Cognitive issues/depressive state after mild exercise?
 

Hello friends,
Un-dx'd here with another question. I've discussed this with my neuro but we haven't figured it out yet.

I noticed a pattern over the past 6-8 months (since symptoms started) that when I "overdo it" physically, I end up feeling depressed. This occurs within 1-2 hours after (now) going for a walk or some other form of exercise that my body sees as too much.

Before I realized what was going on, I had been going to the gym and feeling just TERRIBLE afterwards.... blue, down in the dumps, etc. The absolute inverse of what I was used to experiencing.

My neuro is testing for MS and also myasthenia gravis. Have any of you experienced this "exercise intolerance" with depression in conjunction with your MS?

Thanks in advance : )

I've never experienced that. Before, when I was able to exercise, I always felt better afterwards. Once it got to be just too much for me to handle and I stopped regularly exercising I could tell the difference but wasn't depressed.

I was never a big exercise type person, but it got me down, not to be able to do the things I used to do..:( MS can cause anxiety and depression anyway, from the demylienation of nerves....then you add all the other perks that a chronic illness brings to the party and boom, you're in trouble.

Paxil saved me and there is an antidepressent out there just for you. Good luck to you in finding yours. I found SSRIs as the ticket. They just made me feel normal and relaxed...not all doped up, like the addictive drugs, such as xanex, valium..etc.. do.

Even after seven years it's hard for me to separate fatigue from depression sometimes. I'll "work" outside for a half hour, come in weak, wobbly, exhausted...and discouraged...then depressed. "What? I can't even pull a few weeds? Why bother? I'm worthless!..." and other lies one tells oneself.

Blessings, I feel much the same way, have to keep kicking myself to snap out of it....that feeling of "worthless". I was an athlete as a youngster, a ballet dancer (that's an athlete).
I was so good at running on my toes that they had me do it at half-time at a league basketball game. One year later, when I came down with my neuro ailment (MS, porphyria, or both, probably both), I couldn't even rise one time on my toe shoes, which I tried to do when invited to practice together with another girl at college. What a change in the year from 16 to 17. I was not diagnosed until decades later. Perhaps I never told a doctor my experience with the toe shoes, as I had other more pressing symptoms to talk about.

Yes, I will even now have a bad day after a day in which I am physically active, which is VERY frustrating, as I am now able to be more active since my feet are not hurting as much. I also have to avoid the 12-14 UV sun we are having now. So it's hard to go out all covered up, which doesn't even completely work in this level of UV, unprecedented they say.

I don't want to sit in front of the computer all day, but I find I am doing it more. I have given up on the political scene on TV so that is mostly dark. I can't run my radio, which my husband bought before his death 3 l/2 years ago. It would take a more patient person than my son to get me used to the technicalities.

The big thrill (and I'm not kidding) of my day is when I look out through my tinted windows and a wild rabbit is eating grass in my yard. Those little guys (not so little, some) raise my spirits! I think of them as angels sending me love messages, although they probably don't know that's what they are. My husband loved the rabbits too.

(Not sure how to use the multi-quote feature, so giving it a shot this way...)

Mariel I understand the heat to be a big factor in MS symptoms. Does UV play a role too? That is new information to me.

And Blessings... "I'll "work" outside for a half hour, come in weak, wobbly, exhausted...and discouraged...then depressed. "What? I can't even pull a few weeds? Why bother? I'm worthless!..." and other lies one tells oneself."

That is a perfect example of how fatigue and overdoing it brings on the negative feelings, for me at least. I am finding that I am much more prone to feeling blue later in the week, after a long workweek (working full time), or if one of the kids was up in the night and I didn't sleep well.

Thanks friends, these discussion threads are a wonderfully supportive thing right now! Glad to have you :grouphug:

When I over do, it does depress me. I think it is because I should know by now to take it easy. On the other hand, if I over do because I am having too much fun to stop, then I take my licks in stride. There are so few things that I enjoy lately that I almost feel obliged to push my limits.

Restorative Repose, the UV and actually direct sunlight is a trigger for another disease I have, Porphyria. I wear hats, scarves, etc., and use clothing made by Sun Precautions. I have tinted windows in my car. But when it's hot (90 here now) and smoky (forest fires in New Mexico) I have to stay inside with a filter.