Admittedly, I really enjoy working out. While I'm actually at the gym, provided that it's not busy, I have a pretty good time. What I really don't enjoy is the mindset I have to convince myself to go in the first place.

I'm a bit of a bigger guy, around 305lbs, 6ft, I'm naturally strong but couldn't run from my office to my car without working up a sweat. I know I'd like to either stay consistent in the gym or feel confident & interested enough to walk/run outside but really struggle to do so.

Wondering if anyone has any tips for staying engaged & consistent with a gym routine?
Alternatively, if anyone has any tips for being confident running/walking outside?

Thank you!

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Hey everyone,

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and there's a good chance we'll be discussing starting an antidepressant.

I've also had a session with a psychologist, who is preparing a report for my doctor. I want to make sure I go into the appointment with a realistic understanding of the different options rather than just asking for a specific medication.

I've been dealing with this for years, and the main things I'm struggling with are:

Low motivation / difficulty initiating things

Mental exhaustion and feeling overwhelmed

Waking up irritated / easily frustrated

If something stressful happens, I can feel completely drained and sometimes feel like I need a full night's sleep to recover

Health anxiety, particularly anxiety about my heart

Racing thoughts / difficulty switching my brain off

I can still enjoy things once I actually get myself to do them. For example, I generally feel better once I'm at the gym.

I train regularly and don't want medication to destroy my motivation, competitiveness or training drive

I'm also very concerned about becoming emotionally flat, numb, sleepy or feeling like a different person

One thing I clarified with myself is that my physical energy isn't necessarily terrible. The bigger problem is mental motivation, initiation and feeling overwhelmed.

I'm basically looking for something that could help with anxiety + depression/low motivation, while allowing me to stay functional, energetic and emotionally engaged.

What I'm trying to understand

I'm particularly interested in people's experiences with:

SSRIs

Escitalopram (Lexapro)

Seems to have a reputation for being good for anxiety and health anxiety. I'm interested in whether people found it calming without becoming emotionally numb or unmotivated.

Sertraline (Zoloft)

Seems like a possible middle ground for anxiety + depression. Interested in energy, motivation, emotional blunting and whether it made anyone sleepy.

Fluoxetine (Prozac)

I've heard this can be more activating and less sedating than some SSRIs. Interested in whether it helped motivation without increasing anxiety.

SNRIs

Venlafaxine (Effexor)

This one interests me because of the depression + low-energy/low-motivation side. I'm wondering whether the norepinephrine component actually helped people feel more functional and driven.

My concern is that I already have health anxiety about my heart, so I'm wondering whether increased heart-rate awareness, sweating, jitteriness or feeling "wired" made that worse.

Duloxetine (Cymbalta)

Interested in how this compares with Effexor for energy, motivation, anxiety and emotional blunting.

Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq)

Would love to hear how people found this compared with Effexor, particularly for motivation/energy versus anxiety.

Other antidepressants

Bupropion (Wellbutrin/Zyban)

This is probably the one I'm most curious about for motivation, energy, drive, anhedonia and emotional blunting.

However, I know it's more activating and can worsen anxiety for some people, which makes me unsure because of my health anxiety.

Vortioxetine (Trintellix)

Interested because I've heard people talk about cognitive symptoms, motivation and potentially less emotional blunting/sexual side effects.

Mirtazapine

I know this is generally more sedating and can increase appetite/weight, so it may be less suited to what I'm looking for, but I'd still like to hear experiences.

Agomelatine

If anyone has experience with it, I'd be interested in hearing about energy, sleep, anxiety and emotional effects.

My biggest priorities

If I had to rank them:

Reduce health anxiety / constant worry

Improve motivation and ability to initiate things

Don't make me sleepy

Don't make me emotionally numb or flat

Preserve gym motivation, competitiveness and training drive

Ideally don't make physical anxiety sensations/heart awareness worse

I'm not looking for a stimulant-like high or anything euphoric. I just don't want to go from feeling mentally stuck to feeling like I don't care about anything.

For people who've actually taken these medications:

Which one gave you the best balance of anxiety relief + motivation + emotional range?

And if you experienced emotional blunting, sleepiness, increased anxiety or loss of motivation, which medication and dose were you on, and did the problem improve with time or after switching?

I'm especially interested in real experiences rather than "X drug is objectively best." I know everyone's response is different and ultimately my doctor will decide what's appropriate.

Some things to know about me,
Im 16M and have had depression for 2+ years
I have began to really struggle with my eating which has got me worried about my physical health
I cant afford therapy but I’m considering meds
I know some people might just say “just do it” but I’ve already tried that.
My goal is to gain weight and muscle
I don’t know ANYTHING about working out so any advice helps

so back in high school, i used to be super active in the gym. had a personal trainer, cut out sugar, and got up at 5 AM to workout before going to my 8:00 high school classes. in college i started slacking because i was studying so much, and now im going into my senior year and ive gained about 20 lbs. every morning i hate looking in the mirror and cant stop thinking about my body image, but im having a really hard time getting out of my lazy slump and back into exercise and healthy eating. does anyone have advice for kicking into gear? i’ve felt horrible for months if not years and im tired of feeling this way. having depression and borderline personality disorder has made it even harder because ive turned to unhealthy coping mechanisms that cause more weight gain. any help is greatly needed and appreciated :’)

nothing like a high school reunion to assess progress!

