- Joined
- May 19, 2004
- Messages
- 5,165
What is it about working out that makes your OCD get better? Two of you now on this thread say that it helps a lot. Im curious if either of you have any kind of theory on how it works.
I have had life long anxiety problems as well and some relatively mild OCD too.
A hard workout that is really exhausting both physically and mentally has some very interesting effects on mood. It takes the edge off some anxiety symptoms but I've noticed some small curious effects such as that my speech flows better and even my handwriting changes for the better lol. I never really got to test it out much but if I had to say hold a speech or be interviewed for a job I think a hard workout beforehand would make these much smoother.
My anxiety has been so bad at times that I don't feel like even going to the gym, but I rarely regret it if I force myself to go. There are probably many mechanisms involved but it's like it just burns off excess nervous energy.
Cardio I'm sure is great for the mind too, but I was never a big cardio fan. Long walks, especially outside in nature, is something I should get into more. I caught a snippet of a video on IG where a neuroscientist talked about how moving forward in space and getting this type of visual stimuli where images were moving past you was very beneficial for the brain. Pretty interesting.