"Treatment-Resistant" Aversion to Physical Activity (solutions desired)

Hello.

You may know me from the sub-forums of the great HipForums that I frequent more often which include all of the drug-related forums, the music-related forums, and mental-health forums. This is one of those rare occasions I dare post something 'of my own' somewhere different.

I come to you all today to ask for some ideas in regards to not dreading, hating, avoiding, or otherwise fiercely despising physical activity. I am 24 years old (male) and I am not fat. I am overweight by a few pounds, but that is not my concern. My desire to incorporate physical activity into my life is simply for health reasons.

A good number of my ancestors (more than half) died of heart-related problems. I also take five medications (I have Schizoaffective Disorder) which all "screw with" my physical well-being to various degrees. I would simply like to have a "buffer" of my own so that I am not so incredibly vulnerable to physical problems. Basically...I am like a frail, 90-year-old woman, but I just look like an ordinary, nondescript, 24-year old man.

The problem arises when I try to incorporate any activities. This is something I have struggled with my whole life. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have started some sort of physical activity and then abruptly terminated it a week later. The times when I HAVE lasted longer, I ended up developing some sort of awful psychological depressive phase related to how much I dreaded exercising.

For example, my parents forced me to run cross-country in Middle School. I was very good at it, actually. But I hated it with a passion. I mean...I fucking despised it. I ended up sinking into some of my worst depressive phases of my life when cross-country season would come up. I would spend the entire day dreading the run. During the run, I was so pissed off that the anger in combination with the elevated heart-rate from running scared me so much I thought I was having heart problems. Then afterwards, I got incredibly depressed until I fell asleep.

That is just one example of dozens. I have tried "formal" exercise, "fun" exercise, and just walking or non-sitting-down-all-day in general.

I believe a big part of it is simply that, unlike many people, exercise does not make me feel good mentally. It does make me feel physically more "capable" I suppose, but it actually lowers my mood and increases my anger/rage. Also, most of my medications are sedating so it is very hard to get the ball rolling.

Anyways, please write a response if you think you may have a solution to my problem. I am well aware that I simply may never enjoy physical activity, and, therefore will likely only live until my late 60s or early 70s. And that is fine...at least I will be happy. But I often dream of living until I am 90 or older.

Thank you.

 

Well cardio is best for combating heart disease my friend,findsomethingfunyou can enjoy,kayaking,canoeing, hiking, rock climbing. Work on you're core, while watching Tv whatever.. Look up planks. Get outside and just walk around mate! To start off easy...go without sitting......

 

you may want to try a milder form of exercise, such as taking a brisk walk for at least a 1/2 hour every day

I use to do a lot of biking and in-line skating. ridiculous amounts. until after continuing these hard workouts for a while, I found that I would get incredibly tired afterwards - like it would take me 3 days to recover

according to traditional chinese medicine, sweating too much can drain you of your energy. when I switched to walking, I got much better results. I would exercise up to the point of just breaking a very light sweat.

 

play the bass with weights on your arms and legs..

 

I agree that I need to find something active that I enjoy. However, every time I try something "new" hoping that it might just be "the" activity to get my in-to exercise, I end up hating it.

Plus, the fact that my cardiovascular system is in such bad shape, means that even very, very light activity (for most people) causes me to sweat buckets, increase my heart rate to around 180-190, and exhausts me completely. Even walking is hard for me since I live in a very hilly area (my house is on top of a very large hill in fact...).

But I MUST find something or else I will die in my 60s like I said. Funny orison mentioned my bass playing! In fact, I actually DO get in a good work-out if I am playing bass with my jazz band. I will get mildly sweaty (not too much), my heart beats fast (not too fast), and my forearms kill me, but I enjoy it because I love the music. Perhaps I need to just convince my band to practice more often.

Please continue to help me out.

 

I might be able to help if you want help

 

ever thought of trying yoga? it really is a great workout. its not just stretching. its amazing how much heat your body can generate doing those postures. it may also be good for your particular mental issues with exercising.