Still don't feel right after exercise - still worried

[screddie]

I haven't been on here again in months. Quite honestly i am happier than i have been in years and have absolutely nothing to be anxious or worried about.

I am still on sertraline but have seen a new doc that wants to get me off it! Yay! However, over 2 years after this started and with all the same symptoms and no answers as everyone else, i still think something is wrong.

I have posted before but now this is bothering me because i don't feel i can live properly. Everyone talks about exercise being a great help with sterss and anxiety. Many seem to manage their problems with it. I can't. I used to be completely normal and active and could do any or as much exercise as i wanted. Since the HA started 2 years ago, whenever i do anything even slightly strenuous i feel ill afterwards: head pressure, eye tension/pressure behind eyes, shaky, nauseous, dizzy, light headed etc etc. I just feel wrong! I want my life back and to be able to do normal stuff. I am putting on weight and want to get rid of it!

Someone please tell me they have had similar and know why it's happening. Docs tell me nothing, tests show nothing, everything stays the same and i don't improve - ultimately it just means i feel rubbish. Has anyone got any advice or know what i am talking about re. exercise. Please help i am endlessly searching for answers!!

[paula lynne]

Hi, maybe its your bp settling after exersize?
Maybe you could try a less strenous work out and build up x:)

[screddie]

Thanks Paula - others have said similar and the doctor also said i should build up really slowly. Perhaps i'll give it another go.

What concerns me is that i have never seen anyone say similar on here. I would really love to hear if anyone at all has experienced the same ill-feeling after exercise?? I just want some idea of what might be causing it.....

[screddie]

Can anyone help? Has anyone experienced this?

Thank you!:weep:

[Utility]

Hi

For what it's worth, this might help?

I used to feel rotten before, during and after exercise. It all started from one incident when I thought I was having a heart attack while out running. Got all the checks done and given the all clear and told it was anxiety related. Did I believe my doctor or cardiologist - of course I didn't! I was convinced I was going to kick the bucket any minute. Exercise was a no go area because anytime I tried it I would feel light headed, dizzy, pains in chest and just down right rotten.

Then the CBT came along with it's positive thought process and with me it was like the light at the end of the tunnel. It made me realise that I was in a circle of association in that every time I exercised I convinced myself I was going to feel pain and discomfort and I did.

By replacing my negative thoughts with positive ones things changed quite quickly. I started to tell myself that I was physically fine and that the pain was just association in my mind - and it worked. Don't get me wrong, every once and a while I get the occassional feeling but quickly dismiss it and it leaves me.

The main thing is to always get checked out by your doctor to at least put your mind at ease over anything physical and from what I understand you have already done this. It might be a case of a positvie thought process to help with this?

[screddie]

Thank you for this, Utility! Very helpful and i appreciate you taking the time to reply with such a detailed response!

I guess my concern is that i am totally fine (mentally) now. This all started 2 years ago after a particularly stressful period. That stress has gone, but the physical symptoms haven't - they are still very much there. Still come and go as they please without any tangible trigger and still totally out of my control; i can't make them do anything! I am happy all the time at the moment, but when i do anything physical (a quick walk, carrying anything for a few minutes, climbing some stairs etc) it makes all the symptoms come back, and usually much stronger! It just makes me think of Brain Tumours (i saw a programme on Russell Watson the other day, and now i think i have what he did!!), neuro-muscular disease or MS!! And that scares the life out of me.

After 2 years i really thinks thinks should be better. They aren't worse but certainly haven't got better. I have had loads of blood tests (all fine!); seen 4/5 docs - all say the same; had 2 courses of CBT - just doesn't really work for me, i am too black and white - either i'm fine or i'm not!; and searched/googled everything under the sun - just want answers!

After all of this time i have come to a conclusion: "stress" and/or "anxiety" or not real words! They are by-words or emphemisms, and what they actually mean when doctors say that is the problem, is "there is clearly something not right, but i haven't got a clue what's wrong with you!!!" They have to say something because they're doctors - hence 'i think it's stress or anxiety!'

I hate not being able to live normally and i don't like the symptoms. But what really gets me down is that i am coming to the conclusion that there is no answer or solution, and i am going to have this for the rest of my life.

[BubbleBonce]

I have felt ill after exercise at the gym. It's not so bad if I just walk though. The guy at the gym said it could be my pelvis is out of alignment which I believe it is. I'm curious if you have a thyroid disorder? I blame mine for everything.lolz

You could try seeing a chiropractor. They would be able to check it out for you.

Bubble.

[melvin]

hi there i do get dizzy after swimming or exercise i put it down to anxiety.that's how anxiety gets u if u feel out of breath u start to worry about ur heart.then comes all ur symptoms so it puts u off pushing yourself

[Gareth]

Screddie, I could have written your posts, you sound so much like me.

I've had 2 big periods of anxiety in my life, my most recent was last year around July/August. It was brief though, and I got through the mental side of it fairly quickly, but it produced some physical symptoms - weakness and muscle tension mostly.

Since then, my physical symptoms have never got any better. I feel weak, shaky, tired all the time, unsteady on my feet, achy in my muscles. Even though I don't have anything to be "mentally" stressed about. I also have worried about all sorts of illnesses, a particular fear being ALS or MS.

I think what you are describing could be that your prior manifestation of anxiety has developed into Health Anxiety. You are putting thoughts of MS and other horrible illnesses into your mind and your body is reacting with a normal stress reaction, which you don't understand because you don't feel stressed, so you naturally assume you are physically ill.

I think this is the cycle I have put myself through in the past year so I am familiar with it.

I have stopped exercising because it makes me feel so awful the next day, and I think this is another cycle - the less you exercise the more unfit you get, the more of a battering your body takes next time you try it, the more unwell you feel as a result, the less you exercise... on and on!

Real, big lifestyle changes are what I need to get sorted. Resting more, nutrition, exercise, positive thinking. I know this and am trying but it is long and difficult work to undo 36 years of being a certain way.

Hope some of this helps - good luck and PM me if you want.

Gareth

[screddie]

Thank you all for your posts - all really helpful.

I have had several blood tests which have included thyroid function - all fine! I really hope the problem is more akin to some of the things Gareth mentions. It is such a difficult cycle to break, particularly as i am not really in a position to make significant changes to my lifestyle - my job is busy and demanding but i enjoy it and it.

I will try again at the gym, this time more slowly and gradually. I hope that will help