How do you get up to exercise?

bbwvixen
on 5/1/14 10:34 am - Surrey, Canada

I'm a full time student, my mom just died, and I'm dealing with PTSD and chronic depression. My solution is to hide and sleep thru it, or eat my way thru it.

I can barely move some days, how do I get the motivation to exercise?

    

            
Hislady
on 5/2/14 6:32 am - Vancouver, WA

 I'm so sorry that you are going thru such a difficult time, sometimes life is just plain hard! I hope you are getting treatment and medication for your depression and PTSD, they can be very helpful.

As for motivation if I had a really good answer I'd be a zillionaire! However what I do is get super organized about it and set a particular time to do it. I also get a notebook set up with what ever I'm doing, if I'm riding my stationary bike I keep track of minutes or miles. When I'm doing strength training I keep track of how many reps and sets I'm doing and how much weight I'm using. For me if I don't get very disciplined about it I just tend to find excuses not to do it. Remember that getting exercise also helps with the depression by releasing endorphins. I wish you the best and just remember one step at a time and you'll end up somewhere new and probably even better. Good luck to you!

swimcheryl
on 6/8/14 4:05 pm

bbwvixen, I am so sorry to hear everything you're going through. I too suffer have depression and PTSD. I initially wrote that I "suffered from depression and PTSD", but decided to change that wording because I am no longer suffering. 

The best advice I can give you is to literally take stock of your life, Pick yourself up by the bootstraps and get some help! This is your life and you DESERVE happiness.

Find yourself a program that can teach you how to live every day to th fullest. I hit my rock bottom emotionally a couple of years ago. I was dealing with a past that includes sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse. Until I met my husband every man that should have treasured and protected me from birth had abused me. I literally couldn't stop crying, I cried constantly. 

I got in touch with my HMO and they found me counseling. I went to outpatient counseling five days a week four hours a day. Interspersed with group therapy I had one on one counseling and met with a psychiatrist for medication management. I did not want to g to all of that counseling. I didn't want to change out of pajamas or brush my teeth let alone leave the house. I forced myself to go because I didn't want to die and I knew that if I did nothing I would.

  It was the best thing I've ever done for myself in my whole life. I hated every minute of it. I ranted, sometimes hatefully, at the people that ran the group. By the end I had tools to deal with life again. My love for myself had been restored.

Please get yourself some help, you are worth it!

Hislady
on 6/11/14 3:44 am - Vancouver, WA

  Well put!

JRDD
on 12/28/14 6:01 pm

I fought depression for years, tried all kinds of meds to no avail.  Then my doc put me on Savella for fibro and my depression evaporated, it doesn't do jack for my fibro, but is great for the depression.  I have also fought the "how do I get myself to exercise" demon for years as well.  I had all but given up, but everyone kept nagging me about it and my doc really wanted me to try water exercise (not swimming, water aerobics).  I finally did it and it is awesome.  The pool I use is a heated sal****er pool at the local YMCA.  The people in my class are so nice and the weightlessness of being in the water is wonderful and water time is fibro pain free time for me.  So I actually look forward to going.  Keep trying different exercise options until you find one that works best for you.

bbwvixen
on 5/23/15 6:12 pm - Surrey, Canada

Here I am a year later and not much has changed. I do see a therapist a couple of times a month, and am on several medications.

Also trying LDN for the fibro which is a hit and miss.

I wake up some days (like today) and it hurts to even close my fingers, my neck, my lower back spasms, constant headache blah blah blah. It's like when I do try to get healthy, something physical screws up and I can't do diddle again.

I really wanted to get into kickboxing with my DH, (he used to teach) but my knee has been re injured.

    

            
Hislady
on 5/29/15 9:52 pm - Vancouver, WA

Oh I hear ya I'm in my sixties and I had planned on being that happy, healthy, active gramma that took the kids on vaca and did all kinds of field trips with them. Or spending time with hubby traveling to our favorite spots around the country! But where am I?

I am stuck basically bed ridden because I have COPD(bad lungs)on oxygen 24/7, fell and am left with a fractured spine that didn't heal right so more pain there, a-fib with my heart so can't get to physically active at least that doesn't hurt!, gastroparesis bad stomach doesn't digest right so I end up with horrendous gut pain every time I eat. So I don't want to eat which is of course causing weight loss that I really don't need anymore.

All of that on top of the fibro that never lessens or calms down. Had a lapband but it was causing pain too like I didn't have enough, got it removed a year ago only to end up with the gastroparesis from it! So now I have no WLS and can't stop losing weight, what's up with that? Like you I did all this to get healthy and I'm in the worst health of my whole life.

I finally decided if I'm gonna be stuck in bed I may as well try to do something constructive so I knit and crochet hats for the homeless and dog sweaters to sell and buy more yarn for hats. It's something I can do to boost my mood and hopefully help those less fortunate, but yep there are days I wake up and say why the hell am I even still here? There must be some reason but I guess maybe it's to make hats who knows? I just try to look on the bright side when my fingers are so sore I can barely bend them. Some days are way harder than others but ya gotta just keep putting one foot in front of the other one and hope for a better day soon. Keep on trying and who knows where we will end up maybe we will be rich and famous or poor and on the midnight news with my luck!! Good to hear from you, check in again soon!!

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