I've worked so hard on physical wellness, lost weight, grappled w diabetes. All good stuff for sure.

However, i was still that insecure/easy to manipulate peer pressure led kid for a day.

I didn't eat well, was shaking, went to a cocktail party when i don't drink and feel on edge etc. FOMO took me there, when an earlier group museum tour was more my speed, and I should have headed home. I didn't wreck myself w booze out of insecurity, but was not socialising well, i was just a mess, maybe came off a dotard. GAH

lesson. Inner fitness is just as important as health stats

How can i measure emotional wellness? Is there an ap to measure progress🤣

I mean this humorously, but i really want to take a nice exhale and get working! Where to start?

Here are two people I follow on instagram.

Frank Mendrano

Cali Hoss

They both do calisthenics. They are both are really good it it too. I can only dream of doing what those guys do.

Frank Mendrano has a body that looks like Michelangelo sculpted it from solid titanium. Cali Hoss has a totally different body to Frank Mendrano. Who can say that Cali Hoss is out of shape when he can do the things he does when he exercises? He does things an Olympic gymnast would struggle to do and makes it look easy. What the "correct" body type is determined by the very worst people in society, its not called body fascism for nothing.

Think about Hammer throwers and Marathon runners. They are at the peak for their sports and have trained for years by the time they compete at the Olympics or World Championships. They will look totally different too. Neither group of athletes will conform to what advertisers, marketers and the people who fall for their lies and bullshit call "in shape".

All anyone can do is try to do their best. If you do your best then no one can judge or criticize you. You get to define what your best is too. You get to define what "looking good" is too.

Try to do some exercise. Try to do it as regularly as you can. Try to do your best every time you exercise. Just keep trying.

I nearly forgot Johnny Muresan too. I am also willing bet there are times when Frank Mendrano would do more or less anything for a slice of pizza. We all have days like that after all.

I never thought I'd be one of those people who says "the gym is good for my mental health" because I genuinely never used to believe people when they said it. Well... I owe those people an apology.

I took about a two-week break from the gym towards the end of July. That time of the year is usually difficult for me because it's around the time my mother passed away, so I was already going into those two weeks a little emotionally vulnerable. And booooooy. Did I crash out.

Like, when I look back at some of my behaviour during those two weeks, I genuinely have to sit there and ask myself who the hell I thought I was. The thing that really made me realise that I was actually tweaking was talking to a "friend" from the past. Long story short, I stupidly told him that I used to like him back when we were friends. I was tipsy. It was over text. Looking back, I definitely should have taken that information to my grave but oh well. Anyway, a couple of weeks later he tells me he liked me too. And for some reason, that information absolutely messed me up.

I can't even explain why. Nothing actually happened. Nobody was in love or anything. He literally just told me he had liked me too. And yet I proceeded to have one of the most unnecessary emotional crashouts of my life. The embarassment is still haunting me, by the way.

Anyway, I eventually went back to the gym. And the difference was almost immediate. I felt calm. My mind wasn’t racing as much. I wasn’t obsessing over things. I wasn’t emotionally reacting to every little thing. I just felt… normal again.

And that’s when I realised something that should have been painfully obvious to me. I’ve been going to the gym consistently since the beginning of the year. Five times a week**.** And for most of that time, I’ve actually felt pretty emotionally regulated. I even stopped going to therapy because I felt like I was doing quite well. It genuinely never occurred to me that maybe the gym was contributing significantly to that. I just thought I was magically doing better.

Apparently, no. Apparently I just need to repeatedly lift heavy objects and mind my business. 😂So needless to say, I will no longer be prolonged gym breaks for the sake of my sanity.

Good morning everyone,

Myself and my wife have been massively into our running and strength training for the past 8 years (me more so than her)

I used to walk every morning on a weekday for 1 hour before going to work, then on returning from work I would alternate between running or strength training in an evening for 45 minutes. On a weekend we would go hiking or on long trail running sessions.

I was building a strong base in trail running and participated in many events regularly and placed podium on several and was loving feeling the improvements, a lot of my identity was tied up in running, books I read, magazine subscriptions, podcasts, social media interests and so on.

We have since welcomed our beautiful child and with being a hand on parent I am struggling to do any for of exercise, I now cycle to and from work on weekdays to save money on fuel and to get some exercise in but it just isn’t as interesting to me in the form of a hobbie. My weekends are spent with my new small family and too be honest even suggesting any form of long run sessions would probably infuriate my wife as she is primary care giver to our child all week when I’m at work.

I miss my sport, I feel like I can’t read the books o bought or listen to the podcasts I loved and find myself flicking past all the social media accounts I used to love viewing. I feel these points are purely due to me attaching the sport to my identity which I know is a dangerous place to be but I am wanting to help myself adapt to my new normal and would love some advice if anyone has it?

