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Anxiety Fitness
Anxious guy learning to be less anxious Free support groups đđ˝
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- Agoraphobia is often misunderstood. Itâs not just a fear of leaving your house. And itâs not simply a fear of crowds. At its core, agoraphobia is a fear of being in situations where escape might feel difficult, or where help might not be available if something goes wrong. Over time, the world starts to shrink. Not because places are dangerous, but because panic feels dangerous. Thatâs why this session matters. Joe from @freedom_from_panic is hosting a Room inside the Anxiety Fitness Community called: Panic Disorder With Agoraphobia | What It Is & How to Beat It Joe is a BABCP accredited psychotherapist and someone who has lived through panic disorder with agoraphobia himself. In this session, heâll break down how panic disorder with agoraphobia develops, why avoidance keeps it going, and the fundamentals that actually help people expand their lives again. This isnât about forcing yourself or pushing through fear. Itâs about understanding whatâs happening and learning how to respond differently. If agoraphobia has been quietly limiting your life, this conversation can help you make sense of it and see a way forward. Join at the link in my bio
- Join todayâs free health anxiety Q&A with psychotherapist Sophie (@anxious_and_brave). Have you felt real, frightening symptoms, been told âitâs anxiety,â and just couldnât believe it? If that sounds familiar, this session is for you. Today at 12PM UK time, Sophie is hosting a live Q&A inside the Anxiety Fitness Community, breaking down what health anxiety is, how it differs from panic disorder, and why anxiety can show up so strongly in the body. This isnât about reassurance or symptom-checking. Itâs about clarity, understanding, and learning a healthier way to relate to what youâre experiencing. Join for free you know where.
- Health anxiety can be one of the most confusing forms of anxiety to live with. The symptoms feel real. The fear feels real. And yet youâre often left wondering whether youâre missing something, overreacting, or failing to manage it properly. One of the questions I hear most is: Why does anxiety show up as such intense physical symptoms? Thatâs exactly what this session is about. Tomorrow at 12PM UK time, psychotherapist Sophie Gordon will be hosting a live session inside the Anxiety Fitness Community to break down what health anxiety actually is, and just as importantly, what it isnât. This isnât about reassurance or symptom-checking. Itâs about understanding the patterns that keep health anxiety going, reducing self-blame, and learning a healthier framework for making sense of what youâre experiencing. Sophie specialises in trauma, PTSD and anxiety, and is trained in EMDR, ACT and CBT. Her work focuses on helping people take the intensity out of anxiety responses so they can stop organising their lives around fear and return their attention to living. The session will include clear explanation followed by a structured Q&A, where common and general questions can be explored in a non-judgemental, grounded way, without feeding the anxiety cycle. Weâll cover: What health anxiety is, and how it differs from panic disorder Why anxiety can create real physical sensations How understanding anxiety differently can reduce its power Your questions answered with clarity and compassion This session is suitable for anyone experiencing health anxiety who has been medically cleared and wants perspective, understanding, and practical insight. The session will be live and numbers are limited to keep it supportive and manageable. If youâve ever felt stuck between fear and doubt, this conversation is for you. Join at the link in my b!o
- Is this you?
- For a long time, this was my reality. Every single night. Almost always at the exact same time: 1:30am. Like clockwork. Even as my daytime anxiety and panic started to improve, the night panic didnât immediately follow, in fact it seemed to get worse. It was as if my nervous system still needed an outlet. Like I had to âpay the panic taxâ at night if I didnât panic during the day. Sometimes it was one attack. Sometimes multiple in the same night. Iâd wake up suddenly with my heart racing, full of adrenaline, completely disoriented. My body felt like it was in immediate danger, even though Iâd been asleep seconds before. The confusion made it worse. Why now? What triggered this? Whatâs wrong with me? Nocturnal panic can feel especially cruel because thereâs no obvious cause. Youâre not overthinking. Youâre not worrying. Your body just sounds the alarm anyway. What I eventually learned is that nocturnal panic isnât random or dangerous, itâs not fully understood but the main accepted theory involved a âfear of lack of vigilenceâ Youâre so used to being on edge, that your body sees that moment of letting go, and falling asleep as a threat. That understanding didnât instantly stop the attacks, but it changed how I responded to them. And thatâs what made the difference. I had to let the panic happen, and while itâs definitely harder at night, because of the disorientation, it is possible. The more I surrendered, the shorter the episodes got. If youâre dealing with night panic right now, please know this. Youâre not broken. Youâre not going backwards. And youâre not alone. If youâre here because this video feels familiar, I truly understand how exhausting this can be. I created this nocturnal panic talk down audio because I know how lonely and isolating it feels, and I just want you to feel supported. Just go to my b!o to downlo4d it for free.
