I am a person who fell into a seriously sedentary lifestyle over the past few years. The pandemic exacerbated it. I used to exercise frequently as a teenager, and I was an excellent athlete in school sports. I was struggling hard with my anxiety disorder then, but I saw the value in moving my body and my fears were never related to my health. I am fortunately a healthy young woman. I have no issues every time I get comprehensive bloodwork done, I have no illnesses, everything in my body works great and I’m fortunate for that. However since I have been having a really hard time with GAD/cyclothymia/ADHD over the past several years, I have been putting on weight and moving less. 

Today I exercised for the first time in a very very long time. I forgot how good it feels. However, about 40 minutes into it I stopped because I started to get very very anxious. I was concerned that while lifting weights I would do something like sever an artery in my neck or give myself a stroke from working too hard. I wasn’t even working that hard, it was easing into it. Now I am so afraid to exercise even though I know that it is something that will set my mind and my body free. Does anybody else deal with this?