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Exercise 4 Health, Mental Health, and Addiction vs. I worked all that out

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neversickanymore

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Welcome to the Exercise 4 Health, Mental Health, and Addiction thread! The health benefits of exercise are extraordinary. It creates positive differences in so many areas including mental health and addiction recovery. This is a social thread where we can share positive things we have received from exercise. This is a social thread but we are going to allow talk about what drug you are addicted to and how exercise has helped you. So please share any mental health, addiction, life, or health symptoms or conditions and what difference you have experienced by making regular exercise a part of your life. This is also a place to discuss anything exercise related and to socialize about your current exercise routine.

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I can't say enough positive things about exercise and how it has helped my recovery from addiction. I was poly addicted or dependent on opiates, benzos, and cocain. I also suffer from delayed sleep phase disorder and some seasonal affective disorder and have had significant relief due to exercise on all these battles. I have had some severe gen anxiety and social anxiety and Bipolar 2 in the past but have worked through those. I currently work out like five times a week and run and bike for cardio and lift weights as well.
 
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Exercise has helped me tremendously on the first few months of the bad come down I had on Dec 1 2012. TBH, I don't think I would have survived if it wasn't because of exercise and now I am addicted to working out. I also exercise 5 times a week and try switching it up by attending dance classes, zumba classes, volleyball or running. The weather is not as good as summer time so I am not able to run outside but there's always the gym. I have plans on going into cardio kickboxing after a couple of months or so to get a better cardio endurance.

I actually have a dance class tonight ;)
 
I dunno where ppl get the motivation to go for a run? how?
plus im out of breath quick
 
It feels amazing!! Every sweat feels great and the calories you lose damnn!
 
It takes a little bit to start to not hurt as much when you are actually working out and your sore for a few days.. but even then you feel just amazing. the stress and anxiety and depression are reduced so much.. and then when your in decent shape the workout itself is really fun.. after like ten minutes or so of aerobic exercise the endorphin change in the brain is really pleasurable.. it so pleasurable that I kinda crave it and definately miss it on days I dont work out.. I can honestly say that I feel so much better on the days I get the workout done.
 
^ that is so true. I've never worked out as much in my entire life compared to now and the amazing feeling of feeling good about yourself is definitely encouraging me to do more.
 
Exercise is currently the only thing keeping me going - I have nothing to do and nobody to hang out with right now, so without exercise I would probably be miserable enough that I might relapse on insanity, and then relapse on drugs after not thinking clearly anymore.

about 5 days ago I started running everyday, only for about 15 minutes a day so far but holy shit the difference is real and drastic already. How I feel physically as well as mentally has improved ten fold. On top of the running I have been doing sit-ups and pushups everyday, and today not only did I go running but I went to a 60 minute yoga class - And I can already tell this is the beginning of some miraculous for me. I'll quote myself from the January Staying Sober thread in SL, posted earlier today after the yoga class:

Yoga was really spiritual today. I focused on my breathing all class and tried to almost meditate while doing the yoga, then at the end the teacher read a spiritual quote and played a tibetan singing bowl for a minute. Sitting there meditating at the end, with the ringing from the bowl reverberating intensely all around the room and seemingly through my entire body, a feeling came over me - For quite possibly the first time in my life, I felt an overwhelming awareness of being completely in the moment. Nothing mattered, nothing else was real - nothing that has happened in the past, nothing that I am expecting to happen in the future, in that exact moment, there was just a incomprehensible sense of quite simply nothing. And it was blissful...

If I can get to that place, that feeling, once a day even just for a moment, then I might just become okay with everything else that is happening, has happened, and will probably happen. I think I'm going to pursue spirituality just as much as I am pursuing physical fitness right now. If anything is ever going to make me truly happy, it will come from within myself and I won't reach that place without spiritual growth. edit - as well as physical conditioning

Sooo I think I'm on to something with the working out and yoga, and I am going to continue making this a daily routine. For the first time, basically ever, I have a real desire to get myself into really good shape physically. And Unlike before I did drugs, I am no longer overweight - quite the opposite, which is going to make getting into great physical shape something attainable in the very near future. I am finally starting to care about my body, and have a desire to take care of it and treat myself well rather than go on being self destructive. So anyway, I'll keep this thread updated with what I'm doing and in turn what it's doing for me. :)

(I think I'm about to go take a couple pictures with no shirt on, and then one month from today I want to post before and after shots)
 
Thats a good idea. I think I should also do that in a month or so, the before and after kinda thing so you can compare how much hard work pays off
 
Exactly! I can't fucking believe I'm saying this but I actually can't wait until tomorrow morning when I can go do Yoga and run/work out again. The idea of comparing the pictures I just took to a picture I'll take in a month is something I'm really looking forward to, not just to see for myself but to show other people and hopefully inspire them to start working on physical health as well. I'd encourage others to do the same thing if they are also newly trying to get fit.


