Does anyone deal with anxiety here?

amen bruv. hood rules basketball

bump for advice

A few mantras:

>people usually can't remember what other people do
>just smile and people will leave you alone

It depends. More specifically what are you anxious about OP, or are you just anxious in general?

cognitive behavioral therapy and meditaiton
Back in March when I was tapering off all my harmful psychopharm meds, the withdrawal caused me to have crazy moodswings. I'd be lifitng when all of a sudden for no reason at all I would have to choke back tears.
>it's an abstract kind of feel.jpg

The gym is the only place I don't feel anxiety.

I wasn't even coming off anything. I'd go in pissed off at ex and hating the world, a song would come on reminding me, and I didn't even try to stop it. Wouldn't have worked anyway. Kind of feeling the onset of it while typing this. Hate people sometimes.

Quit caffeine, eat clean, meditate and expose yourself directly to what gives you anxiety to begin with

>Headphones
>Be about your business

Remind yourself that 99.9% of the people at the gym are too self-absorbed to ever notice anyone else anyways.

wow user, you're a fucking pussy!

I got really anxious about going to the gym when I moved into a new city and got a membership to a commerical gym. People are pretty weak there so they literally stare at any +2pl8 deadlift. Im currently working back to 5 plate and that staring makes me overthink my form.

Normies pls get out.

Don't care.

I built one in my home

Before that, headphones.

This guy speaks the unadulterated truth

Meditation doesn't seem to do shit for me.

Alright brosky here's what you do:

Between sets always:
Breathe in 4 seconds
Hold 7 seconds
Breathe out 8

Do this 3-4 times between each set

During sets:
Breath out as you push or pull
Breath in as you reset

The breathing shit helps just cause it takes your mind off of the other people there.

Also do 10-15 of decently difficult cardio. inb4 cardio kills your gains... whatever, what cardio WILL do though is release some nice happy chemicals into your body so when you get into the meat of your actual exercise you feel a bit more relaxed.

Also, stay fucking hydrated, I'm not sure about normal people but dehydration triggers almost immediate anxiety in me, (and makes my fingers swell dunno) so drink water.

Also make sure to sleep good, lack of sleep will spark anxiety as well.

Also don't eat shitty food, I don't know why but for me at least Donuts or anything with super high sugar and fat makes me anxiety the fuck out

There is also prescription stuff which helps and is great once you find something that works but that takes insurance and a bunch of visits to the doctor person.

Drink 8 beer and your anxiety will be almost gone

So will your gains

suck it up

I drink 12 everyday and make gains just fine

Not at the gym, but everywhere else.

Wouldn't say I deal with it, just drink too much and try to do my best normie impression.

OP here. Yeah. The anxiety comes from my PTSD, it's pretty severe and comes with OCD.

Working out and lifting has definitely helped lessen these but it gets bad when I am in the gym. I guess something about feeling like I'm always hyper aware of other people. It isn't outwardly apparent, but I'm constantly on the defense.

Sometimes I get caught off guard by my reflection even.

The last thing I want to do is take meds again. Last time I did, it was real bad.

I'll def cut out coffee. I don't drink it often so it will be easy to cut it out. I love that stuff but I love not feeling like I'm having a heart attack more.

Breh, you are awesome. Thanks so much. I'm going to include this in my routine.

Iktf bro I used to drink a lot of coffee and it really messed with my anxiety

I know that feel

>was depressed before breakup, lost job, had to move back home, felt like a bum and had no direction in life.
>only good thing left was gf
>she leaves me
>self confidence hits an all time low (as in nothing about me or my life has any value whatsoever and I will never be anything more than a failure)
>feel like I am telegraphing my misery and worthlessness like a beacon
>anxiety returns with a vengeance
>started lifting just before breakup and now is the only thing left that makes me feel anything good about myself
>mfw 1.5 years later I'm in the best physical shape of my life but at my mental lowest point

How is this shit even possible?

Damn, meng. I'm so sorry to hear about that. I guess take the bad with the good? Things are gonna start looking up.

That's what i always say to get through the day. You're gonna make it, bruh.

Whats up with caffeine?

>muh morning cups

I really hope so, before I even had the job that I got fired from or the gf I'd been depressed for quite some time due to a multitude of really heavy and scaring life events. Graduating and getting that job and a girl made me start to think things were getting better
Then I was back to square one and I took that really hard.
no job, no independance, no gf (mfw), no drive.
Next thing 2 months later my father is diagnosed with cancer while my ex goes on holiday to greece and later on we have to put down my 18 year old dog.
It kinda feels like I got knocked into the mud 8 years ago and have constantly been getting kicked while I'm down.
Having said that I definitely do have a future ahead of me as long as I don't let this misery swallow me up, dad's strong as fuck and beating the fuck out of this cancer (his build was basically what I aspired to when I first started lifting) and I'm doing great in my 2nd degree.
Just gotta hold on for another 2.5 years that's all.

