Exercise support group

[[Ge...]]

Ugh having such a hard time staying exercise motivated .  I am off all caffeine and miss my pre-workout ...  I used to love the buzz..now I cant' tolerate it.. 

[[su...]]

Is it possible to gain muscle, strength and endurance now?  I took my last dose on the 30th of January.  I have already lost all of the former but don't want to lose more.  Would doing more exercises per muscle group be better than trying to do many sets of fewer exercises?  I can barely do bicep curls with 15 pound dumbbells now, and 6 months ago I could do 20 pounds.  Among all of the indignities, pain and misery of this process, I'm pissed off that my fitness is now falling prey.

 

I feel weak in body and spirit and this is another loss.  Can I change it?

[[MT...]]

Sunday, I went from barely being able to walk around in the store or carry a bag of groceries to walking, attending a modified exercise class, hiking and lifting weights-all while in wd. Here's what I noticed: it was more difficult than exercising before wd, I had to go more slowly and build up extra gradually, and I don't accumulate strength, muscle or stamina in the same way but it's still far better than the steady decline that happens if you do nothing. Exercising will help you physically as well as emotionally. Accept that your performance will be off what you were used to but know you can improve it in time.

[[Ki...]]

Sunday, I went from barely being able to walk around in the store or carry a bag of groceries to walking, attending a modified exercise class, hiking and lifting weights-all while in wd. Here's what I noticed: it was more difficult than exercising before wd, I had to go more slowly and build up extra gradually, and I don't accumulate strength, muscle or stamina in the same way but it's still far better than the steady decline that happens if you do nothing. Exercising will help you physically as well as emotionally. Accept that your performance will be off what you were used to but know you can improve it in time.

 

This is brilliant, MT! (And just what I needed to hear) 

[[su...]]

Thank you MT. I went to the gym today and did what I could do and accepted it.

[[Sh...]]

I'm starting zumba classes twice a week now. Till December i did this once but now i feel if i do it on my pace, i can make it through the whole class and hopefully i can keep this up.

[[Ir...]]

Hi Everyone.

 

Non-Benzo person here. I Cold turkey'd from Citalopram 1.5 years ago. Attended the gym 4 days a week with HIIT training (mostly running). Loved it - best thing for mental health. I didn't realise from August 2015 - January 2016 that I was in withdrawal, as I was still hammering out hard sessions at the gym during this time. I was mainly only experiencing slight dizzy spells and some shooting pains in my head, here and there. Then a heavy night of drinking one night in January landed me into proper withdrawal with this swaying/rocking motion I've got which is my most annoying and prominent symptom. I've had it 13 months now.

 

I continued with the gym for a few months, then tried taking the gym away to see if it helped - then I couldn't get back into it, panic attacks triggered out of this world - health anxiety from heart rate and not being able to breath and feeling woozy/swaying and like I'm about to die/faint were at the source of my reason for stopping.

 

Now 13 months later, I've started back as I'm not as ill as I was - still having the boat sensation. My tolerance to working out is better I think. I wanted to ask, how does everyone feel like when they exercise? I feel a bit woozy, like things are moving, or off-balance. My health anxiety acquired from withdrawal has shot up my fears of dropping dead at the gym due to the experiences I've had now....

 

I've also heard over in the antidepressant forums that you can throw yourself into withdrawal again even after you've healed? Is this true? Is exercise good or bad for us?

[[jj...]]

Hey Irish, I've learned the hard way that overdoing exercise can be a set back. I've learned through trial and error that you have to start out very slow and work you're way gradually back. After a big set back last summer that sent me back to the couch for a couple of months, I got started again with some simple breathing exercises using a device called an expand-a-lung and gentle walking for a mile or less. I've gradually built up to walking around 3.5 miles a day and some simple calisthenics. As with everything else in withdrawal, the motto needs to be "start low and go slow". I still get more dizzy after exercise, but in general, I feel better and it helps incredibly for minimizing heart palpitations - as long as I don't over do it, then it exacerbates it.

 

I have no way of knowing this for sure, but based on my experience, too much-too soon sets you back, but if you do nothing but lay on the couch, it retards healing as well. We have to do our best to find the happy medium.

[[li...]]

Does anyone do/take anything to be able to workout? I am 29 months off and 29 years old.. My workout just now went a little something like this..

 

-stretch

-10 leg raises

-10 donkey kicks

-5lb weights 10 reps each arm

 

15 min after.. Start getting shaky, get anxiety, body sore, body weak/exhausted, and just cried in frustration haha. I think I have an extreme case of exercise intolerance.. I don't know.

 

For the record, I walk all day at my job most days so I already get a lot of walking in. 