- TW: depersonalization & derealization. This is what DPDR used to feel like for me. On the outside, I probably looked a bit disoriented⌠maybe anxious⌠but mostly ânormal.â On the inside, everything felt wrong. Supermarkets were one of the hardest places. The lights felt too bright and artificial. Sounds felt sharper. My vision felt flat, fuzzy, almost greyed out, like I was watching the world through a screen. It felt like I wasnât fully in my body. Like I was there, but not really there. Sometimes Iâd question whether I was even real, or whether this was how things would feel forever. I lived like this constantly for more than 10 years. Not on and off. Not just during panic attacks. All the time. What made it worse was the fear of the feeling itself. I was terrified of DPDR, terrified of making it stronger, terrified that pushing myself would make it stay permanently. So I avoided. Places. Situations. Change. But the feeling stayed anyway. What I eventually learned is that DPDR, as distressing as it is, is not dangerous. Itâs a nervous system response, often linked to anxiety, not a sign that youâre broken or losing your mind. And the way out wasnât trying to get rid of the feeling. It was learning to live alongside it. Doing things while feeling unreal. Going to the shop anyway. Letting the sensations be there without checking, analysing, or fighting them. Thatâs how the moments of relief started. Seconds at first. Then minutes. Then longer stretches where I forgot to monitor how I felt. Over time, those moments became the norm. If youâre dealing with DPDR right now, please know this: Youâre not alone. Youâre not broken. And you donât have to figure this out by yourself. Iâve opened a free DPDR support group chat inside my community where people can share experiences, ask questions, and talk openly with others who genuinely understand, including me. đŹ Comment âdpdr groupâand Iâll invite you in. I know how isolating this can feel. Iâm happy to talk.
- To find out, Iâm sitting down with Dr. Jennifer Siegel (@ocd.psychiatrist.drjen), a psychiatrist who specialises in OCD and anxiety, and who also has lived experience with panic disorder and health OCD. Weâre having a real, honest conversation about what separates OCD from âgeneral anxiety,â where they overlap, and why the distinction matters when it comes to recovery. Weâll also talk about medication, fears around side effects, bad past experiences, and how medication and ERP therapy can work together rather than against each other. Join us live at the link in my bio
- These were symptoms I just didnât believe anxiety could cause. Vertigo that made me feel like I was about to lose my balance. Breathing that felt wrong, like I wasnât getting enough air. A terrifying fear that I might lose control of myself. That overwhelming sense of impending doom. Chest pain that convinced me something was seriously wrong with my heart. What made it even harder was how *real* these symptoms felt. They werenât âin my head.â They were physical, intense, and genuinely scary. Hereâs the important part though: Just because anxiety can cause these symptoms **doesnât mean you should ignore them**. If youâre experiencing things like this, itâs always important to speak to your GP or a qualified healthcare professional, get checked, and rule out physical causes. But once youâve been checked out, it can help to know this: Anxiety symptoms can feel extreme, uncomfortable, unsettling, and frightening, without being dangerous. For me, understanding what was happening in my body was a turning point. It didnât magically make the sensations disappear, but it stopped me fearing them in the same way and that changed everything. While youâre waiting for support, or alongside professional care, gentle self-help tools and peer support can really help calm the nervous system and reduce that constant scanning of the body. I created a **free 25-minute body scan meditation** to help you reconnect with your body in a safer, calmer way â without trying to fight or control sensations. đŹ Comment **âBody Scanâ** and Iâll send it to you. Youâre not weak for feeling this way. Your symptoms are real. And with the right support, they *#can become less frightening.
- What helped me was truly coming to terms with my ectopic beats, accepting them as a part of myself. They are normal for my heart. Rather than being a sign that something is wrong, they became a sign that Iâm alive, in my body. I stopped thinking about my body like a machine, where clocks tick in perfect time â because human bodies donât work like that. Your heartbeat naturally varies. Sometimes itâs faster, sometimes slower. Sometimes there are extra beats. Natural variation is not a sign that something is wrong. I listened to the doctors and accepted uncertainty. I realised I didnât need to know every possible thing that could happen. Letting go of that need truly helped. I feel more connected with myself now, and I know that the best I can do is take care of my body and my heart. I also created a 20-minute ectopic beat relief audio, which includes a guided breathing exercise based on this study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17004338/ Effect of deep breathing at six breaths per minute on the frequency of premature ventricular complexes. The study showed a reduction in ectopic beats of around 50% during the exercise. But if you listen to the full audio, while I guide you through the breathing, Iâll also help you with something more powerful: acceptance. Over time, listening to it will train you not to need it anymore â not because it gets rid of the ectopics, but because they become something that feels safe. Like a part of yourself that you trust. đŹ All you have to do is go to my bio ***always go to a doctor if you have concerns related to your heart. When I talk about cardiophobia or heart related anxiety I am referring to anxiety when you have been given the all clear after being checked out and tested by medical professionals***
- I was wrong. I donât use âanxiety hacksâ anymore.
