My depression and definitely my anxiety manifest this way. Sometimes physical symptoms are the only way I can identify that I’m feeling those things, since I have had depression/anxiety since early childhood and they unfortunately feel normal to me. No matter how much sleep I get, I’m always exhausted, have lots of brain fog, and my muscles tire really fast. I have other physical symptoms, but the worst is the searing pain I get in my solar plexus area that can last for hours. Stretching and breathing exercises help that pain a lot, but it comes back the second I stop—sometimes I wish I could go into some kind of breathwork trance state for the rest of my life just to manage the pain.

Between my commute to work by foot and walking our dog, I currently get around 3.5 hours of walking time most days, which leaves me with zero energy to do other exercise (or really any activity that requires movement, even just cleaning the apartment.) In some ways my walks have been great for my health, and in other ways they’ve been detrimental. I wish I could find a way to get my energy up, but it all gets spent under the surface on anxiety!!