcoming the anxiety.
Anyone have success in this challenge?

[Johndoe1]

I get them too while excercising. I just push on through and sometimes its scary as hell. a trigger for me is seing my heart rate sometimes.ill be doing the elliptical really getting into it and wham one will start to surface, and ill get that strange weak feeling and the urge to stop and leave because im sure im having a heart attack, stroke, low blood sugar, or some weird metabolic disease. I have social anxiety also. I walk around the gym feeling like people are stairing at me akwardly or i feel like im going to collapse from a stroke, heart attack, or hypogycemia- but i just turn my ipod up and push on. Most of the time i feel a lot better about myself when its over. You just have to get back in there and rough it out. the more you expose yourself to the feelings-to me feel like symptoms- the less they will scare you. youll probably still feel them but you wont react the same way to them. good luck

[mspink27]

this is oh so familiar. I started running after my son was born about 2 1/2 years ago and I've run two half-marathons since then. But I have a half-marathon in two days and since I started training heavier 5 months ago its been happening. Nothing new but I found that a few miles into the other two races I got the lightheaded heart racing head detached from my body feeling and now I am DREADING the race on saturday. I have social anxiety also so where the other 30,000 people running feel elated by the "moving party" I am horrified and frightened by all the people and that I might "freak out" in public and that I don't have anywhere to escape to. sigh. the bonus is that i feel better after an accomplishment like this. so all i need to do is get through saturday and then i'm done with half-marathons for awhile, but not with running. don't be afraid to compromise. go ahead and exercise, but find where you are comfortable, your home, a familiar trail whatever. when the feelings start keep working through them even if you have to stop and sit. then get up and keep going. the more "practice you have dealing with the feelings while excercing, the more confident you become at dealing with them when they start. i turn my ipod up and really focus on singing the songs in my head, it helps to distract me. so sorry you feel like this. it sucks, but the excercise helps. both for your heart rate and your mind. i definately notice a difference in my heart rate at regular times than when I haven't excecised. like walking up the stairs, my heart doesn't pound and make me feel anxious until it starts to calm down because it never got there in the first place.

[beachgurl22]

I'm so glad I found a forum on this TOPIC!! I experienced the same thing. Two weeks ago, I was on the treadmill. I started out at a slower pace. Then, I decided to increase the speed from 0.5 to 1.0. Once I was at 1.0, I started to feel the anxiety symptoms coming on. I felt the tightness of my neck. I did not let that discourage me from working out. That has never happened to me before. I only get anxious when I'm in certain circumstances. From my four years dealing with this condition, I realized that anxiety was not going to hurt me and it always passes. So, just try doing other exercises such as walking, yoga, or lifting weights. Until then, work your way up. It will get better eventually.

[peter Zane]

I have been a experienceing panic attacks for nearly 10 years now. The first few years before doing anything about them resulted in hospital visits and ultimately Valium to calm my self down. As usual doctors found nothing wrong with heart.

I eventually conquered them by changing job, living environment and the most vital element of all CHINESE HERBAL MEDICINE. i was recomended by a close relative to visit this alternatve pctitioner who had helped ease his mums menopause symptoms. I visited him and he had me hold an electric probe in my hand while he placed the other probe at certain hand and foot acupuncture points. The device that the probes were attached to was like a volt meter that measured the electric current or meridian going through my body's organs. The devise is an Electro Meridian Imager (EMI) and it can pinpoint what organ in the body is out of alignment with the rest of the body. From this he knew what herbal prescription to provide. I had to drink 3 cups of this herbal medicine every day for 2 months straight. After which I was cured from panic attacks for the next 5 years until now.

Just yesterday while exercising on my bike trainer,heart rate hovering around 140BPM, i decided to push further and upped the gear and consequently my heart rate to 155BPM. I kept it there for a couple minutes and just as I went down a gear instead of my heart rate going down it shot up to 162 this unexpected change in HR caused my mind to release its panic hormones and adrenalin in particular which caused my heart to jump to 180 plus. BY this time I was off the bike walking around trying to calm my self and HR down. Normally after exercing at 180 BPM the HR should steadily go down over a couple minutes to under 120 BPM, but in this case it stayed high over 140 for nealy 10 minutes which just made me feel even more anxious at the time that my heart was not recovering properly. In hind sight I think it was the adrenalin in my system that made my heart jump over 160BPM and not come down quickly enough.

The next day I am feeling still a bit anxious about my heart and also a bit week and mentaly sensitive. I think thew cause of my stress or depression has been my 2 year old daughter who has been in a bad habit the last 12 months of waking up at midnight and then again 4am crying to either come in my room or for milk. This broken sleep pattern has been steadily wearing me down to this point. I think my body is trying to tell me something. Time for change.

I also by the way recomend Transendental meditation works great at calming down anxious thoughts and heavy breathing.

[terri27]

It feels good to know I'm not alone on this. I have been suffering from anxiety for at least 10 years now. I have had one bad panic attack back in 2004 and my anxiety has been somewhat controlled since until now. I haven't been exercising too much and I had an attack while going up a steep incline. I didn't think it was an attack because I have never experienced an attack while working out. That usually made me feel better. I tried to exercise again after this incident to see if I felt the same and sure enough, I felt faint, lightheaded, heart racing, and shaking. I've taken blood tests, ekg's, chest x-rays, etc. and all have come back normal. I am afraid to work out now because it brings on an attack. My doc prescribed zoloft to help me get through this and advised me to try to get off of it in a few months. Hope this works.

[cuttingirl]

Oho yes. I love exercising. If I really overdo it, I can experience symptoms like panic such as an increased heart rate and shakiness so bad I need to sit down, plus the room spinning thing. Mind you, this is extreme effort, like full out sprinting (which I don't really do).

[Snappa]

YOU KMOW WHAT, THE SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME WEDNESDAY. I STARTED FEELING STRANGE AND JUMPED OFF THE TREADMILL TO GO HAVE A SET. AFTER I SAT DOWN FOR AWHILE, I STARTED AGAIN. I JUST GET NERVOUS WHENEVER I DO ANYTHING AND NOW I JUST HAVE A SEAT AND TRY TO EASE MY MIND. I WILL JUST WALK FROM NOW ON UNTIL I GET COMFORTABLE.