- Do your mental health/anxiety âwinsâ sometimes not feel like âwinsâ at all, even though you know that they are?
- These were some of the signs that helped *me* realise something deeper was going on. Being obsessed with how I felt. - I was CONSTANTLY monitoring my anxiety levels, my mood EVERYTHING. Feeling disconnected from myself and the world. - I felt like everything was fake, and I was just watching a movie of my life. Constantly scanning my body for sensations. - I was searching for signs of illness or disease all the time. Avoiding things I used to enjoy. - I was too scared to face discomfort, so I stopped doing the things I loved. Endlessly searching for answers and reassurance. - I asked everyone, friends, family, doctors, and even though it helped at first, it stopped helping over time. Seeing yourself in one or two of these **does not automatically mean you have an anxiety disorder.** We all feel disconnected sometimes. We all worry about our health occasionally. We all seek reassurance when weâre stressed. What matters isnât a single symptom, itâs the *pattern*, the *impact on your life*, and how long itâs been going on. Awareness can be powerful. It helps you notice when something isnât working for you anymore and gives you language to self-advocate. But awareness isnât the same as self-diagnosis. If youâre concerned, the best next step is always to speak with a GP or a qualified mental health professional who can help you understand whatâs going on, and what support might help. And even if what youâre experiencing doesnât fit neatly into a label, you still deserve support. Struggling doesnât have to reach a certain âthresholdâ to be valid. I understand that not everyone can afford or access therapy right when they need it, so I created the Anxiety Fitness community, where you can share your journey and learn through peer support with others, and access free workshops held by real tehrapists. If you want to talk about this with people who understand, or just feel less alone in it, youâre welcome to join us for free.
- DPDR made me afraid of change. Any change to my routine felt threatening. Leaving the house felt weird. Driving felt unreal. Sometimes even leaving my room felt wrong, like I wasnât fully âthere.â Iâve had DPDR since childhood, so I learned early to stick to what felt safe. If there was an unusual family outing, a school event, or anything out of routine, the DPDR would spike hard. Shops and supermarkets were especially bad, bright lights, movement, noise, people. Everything felt intensified and unreal. I felt fake. Detached. And terrified that if I pushed myself, Iâd somehow make it worse or âbreakâ my brain permanently. So I avoided. But hereâs the thing I eventually realised: I felt DPDR anyway. Whether I stayed in my room or went outside⌠Whether I avoided or engaged⌠The feeling was still there. And DPDR canât hurt you. It doesnât mean youâre broken. It doesnât mean youâre going crazy. Avoiding the feeling was actually teaching my brain that it was dangerous, that it needed to be feared. The shift came when I stopped waiting to feel ânormalâ before living my life. I started doing things while feeling DPDR. Going to the shop even when it felt unreal. Showing up even when I felt disconnected. Living alongside the sensation instead of organising my entire life around escaping it. Thatâs how the moments of relief came. Not all at once, sometimes just a few seconds where I forgot to check how I felt. Then minutes. Then longer. Over time, those moments became more frequent⌠Until they became the norm. DPDR faded not because I fought it, but because I stopped letting it decide how small my life had to be. If youâre dealing with DPDR right now: Youâre not broken. Youâre not stuck like this forever. And you donât need to wait for the feeling to disappear before you start living again.
- I used to believe that I was just a negative person, or broken, because I had always heard that thinking positive, and positive affirmations were supposed to help with anxiety. I tried, very hard, but I never felt any better no matter how long I tried, because it just felt like I was lying to myself. Although Iâve learned that I did have a tendancy to focus on the negative, especially in terms of âwhat ifâ scenarios, it didnât feel like just switching to over-focusing on the positive was really a solution. What I learned that helped was. There will always be ups and downs in life, and I donât need to always know whats coming. It was the certainty that I was addicted to âThink positive, and be sure that positive things will comeâ âThink negative, worry, and youâll spot all the bad things that happen before they get youâ But neither of these are helpful. Now this topic is quite complex, and I DO actually believe that having a positive outlook is beneficial, for example, if I always assume that I will fail, that means Iâll be less likely to try. So there IS benefit in âthinking positivelyâ but in my opinion, only after youâre OKAY with there being the possibility of negative things happening! Once I freed myself from the NEED to be certain of eveything, I could then actually DO things, DO positive things, TOLERATE tougher things, and have a healthier relationship with my anxiety.
