Sportsmen and women with anxiety.

[leedsmeister]

Hi all, I've introduced myself on another thread so thought i'd move on to some more detailed queries.

Does anyone on here juggle anxiety with competitive sports? I'm a rower and a cyclist and do a hell of a lot of training and sometimes i actually feel worse for it.
Like after a really long or particularly hard session i sometimes feel depressed afterwards for a few hours when i should feel elated...

I also get very worried about what the exercise is doing to my heart, good or bad. During training though, i tend to feel fine because somethings on my mind...

What are everone elses experience with training and anxiety/depression?

[nomore]

Hi, before my health anxiety started (about 8 moths ago) I was pretty active physically, but ever since then I haven't really being doing any sports because I am worried that something is wrong with my heart (that's despite having multiple ECGs, blood tests, stress tests, echos, etc. all coming back normal). Before that I used to play ice-hockey and football, I also went to the gym. I went from that to absolutely no sports.

About a month ago I decided that I’ve had enough and started to go back in to sports and have started running and went swimming once. It is definitely not easy for me and I have to force myself. Like you, I find that I am actually more anxious when I am done running for example, because this is when I can actually feel my heart beats and start to constantly "monitor" how my heart is behaving, very annoying. I think that I am still some ways away from playing a full ice-hockey game again but hopefully I’ll get there. As I said in a previous post, I feel that if I can take the same physical loads as before I can prove to myself that there is nothing wrong with me.

Anyway, I had a post about sports and health anxiety about a week ago.

[Jaco45er]

Hi Leeds

Just before my anxiety kicked in (age around 31) I was playing squash every week, and football for a local team (although a knee injury put me in goal at the end), and as a kid I was always in clubs like the Harriers, karate and swimming, although I have never been at the level you are.

Once anxiety got hold, I gave it all up out of fear and lack of motiviation. It wasn't until around 3 years ago (I am 41 now) that a mate who knew I was struggling suggested we got back to the gym.

We joined a local gym, and the 1st time I went I had severe anxiety (and that was just the monthly fee). This stayed for a couple of weeks but I had the mindset, after reading Claire Weekes books, that I must keep going, the heart is a muscle and will become stronger with each visit.

I now go to the gym regular (well 4 times in the last 3 weeks, I need to pull my finger out) and have an MTB which I use a fair bit, and I must say, after trying all sorts of therapy, meds etc I would say that exercise has been the one primary factor in dealing with my "health" anxiety.

The big difference with you though, is that you are obviously at a much much higher level in terms of fitness than me, and maybe you don't get that buzz from exercise that I do because I do not train like it is my career. I only do around 6 hours a week max, where as I bet you could do that in a day.

I wonder if the feeling of depression you get is exhaustion??, or that you exercise so much that the "feel good" factor just doesn't work on you?

Just a thought.

Jaco