Stress Center Peer Support

I have always been an avid runner/weightlifting girl. I use to call exercise my "therapy". I never would have imagined that I would not be able to handle a low impact workout. I am experiencing the fear of losing control of my heart rate. I miss my workouts and I am gaining weight and losing my tone body! What is up with this? I feel like I am not in control of my own thoughts or feelings anymore. MISERALBE!!!

I call exercise my therapy too and have always been very active. Last fall, when my anxiety/panic was at it's worst, I stopped enjoying my workouts and stopped for a time because of panicky feelings. I was already depressed and not working out made it so much worse. I didn't gain weight because I could hardly eat, but I lost tone and felt miserable. Ultimately I went on Lexapro for a few months, which alleviated the anxiety/depression and worked the program, and am now off the Lexapro, working out, and feeling pretty decent most days.

No real advice here, just offering understanding. When the anxiety and depression becomes less debilitating, and it will, you can start where you left off. Part of this condition is the personality traits most of us share: perfectionism, black and white thinking, catastrophizing...all of which are sabotaging you right now. They make you anxious, so you can't work out which makes you anxious, which makes you sabotage yourself even more with more of those personality traits...etc. Get the picture?

There's light at the end of the tunnel, and you'll get there, but it's up to you how fast you get to see it.