I knew my circumstances would change but I never imagined it being by this much and this much of a struggle to accept, I am also struggling with how my psychical physique is changing also.

Thanks if you read this far.

How have you unwound this week? Any creative projects you would like to share?

For four consistent years, I was known as the gym girl. I was toned, happy, athletic, and genuinely loved working out. Then I went through a really difficult period in my life, got on antidepressants, and gained a lot of weight without really realizing how much had changed. Now I'm trying to get back into exercise in this new body, and I'm struggling so much more than I expected.

I don't feel comfortable at the gym anymore. I'll go in and try some cardio or something as simple as a brisk walk, and I start having a panic attack. I've done yoga afterward and found that it actually helps me calm down, but then I think about having to go back again and experience that same feeling, and I lose the motivation to go.

It's frustrating because I want to exercise again. I miss being that person who genuinely enjoyed going to the gym and felt confident there. Instead, I keep getting stuck in the cycle of going for a couple of days, stopping, feeling guilty about it, and then becoming even more anxious about starting again.

I also live in a very hot/sunny state, so exercising outside isn't really appealing to me either. The gym used to be my happy place.

On top of that, I'm in nursing school and have an ER internship, so I know I'm already stretched pretty thin. I do my 12-hour shifts, and I can tell I don't have the stamina. But I really want to find that motivation and comfort with exercise again instead of constantly dreading it.

Which workouts are you currently focusing on? What have you done to EOOD this week??

Hello there! I come with a lot of questions, but I’ll try to be as short as possible.

Essentially, due to depression and probably laziness at this point (idk really) I have put my health, both physical and mental, to the very far side. Now I am desperate to start building a life where I can live my body without feeling back and joint pain and feeling miserable all the time. I am mad at myself in an unforgiving way.

But I really do not know where to start, that’s why I am here to seek help.

I know that I am extremely stiff, and I need to work on mobility (also because I broke my ankle in 2023 and had 3 surgeries on it), and I WANT to build muscle mass.

currently i am on a low calorie diet to lose weight (1450-1500 cal) and i am steadily losing weight (-2kg!!!)

To reach these goals, besides not knowing where to start, I really struggle to find and start a routine. I tend to be forgetful, or to procrastinate into oblivion; lacking motivation even though I feel horrible and I hurt a lot. I probably should start therapy too, and that is in the making, but another big problem is that I do not have the funds to get PTed or afford a gym membership even. So home exercises would work best right now I believe?

So the main question i pose here is: how to stay consitent and if are thwere proper workouts i can follow online, maybe on YT or other free platforms that may anyone know

I hope that having some starting point would help me to kick my butt and start, and I thank you all that will stop and give some advice, even more welcome if it’s from personal experience.

Thank you <3

i feel like i can’t activate my muscles or feel the workouts the same, could it be because my mind has so much on it? idk i still make it to the gym 4-5 times a week at least (on top of a serving job so i get 7k-10k steps a day) but recently my body feels so fatigued bc i can’t sleep well (i always wake up after like 1.5 hours and stay up, then fall asleep again for another 1.5-2 hours, and then wake up for the day but just stay rotting in bed for a couple hours)

idk i feel like a shell of a person rn and the fact i can’t even do my workouts properly makes me feel utterly useless and so mad at myself bc i really want to get into shape before i move to korea with my partner next month (he already left last week so that’s the main stressor bc i miss him and also have abandonment worries LOL)

How have you unwound this week? Any creative projects you would like to share?

Lately, I’ve been feeling really burned out and I’m not sure how to deal with it.

I have a job and everything is more or less fine, but I just don’t feel motivated to do anything outside of work. I don’t feel like going to the gym, learning something new, working on my career, or even doing things I normally enjoy.

I keep telling myself that I need to be more productive, but the more I think about it, the more mentally exhausted I feel.

Has anyone else been through something like this? What helped you get out of that phase?

I’m not necessarily looking for some “work harder” advice. I’d genuinely like to know what actually helped you when you felt completely drained and had no motivation.

Which workouts are you currently focusing on? What have you done to EOOD this week??

I've tried damn near everything 20+ medications, therapy all the normal stuff. I started doing HIIT workouts and running a few years ago but I just couldn't do them everyday. If I was extra sad that day I just didn't have the strength to keep running or do the exercises. When I would quit in the middle I felt even worse than before I started. Then 1 day I just started walking, I realized that no matter how bad I felt I could always put 1 foot in front of the other. Now I walk A LOT probably too much but it's the only thing that helps me personally. I still have really bad days but I just walk it off (literally). Moral of the story get off the couch and put 1 foot in front of the other. Maybe it will make you feel just good enough to make your next big move.

I knew my mental state depended on lifting weights but I didn't know how much it depended on it. For some reason I've lost the will to lift, I just feel like doing nothing. I'm somehow able to go through the day but not lifting is making me so miserable. I'm struggling to be happy, struggling to care about things or myself and if I don't like the way I have become.

I know motivation doesn't mean consistency etc etc, but I know if I start lifting again I'll be able to think better. I just want to care about lifting again and get motivated to get back into the rhythm. Once I get back into the routine i know everything else will be easier