 

I tried to just push through feeling awful the night of and days following a workout  for about 6 months the last time I was regularly doing workouts and it never got better.. At all. Today I decided to give it a try again after probably 8 months off from working out and still nothing has changed.

 

It's so defeating, and depressing. my fiancé works out daily and is jacked so it just makes it even harder for me to feel like I look and feel good. And no this isn't about keeping up, I just want to feel good, and to strengthen my body. Guess now is just not the time? (Have been saying that for 29 months now).

 

Sorry for the woe is me story. I try not to get down about this stuff but after 2+ years of feeling awful all the time it just wears on me sometimes. Would really like to be able to feel good again!

[[su...]]

I can't remember where on BB someone mentioned the book Spark by John Ratey, but I recommend you all take a look at it. Essentially this doctor says that 30-60 minutes of steady state cardio at 60% or so of your max heart rate 4 times a week plus 2 days a week of weights and I think 1 day a week of yoga or something like it, is the key to mental health and improved cognitive functioning.

 

Lila, Don't give up after tonight!  You haven't been in the gym for 8 month, what do you expect?  Keep going and do what you can do. It's better than nothing. Sometimes I'm shakey or my balance is off or I'm extra sore and weak and I hate it but I do what I can.  I know it's better for me and I can always leave so o make sure to go to the gym unless I really, really cannot and then I go to bed instead.

[[dr...]]

Does anyone do/take anything to be able to workout? I am 29 months off and 29 years old.. My workout just now went a little something like this..

 

-stretch

-10 leg raises

-10 donkey kicks

-5lb weights 10 reps each arm

 

15 min after.. Start getting shaky, get anxiety, body sore, body weak/exhausted, and just cried in frustration haha. I think I have an extreme case of exercise intolerance.. I don't know.

 

For the record, I walk all day at my job most days so I already get a lot of walking in. 

 

I tried to just push through feeling awful the night of and days following a workout  for about 6 months the last time I was regularly doing workouts and it never got better.. At all. Today I decided to give it a try again after probably 8 months off from working out and still nothing has changed.

 

It's so defeating, and depressing. my fiancé works out daily and is jacked so it just makes it even harder for me to feel like I look and feel good. And no this isn't about keeping up, I just want to feel good, and to strengthen my body. Guess now is just not the time? (Have been saying that for 29 months now).

 

Sorry for the woe is me story. I try not to get down about this stuff but after 2+ years of feeling awful all the time it just wears on me sometimes. Would really like to be able to feel good again!

 

i am right there with you at 33 months off.  It can be depressing.  I am ready to give it a go once again.  It's been fits and starts.  I actually carried a 40# box of cat litter 200 feet or so a week ago and my shoulder and arm felt like they've been ripped out since then.  this is ridiculous!  I am a 48 yr old man and I used to be strong as an ox.   

 

Pushing through when you have the intolerance is not smart.  People who don't have it just think it will get better by exercising.  All it does is make us worse. It is a very unhealthy, helpless feeling.  I am optimistic it may be better for me this go around as my heart palps have been so much less in intensity.  We shall see.

[[li...]]

Does anyone else get depressed after working out? I am not talking about my crying spell in frustration from the workout itself, but the several days after where I feel incredibly depressed and anxious. It happens every time, without fail. It created a lot of problems in my relationship and that's why I had to stop, aside from how physically awful it was making me feel as well.

 

I'm not sure why this happens, but on top of being in physical pain and exhausted and shaky and whatever else, I also become depressed, emotional, short fuse, etc. for several days after. Might just be a product of not feeling physically good but I don't know. I do hate this.

[Guest [Fu...]]

Does anybody have any good really low intensity yoga links! I did this one from Yoga With Adriene today (

) and it wasn't bad but just that and about 10-15 minutes of shoveling heavy snow has me revved up all afternoon and into the night. It sucks because I love being active and exercising and hate that I can't even do regular yoga routines let alone lift and run. But I want to do something!

 

 

[[Sh...]]

I think everybody reacts different to exercise.  I left yesterday with headache and exteme fatigue for one hour zumba class. It was a real high intensity class but i finished it and felt so much better afterwards. My body doesn't Always work with me but my mental state needs the happiness to dance to feel so much better. I think it's different for everybody. 2 years ago my body was used to dance and teache dance for 10-12 hours a week and i think it really still needs it for that good feeling. Don't have much muscle aches at all and i Always come back with the biggest smile on my face. I was more intolerent to exercising on the higher levels like 10-9-8. Now i worked myself up from September till now from 1 dance to a whole class of 16 songs. It is possible !!!

 

[[li...]]

Anyone who lifts weights here or anything of that sort.. do you take creatine or anything else for workouts?

