Okay, so without getting into my long-winded back-story I am 30 and was diagnosed with GAD (+panic attacks) in 2001. I have had a long hard road of healing from it (which is absolutely possible) and have not had a panic attack in a couple years and my day-to-day anxiety is pretty much non-existent and has been for the past year and a half. Though I still have lingering health-anxiety that gets worse or better based on how I feel, which is sort of what leads me to my current situation and question.
I need to get in shape and exercise. There are many reasons for me to - such as wanting to be healthy and here for my kids and wife, hopefully getting rid of my anxiety forever, and just feeling better.
Here are the factors I have going against me: a.) I smoke and have for 15 years..really trying to quit within the next month, b.) I am way out of shape because of the smoking, plus I am fairly sedentary bc I work on computers, websites, etc. and am also a FT student at Liberty University and am at the computer a lot for that as well, and c.) I have not exercised in many years and, while I used to play sports and whatnot, I never really exercised per se at any point in my life.
So today I started a little routine to ease myself back into exercising. I know with my situation I need to take it easy at first. So I took the kids and went for a 1 and 1/3 mile walk that was mostly uphill. I did okay and really did not get winded, but I did have some weird symptoms that I wanted to ask folks in here about.
Whenever I am doing any type of activity that is physical, my vision gets kinda cloudy and I feel kinda off-balance a little bit (I also have BPPV, a type of vertigo that comes and goes). This gets worse as I do more rigorous activity. Now, these syptoms are similar to feelings that I get when I get the anxiety "going", but I am curious if this happens to anyone else when they are exercising.
I do know that I have had a sort of anxious feeling about exercising for quite some time because I feel like bc I am so out of shape something is going to happen to me (like passing out or something). More than likely these feelings are more a sum of the parts of what my situation is, but I was pretty much look for thoughts from others who may be in the same situation. Thanks!
Mike