- During a panic attack, your brain isnât âbrokenâ, itâs doing exactly what itâs designed to do in a perceived threat. When the body detects danger (even if the danger is internal), the amygdala and limbic system activate the fight-or-flight response. At the same time, activity in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for reasoning, planning, and logical thinking, reduces. Itâs ability to regulate fear and think clearly becomes less accessible. Thatâs why: âcalm down,â âthink rationally,â âyouâre fine,â âŚdonât work. Not because youâre weak, but because your nervous system is in survival mode. What actually helps? A grounded tone. Slow, steady breathing. (You!) Silence if needed. Presence without pressure. Support without dismissing the fear. If youâve ever been told youâre overreacting or âbeing dramaticâ during a panic attack, please know this: Your brain was doing something very real and very human. To learn practical tools for anxiety, panic, and overthinking, we made something for you: Youâre not alone, and youâre not âbroken.â There are skills that make this easier.
- This is a safe place.
- Can you tell if someone has anxiety just by looking at them? Probably not. Most of the time, they donât want to show anyone whatâs really going on If you push or show panic, it can make them feel even worse. Just stay calm, talk to them, and be there. Theyâll open up when they feel safe â on their own terms.
- For years I cut out coffee because I thought avoiding anything that raised my anxiety was âthe right thing to do.â And yes, caffeine can increase some anxiety symptoms. But avoiding it didnât make me less anxious⌠it just made my world smaller while I kept anxiety at the forefront. What changed everything was realising that anxiety recovery isnât about eliminating every sensation that feels uncomfortable. Itâs about learning to tolerate those sensations without letting them control your life. The more confident you become at sitting with anxiety, the less power it has, and ironically, the less you feel it. Thatâs why I no longer avoid coffee. Not because it never makes me feel anxious, but because anxiety doesnât get to decide what I can or canât enjoy anymore. Anxiety might show up, but it doesnât get to run my life.
- Whatâs your most recent win?
- Whats your most recent win?
- Who can relate? Hosting an AMA of how I got rid of 10+ years of dpdr next week. #dpdr #depersonalization #derealization #anxietyfitness
- 7For years, panic attacks ruled my life. Numb, tingling arms that convinced me I was having a stroke. A racing, skipping heartbeat I was sure would give out any second. That overwhelming feeling of impending doom that made rational thought impossible. I said âIâm dyingâ so often that people stopped taking me seriously. They couldnât see what was happening inside me â the constant fight-or-flight, the world feeling unreal, the terror that never switched off. I know how isolating that is. And I never want anyone else to feel that alone. Thatâs why I built the Anxiety Fitness Community. A place to: ⨠Share your story with people who actually understand ⨠Join free live therapy workshops with professionals ⨠Learn from lived-experience experts whoâve been there too ⨠Connect with a supportive community that has your back đ Comment âask peterâ and Iâll send you the link to join and attend my free Ask Me Anything session today. You donât have to face this alone anymore. #anxietyfitness
- Thank you so much to everyone who has joined so far, I really believe in this mission!!! Go to the link in my bio to sign up for the next free live Q&A hosted by Sophie! And a HUGE thank you to all the subscribers who support and make the free sessions possible!
- 10I used to be terrified of my own heartbeat. Every flutter, every skipped beat, every tiny sensation â I was convinced it meant something deadly. I checked my Apple Watch ECG hundreds of times a day. I pointed out every single ectopic beat. Not even cardiologists could convince me I was okay. I thought constant checking would save me from sudden death. But it only made me worse. It made my symptoms stronger, my focus narrower, and my anxiety louder. At one point, Iâm pretty sure I even broke my Apple Watch from overuse. What finally helped? Learning that the checking itself was the problem. I started using techniques to delay and reduce the urge to check. I slowly built trust in my body again. And over time, panic no longer controlled me. I know Iâm not the only one whoâs been here. Thatâs why I created the Anxiety Fitness Community â to share the tools and techniques that actually help, with guidance from both professionals and people whoâve lived it. This week Iâm running a FREE Ask Me Anything session: ⨠âHow I Overcame Panic Disorder with Agoraphobiaâ đ Comment âask peterâ and Iâll send you the link to join for free. You donât have to go through this alone. And you donât have to keep living in fear of your own body.
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