[[su...]]

Lila, I avoid any supplements like that because I don't want to risk side effects. I'm not a bodybuilder or competitive and I've built plenty of muscle just eating real food and not using whey or anything the magazines advertise.  For me personally, the chemical nature of many of these products makes me feel sick and they taste terrible.  If I had competition goals maybe I'd use them.

[[...]]

I use triflex from gnc for my joints and isolate whey protein by Isoflex for my before bed shake and vega gain protein and greens in the morning with my cereal. I take about 3k calories 120-140gr of protein and 70gr of fat. I walk about 8km a day and lift weights plus 10min interval stationary bike.. 3 days a week.

I do recommend vega gains protein and greens it's easy on the stomach and Ive drank during my whole taper without any side effects

[[Ir...]]

Is it true someone was healed (or so they thought) for a year or so and they engaged in heavy lifting and they ended up throwing themselves back into withdrawal? Are we a slave to this for the rest of our lives?

[[su...]]

Asas, Vega ripped my stomach apart before I tapered and I had to stop using it. I think the maca really bothers me.

Irish, I cannot think of a rational explanation for what you describe.  If benzodiazepine use, withdrawal, and recovery are all the result of chemicals in, chemicals out, and then a rebalancing of chemicals, I have to think once you're done, you're done.  Withdrawal is caused by changes in chemistry.  Exercise also changes chemistry, but why would it mimic the horror of withdrawal?  Maybe it would cause some physical symptoms that are similar, but I can't imagine they'd be long-lasting. 

[[Ir...]]

Asas, Vega ripped my stomach apart before I tapered and I had to stop using it. I think the maca really bothers me.

Irish, I cannot think of a rational explanation for what you describe.  If benzodiazepine use, withdrawal, and recovery are all the result of chemicals in, chemicals out, and then a rebalancing of chemicals, I have to think once you're done, you're done.  Withdrawal is caused by changes in chemistry.  Exercise also changes chemistry, but why would it mimic the horror of withdrawal?  Maybe it would cause some physical symptoms that are similar, but I can't imagine they'd be long-lasting.

 

Something to do with thmy CNS being over sensitive and the weight training stimulating the CNS syst too much? I don't know the full details. It's just what I heard

[[ed...]]

Asas, Vega ripped my stomach apart before I tapered and I had to stop using it. I think the maca really bothers me.

Irish, I cannot think of a rational explanation for what you describe.  If benzodiazepine use, withdrawal, and recovery are all the result of chemicals in, chemicals out, and then a rebalancing of chemicals, I have to think once you're done, you're done.  Withdrawal is caused by changes in chemistry.  Exercise also changes chemistry, but why would it mimic the horror of withdrawal?  Maybe it would cause some physical symptoms that are similar, but I can't imagine they'd be long-lasting.

 

Something to do with thmy CNS being over sensitive and the weight training stimulating the CNS syst too much? I don't know the full details. It's just what I heard

 

Even if it did happen to one person, I certainly wouldn't assume that it would apply to you. Too often we look to isolated worse case incidents as examples of what COULD happen.  The odds are far, far greater that after you're done with this, you'll be able to resume normal activity. Just my opinion.

[[...]]

exercise can flair up wd symptoms if you push too hard and you get really sore muscles

[[Ir...]]

Asas, Vega ripped my stomach apart before I tapered and I had to stop using it. I think the maca really bothers me.

Irish, I cannot think of a rational explanation for what you describe.  If benzodiazepine use, withdrawal, and recovery are all the result of chemicals in, chemicals out, and then a rebalancing of chemicals, I have to think once you're done, you're done.  Withdrawal is caused by changes in chemistry.  Exercise also changes chemistry, but why would it mimic the horror of withdrawal?  Maybe it would cause some physical symptoms that are similar, but I can't imagine they'd be long-lasting.

 

Something to do with thmy CNS being over sensitive and the weight training stimulating the CNS syst too much? I don't know the full details. It's just what I heard

 

Even if it did happen to one person, I certainly wouldn't assume that it would apply to you. Too often we look to isolated worse case incidents as examples of what COULD happen.  The odds are far, far greater that after you're done with this, you'll be able to resume normal activity. Just my opinion.

 

Thanks for that reassurance!

 

Does anyone have balance issues at the gym or while exercising?

[[su...]]

I have balance issues.  Sometimes I have difficulty standing up and kind of fall backwards.  I have also been misjudging where to place my feet on stairs. The last one is the most frightening because I've almost fallen up or down a few times and they were close calls.  I don't feel dizzy though.

[[...]]

that happens to me from time to time, that's why I ride a stationary bike lol