palow
05-18-2010, 03:39 AM
Some of you may have started exercising to improve your condition. If so, congratulations. You are on the right track. But here is something I discovered that really helped me recover from GAD: schedule your exercise during times when your anxiety hits.
You may not even be aware of this but your anxiety works on a very predictable pattern. It comes at certain times, during certain activities, when you're at certain places and when you're hanging out with certain people.
For me, it happened when I woke up in the morning. I would lie in bed for an hour dreading the day. Then between 10-11 am at the office while I was at the computer. Also during staff meetings and after dinner. On weekends, if I had nothing to do, I would be stewing in anxiety all day.
So what I did was jump out of bed in the morning, put on my MP3 and started dancing. Someone told me this would cause a stroke but I told her to go to hell. For the 10-11 thing, I printed up a bunch of office yoga exercises from the internet and did them every 15mins. Staff meetings was a tough one. I did something else that was not exercise.
I used to go jogging before dinner but I switched that to AFTER dinner. Okay it's hard to run on a full stomach but you get used to it. Someone told me it would give me a heart attack but I told her we could no longer be friends. This is not an exercise tip, but get rid of all your negative friends. I am not joking.
Anyway, later I bought a punching bag, which was easier on the stomach than jogging. They're a bitch to set up but once you do, it's like they were meant for anxiety sufferers.
I kept my weekends full with outdoor events that would tire me out.
The point is, if you exercise when you are anxious, the adrenalin is being used up in a healthy natural way and you are training your body to calm itself down when anxious. Plus the relief that you get from the anxiety is so pleasant that no one has to nag at you to exercise. You'll be hooked.
Okay this is one of the things that worked for me and I had GAD. I'm not sure if this works for those of you with specific phobias, OCD, PTSD and others. And I don't know if by itself this would totally cure your anxiety disorder. I was on a structured programme at the time (Linden) and the exercise thing was part of it. But it was a BIG part.
Patrick
You may not even be aware of this but your anxiety works on a very predictable pattern. It comes at certain times, during certain activities, when you're at certain places and when you're hanging out with certain people.
For me, it happened when I woke up in the morning. I would lie in bed for an hour dreading the day. Then between 10-11 am at the office while I was at the computer. Also during staff meetings and after dinner. On weekends, if I had nothing to do, I would be stewing in anxiety all day.
So what I did was jump out of bed in the morning, put on my MP3 and started dancing. Someone told me this would cause a stroke but I told her to go to hell. For the 10-11 thing, I printed up a bunch of office yoga exercises from the internet and did them every 15mins. Staff meetings was a tough one. I did something else that was not exercise.
I used to go jogging before dinner but I switched that to AFTER dinner. Okay it's hard to run on a full stomach but you get used to it. Someone told me it would give me a heart attack but I told her we could no longer be friends. This is not an exercise tip, but get rid of all your negative friends. I am not joking.
Anyway, later I bought a punching bag, which was easier on the stomach than jogging. They're a bitch to set up but once you do, it's like they were meant for anxiety sufferers.
I kept my weekends full with outdoor events that would tire me out.
The point is, if you exercise when you are anxious, the adrenalin is being used up in a healthy natural way and you are training your body to calm itself down when anxious. Plus the relief that you get from the anxiety is so pleasant that no one has to nag at you to exercise. You'll be hooked.
Okay this is one of the things that worked for me and I had GAD. I'm not sure if this works for those of you with specific phobias, OCD, PTSD and others. And I don't know if by itself this would totally cure your anxiety disorder. I was on a structured programme at the time (Linden) and the exercise thing was part of it. But it was a BIG part.
Patrick