That's rough. Gotta keep reminding yourself that every shitty situations builds character. Look for the lesson in it. Hope things get better for you, and they will if you keep that attitude.

JEEZ GOD DAMN IT

Anyone have people staring at you hard at the gym? It's like I have a giant flashing neon sign on me that says "LOOK HERE AND STARE AT FOR AN UNCOMFORTABLY LONG TIME"
Why can't people just mind their own business?
I'm a guy btw

its just your imagination

unless you do retarded stuff , great lifts or some shit you would stare is just your mind fucking with you

No one gives a fuck about other people

atleast for me the gym is a place where you work your self , not to socialize or some other shit than working out

...

Not Op or some mental retarded fag , but i always get conection error on that board

anyone knows why? :(

Do what I do.
>headphones blaring
>look pissed off and directly ahead or at floor

I already do this, lol

I started lifting in my country club gym, would go 8 pm before closing and 99% of the time no one would be there. that alone was a big motivator to actually get me to the gym and do babbylifts

I'm 6'1 and 175 on a good day, could pass for skinnyfat with nice legs if it weren't for my mantits (thanks mom) so I still run in baggy tops of some type of light hoodie if its chilly.

socially I take a xanax when I go out to bars, to help with not stuttering and to prevent my face from going numb, I used to take it every night for sleep, but thankfully I'm down to maybe .5 mg every 3 days

Me too, I think its because of the chrome extension I use for Veeky Forums.
HOLY FUCK get in a hospital when you start withdrawing pal. Actually get in a hospital now and let them taper you for fuck sake

I had a double-whammy of depression and anxiety, and I've been struggling with it basically my whole adult life. Since I've started getting into shape, I hardly feel it anymore.

I was TERRIFIED when I first went to the gym. My PT tried to get me to use the Leg Press, but I'd avoid it like the plague because I was too scared to put any weights on it, or take weights off, in case people saw me. Now I use it, and I don't give a fuck if people think I'm a DYEL.

Sure, I struggle with heavy weights, and I can feel myself starting to get down about it between sets, but I just suck it up and get it done. I'm making progress, and I feel good about that.

So I guess the secret is to find something about your progress to feel good about, and focus on that. Maybe you've got a new personal best. Maybe you self-mired yourself in the mirror. Maybe you saw someone who lifts even less than you, and you think to yourself "wow, that used to be me".

I thought for years that maybe I needed to go on medication. The truth was, all I needed was something to feel proud of.

completely let go, your emotions and anxiety gotta get really bad for most people to actually let go.

i still have anxiety on some level except im no longer afraid of it

I have bad news for you, you are still retarded. You should find mistakes to feel bad about, flaws, not this retarded stuff. IE: Johnny feels good about himself, he objectively look for good things about him, Johnny has now desensitized his dopamine receptors and is now an unmotivated narcissist.

Hey, I'm just trying to be nice to OP. Trust me, I make plenty of mistakes.

The gym is the cure for anxiety, man

I developed anxiety and a severe stutter around age 18-19... if the speech impediment doesn't go away soon I'm thinking about offing myself

>can't go to law school
>can't teach as an academic
>can't work in law enforcement, armed forces, search and rescue, or intelligence agencies

it all developed right around the time I started training hard and overdeveloping my muscles and drinking coffee on a daily basis. I've tried cutting out coffee for a week and the problem still persists. SSRIs just make it worse. Therapy is expensive as hell and only helps a bit. I've tried CBT and flooding myself with leadership roles and extracirriculars but that only exacberates the issue.

I find that the gym is my "safe" space though. I get in the zone and just do what I'm good at. My friends who I talk to there already know I have these problems so I don't have to put on an act or be afraid of being "found out".

I'm hoping I can turn this around in the next year otherwise I'm facked.

what do

I lift

The more i lift and the stronger i get the weaker anxiety becomes

Good shyt

Fuck man I've developed a little stutter lately and I don't know why or how.

Every now and then I'll just stutter for a couple of words. It's getting more and more frequent.

For you it's probably not a permanent thing. Stuttering usually is a problem of pacing and breath control. Focus more on slowing down and taking in sufficient air and expelling it properly during speech.

For me it's a whole other issue, like a glitch in my brain. Sometimes I've barely intelligible.

Idk, I mostly zone the fuck out between sets thousand-yard stare I'm dead inside kind of look on my face. I used to listen to music but it messed with my spacial awareness and actually made it more awkward because I'd bump into people who were in my blind spots.

Just chilling without earphones makes me more alert so in a sense it makes me calmer for some reason. As far as social anxiety when having to interact with people, direct eye contact and speaking clearly helps. I avoid small talk jokes because I usually bomb but also I am for real am dead inside.