Physical Exhaustion,overworking= FUEL TO FIRE for Anxiety?

[wax22]

Have this for 3years (crazy dizziness along with all Health anxiety symptoms),
Year ago started to understand why/when it's happening, a month ago realised it's the anxiety that's causing it or at least it's the main thing that makes it so much worse.

Haven't been able to find any info on this, but what Role Does Physical exhaustion,doing something till you feel tired,tiring yourself out or even general flu which tires your body plays in activating the anxiety waves and all of it's symptoms?
I Get the crazy dizziness,THE DAY AFTER I have pushed myself a bit more and than had a sleep ( Lasts for like 3-5days before it slowly goes away in like 10-14days ,till the next time)

Here are some examples:
-1 Hour riding bicycle very peaceful and leisurely =no problem
-1 Hour very very active bicycle riding and climbing hills = Crazy dizziness
-3 hours riding bicycle leisurely = Major dizziness&anxiety symptoms
-Weight lifting in gym,hitting your max = Crazy
-Doing some very minor physical work for a day= All Ok!
-Doing some minor work for a day,but with bad rest and stress= Some dizziness, do it for 2-3days in a row and you get crazy dizziness.


Basically intensity of stress (Both Physical Load and emotional) = Intensity of the anxiety symptoms attack and my heart/body feels totally weak and over worked,like 10x more than it should!

Is this ''Normal'' For anxiety ,anyone in the same boat?
-Have done all the main Tests/checks, visited so many doctors= there's nothing wrong with me.
Also any1 knows the reason why it Happens usually only AFTER A DAY ( after I have had the sleep/relaxed) ?

[ankietyjoe]

This is 100% true.

Basically, physical exertion causes stress on the body, and if you suffer from anxiety it can trigger a panic/anxiety response.

I suffered with this for several years, without a medical answer. It started a few years back where I did a big workout. I already suffered with a bit of anxiety, and my life was very stressful at this point. 4-5 hours after the workout I went through hell for about 12 hours. Dizzy, felt spaced out, constant adrenaline, shaky, rapid heart rate etc. I eventually called an ambulance and they took me into A&E, where they found nothing wrong. This episode stopped me exercising completely, I became very sedentary. This made things worse. A couple of years later I had a bad virus, which landed me back in hospital again. I was coughing up blood (nothing serious though) and felt terrible. They put me on a course of antibiotics (actually 3 courses) until the infection was clear. A couple of weeks later I went back to work....probably too soon. About an hour after I arrived, my heart started pounding and wouldn't slow down even when I was seated. Once again I ended up in A&E with uncontrolled tachycardia (there was no anxiety, this was purely physical at this point). Again, nothing was found to be wrong. It took about 36 hours for my heart to eventually slow down.

Of course after this, I did even less.

Eventually it got to the point where I would walk to the car and back, that was it. I would walk around the supermarket (but only the one I knew), and that was it. I did nothing else. This went on for about 5 years.

At no time could any Doctor offer me any advice, other than 'calm down and relax'. And although that wasn't particularly useful, there was some truth in it.

Ultimately, your body can experience stress in several different ways. Stress can be mental, physical, bacterial, your body will perceive over eating to be stressful, or too much alcohol, not enough sleep etc.

I had to use a combination of controlled relaxation (meditation) and progressive exercise (increasing the intensity of my workouts slowly) to combat my bodies reaction to 'stress'. Over the last 6 months I have been slowly introducing weight training back into my life to the point where I can workout for about 45 minutes at around 60-70% of my one rep max. Before 6 months ago doing 20 pushups would have my heart pounding and me laying on the sofa gasping for breath.

One thing I did when I started the exercise again was to push myself to the point where I wasn't completely comfortable, and sit with the way it felt for a while. I would be shaking after doing some squats (for example), and I would allow myself to sit with that symptom and be OK with it. This is one of the ways that meditation works. Your brain has to re-learn that certain types of stress are ok, and not to be reacted to.

Just remember that most forms of exertive exercise is causing your body real physical damage (that's how muscles re-grow bigger), and if your central nervous system is hyper-aware, it will probably react accordingly.

Like you, I found the lack of solutions or even answers from the Doctor's to be extremely frustrating and had to find the answer to it myself.

[ktdid2000]

Yup...when I'm overworked or exhausted I get way more anxiety. Or rather it makes me feel it a lot more.

Like walking around in a constant state of exhaustion/flu. It sucks.

[GiantMogwai]

I found my stretching routines before and after exercise acted as a sort of meditation and would leave me feeling better overall. 5 mins bike, then stretch routine, then workout, then stretch routine.

---------- Post added at 15:44 ---------- Previous post was at 15:41 ----------

Interval training also helps build tolerance to intensity.