Question - I still have loose skin from when I was overweight in middle school/early high school. although it's been at least 4 years since I've been remotely overweight, I haven't done anything but drugs in those years, no exercising. So my question is whether or not there's a chance I will lose some of the extra skin through exercise? Any input would be appreciated. It's not like I used to be 555 pounds obese, I don't have huge flabs of extra skin hanging down - Just loose/kinda saggy skin around my stomach and butt mostly. I know I can expect to see a small improvement from muscle gain, but is it possible to actually work off the extra skin similar to working off fat?
 
I think you will add the muscle that meant to be there and it should fill in nice. My legs are already getting pretty big:)
 
yep nsa is right

I cant wait for my workout tomorrow too. My personal trainer gave me a list of the program i should be doing. I am not sure if i can do my program tomorrow but I am also doing a 3 day beach body challenge and if im too sore from yesterdays workout I will just do that 30 day beach body challenge plus cardio
 
You might be right about my stomach filling in with muscle and looking firm, but I don't have the same faith in my ass area. All the men in my family have no ass whatsoever lol. It's not something I care a whole lot about, not self conscious at all but the fact is that from my back to my ankles is totally flat. (pants don't stay up even when i have a belt...that flat) So I'm not sure how much will get filled in with muscle in that area. Time will tell though. Like I said I'm not so worried about it, more just curious. I guess being covered in stretch marks for years and the fact that I'm NOT fat anymore made it so that I really am comfortable with the way I look.


But hey, just cause I'm comfortable now doesn't mean I won't be comfortable if/when I work my way to being damn sexy! :p
 
^lol squats maybe?

See I'm asian so I don't have a huge bum but I think compared to a typical asian mine is aight but maybe that's coz I'm a bit of a mix?

I've always been voluptuos and for so many years I hated how my body looked ofc a woman would always want to look good and compare herself to a skinny one but I've realized that I should appreciate my body and just tone it and it'll be all good.

I'm well endowed on the chest area though so I guess that compensates it?
 
^ I'm sure you look amazing Maya! :)

This may just be my opinion but i think most girls have body image problems because of mainstream media advertising all these fake, airbrushed and disgustingly skinny women as being what's beautiful. When in reality 99% of women don't look like that and what's really considered beautiful has no real standard to be compared by... It's all perspective.

Hence why I'm being realistic with my fitness goals. I don't want to "GET YOLKEDDDDD" and look like the guy on a package of Hanes boxers, I just want to be physically fit and tone(more importantly, functionally fit). Huge muscles would be the stereotypical ideal, but I'm not really interested in that. Anyway, the point was to just do/be what you personally want to be and not worry about stereotypical ideals.
 
^yes definitely spot on there.

Iam actually quite amazed at the responses of some of the men here on bl and I'm glad that your response and a few others like nsa are very right on the bat. The media has portrayed beauty in such a manner that women see beauty as someone who should have a perfect body and this results more to insecurities and other issues. Thanks to your replies and I'm now also realistic on my goals.

I'm working more on my entire body I did not use dumbbells before so when I trained yesterday It was pretty intense for me and I'm quite sore atm. Bt no pain no gain right
 
U2 did an amazing thing along this idea.. they took these portions of pictures of women.. little slices of pictures.. I think it was to Miss Sarajevo but I could be wrong on this.. but they kept showing these images.. and in they looked like pictures of models.. but in the end they showed what the pictures were of.. they were pictures of victims of the holocaust.. starving people.. thats what women are told is beautiful.. starving people.. or at least thats what I got from it.. I like strong healthy women.
 
Indeed, Maya no pain no gain - Which is also the way I'm trying to look at the other things going on in my life right now. It's not going to change overnight but If I respond to negative feelings with positive actions, then maybe eventually thinking will become more positive too. After all, "You can't fix your fucked up way of thinking with your fucked up way of thinking". Gotta ACT your way to better living, cause thinking your way there will leave you with nothing but hopes and dreams.


Anyway I'm glad you're looking at things from a positive perspective! Keep at it. I've been sore everyday since monday, and I'm hoping to still be sore by next friday cause if I am then it means I'm doing something right!

It feels really good to be doing something for myself. I have hated myself for so many years and it's finally lifting.. I am actually thrilled to be working towards how I want myself to look and feel physically, rather than worrying about how i think I should look and feel and not doing anything about it.


Edit- I heard about that NSA. The message is so true... I have been with a ridiculously skinny girl before and honestly I didn't enjoy it very much. She was weak and bony. Hence, painful and boring. I've always had the most fun with physically fit and healthy women, and mainstream portrayal of women is either anorexic or legit fit and healthy but someone who gets paid to do nothing but eat healthy and work out 24/7. Either way, unrealistic.
 
^Ditto!

Do you have a program that you are following at the moment? I think it helps if you have a set program and some focus exercises that you need your body to get into so that you get to your goal a bit faster. And of course diet has a big factor as well in losing or maintaining weight. I am so happy and so proud of myself that I have not anything unhealthy for the past week and I am sticking to vegetables lean meat and fruits ;)
 
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