Anxious About Exercise Because of Schizoaffective Disorder

I’ve told you about how exercise helps with my schizoaffective anxiety, but what I haven’t shared is the fact that my schizoaffective anxiety can make exercise stressful. Here’s why.

Why Schizoaffective Anxiety Makes Me Anxious About Exercise

My two favorite forms of exercise are long walks and taking online ballet classes. I absolutely love walking with my husband and with my mom, but they aren’t always available. I used to run every day, but expecting myself to run every single day put a lot of pressure on me, and I decided to look for alternatives. I worry I’m getting to that point with ballet and walking. I actually brought ballet back into the mix because I wasn’t enjoying my walks.

COVID-19 put a mental dent in my walks. Pure and simple. When the delta variant started coming around after more than a year of pandemic, I predicted that it would ruin my walks. And it did, even though I’m vaccinated. Here’s an example: A guy was walking down the sidewalk towards me. He didn’t give any signs of social distancing. So, as always, it was up to me to social distance. As it turned out, the grass I was walking on had mulch in it, so I had to step around the mulch or face messy shoes. I do have some choice words as to what to say to that guy. Something like, “I know this is irrational, but I’m angry at you for being on the sidewalk in my path.” At least he thanked me--bless my silence.

I’m especially worried about my walking now that leaves are starting to turn colors because fall is my favorite season, and last year I loved walking through the autumn wonderland. Will COVID take that away?

You would think that online ballet classes would be the perfect solution to this. Well, as much as I try to move things out of the way in my apartment, sometimes I kick boxes and such. I’ve never kicked anything over--at least nothing that broke. But it is jarring. I like to try different ballet classes, yet most of them don’t work for me and my limited space. So, I guess an easy solution is to repeat the same ballet class I’ve been doing.

Schizoaffective Anxiety and Exercising to Maintain My Weight

The sad thing is that I’m exercising to maintain my weight. I can’t even weigh myself anymore because it ruins my whole day. A couple of years ago, my doctor raised my mood stabilizer a lot, and, at the same time, I was piling on the junk food. So even with exercising every day and all but cutting out sweets, I haven’t lost a pound. I don’t know if the cause is the rise in my mood stabilizer or the junk food that made me gain so much weight ("Schizoaffective Medication and a 20-Pound Weight Gain").

So, I’m feeling pretty discouraged about exercise. One thing I’ve thought of that might help is letting myself have a day off from exercise every week. If you have any tips you’d like to share about exercise, please leave them in the comments below. In the meantime, my antipsychotic medication is at a lower dose, and that may give the exercise and a better nutrition regiment a fighting chance.

See Also

• "Trying to Lose Weight While On a Schizophrenia Medication"
• "Increasing Antipsychotic Medication Despite Weight Gain Risk"
• "Some Antipsychotics, Antidepressants Are Weight Gain in a Pill"