It helps. You have nothing to lose by trying it. Having hobbies makes you an interesting and more effective person, and lifting especially is good for your health, appearance, and confidence. Just make sure you get on a well designed program to start and stick with it. Consistency is key.

>>36357918
Getting /fit/ won't rid you off your mental illnesses but for me personally it has helped with anxiety and depression. When I feel I could dominate others in the room physically I definitely feel more confident in my presence, I hold my head higher and make more eye contact.

With that said it could go too far and it could create a very narcisistic individual that looks to constantly dominate others, Henry Rollins is an easy example

>>36357918
For too long the human race has ignored the signs
Your planet is nearing destruction
Salvation is reserved for those who pass the tests
If you survive, an elevated existence
Awaits.
The one known as "Anonymous" will begin the trial.

>>36357918
Dude, you're an Aussie too! Where are you?

I've only recently started getting fit myself. I can't comment on the mental health things, but believe me when I say it feels great when you start seeing results.

There's barely any mental impact from actually transforming your body. Most people here become more insecure due to comparing themselves to roiders, even if they already look pretty good. What lifting might help you with is teaching you to overcome your limits and the importance of routine and diligence. If you actually want to change your life, it might aid you, since exercise helps with depression and is important for neurogenesis, however you will not become a positive person by just lifting weights.

Listen here you little twink. Lifting isn't about picking heavy things up and putting them back down. It's a lifestyle. It's with you every waking second of every single day and you WILL want to push yourself further and get better. It shapes your mind, you changes you as a person

You've probably heard people talk about 'making it'. What 'it' means varies from person to person, but usually it means getting your shit together in life. Once you start lifting, once you start perfecting your body, the mentality carries over to the rest of your life. "Why am I happy with mediocrity?" you find asking yourself. And you won't be. And you'll feel drive you have never before, because you've become a self made man. You deserve better and you've taught yourself discipline to work your way up there. You'll work for a better job, you'll set goals to get your own car and house, you'll find yourself a quality girlfriend. One beautiful day you'll sit on your sunny backyard you yourself worked hard to get, drinking coffee you bought with your own hard earned money and enjoy the sun embracing your rock solid body

The mentality and discipline that comes with lifting is what will help you through life. A focused mind

>>36357962
I'm from Melbourne.

>>36357965
>>36357943
Thank you for the input. Currently I just cope with each day as it comes and hope that this day isn't the day where my desire for suicide gets the better of me; usually I end up ramping up my medication/drug use to cope with the feelings worsening but it definitely feels like I am reaching capacity.

I do exercise (mainly cardio like jogging) 3 - 4 days a week, I don't just sit around, which I think is a good thing. I just think I need some kind of fundamental change to who I am :\

>>36357918
Do cardio at least 30 minutes three times a week.

This will help depression more than lifting.

>>36358016
You should also lift and fix your diet though

And oops missed you just said above you do cardio :\

>>36357997
Melbourne is way south!

Do you have any specific goals? Get ripped? Lost weight?

Do you have a gym or something near you?

>>36357996
I already have my "shit together". I have a job, I make enough money to buy things that I want, but I don't derive happiness from any of it.
I can't maintain meaningful connections with other people because of debilitating mental issues...

Motivation, self-interest and achievement mean nothing when you cannot derive satisfaction or happiness from any of it...

>>36358030
My main goals are to find something that makes me happy, learn how to make friends and like myself, and become satisfied

>>36358038
Well, self-confidence, making friends, liking yourself and becoming satisfied changes from person to person. For some, it is working out. For others, it's financial. For others, they're just naturally good at it. Just gotta keep trying until you find the thing that works.

That being said, working out is good no matter what. Health and fitness have been shown for donkey's years to have a positive effect on mental health. It might not fix everything, but it might help. Hell, it can't hurt.

I've never had depression or anxiety, so I can't comment on it, but I believe in you, dude. Set your mind to it and force yourself to push onwards.

>>36357943
>I feel I could dominate others in the room physically

Oh, fuck. Why is there always one of these autists? You can't do shit, you fucking sperg! Lifting heavy things up and putting them down does not teach you how to fight, you imbecile.

>>36358038
You sound clinically depressed. I know you said you have mental illnesses and if there's something wrong with how your dopamine gets released, satisfaction and happiness are a no show and lifting won't do jack shit and only further your frustration because there's one other thing you put your energy in that didn't deliver what you wanted. Deal with your mental issues. Therapy. Meditation. Proper medication. If stuff doesn't work, change up things you do about your mental health. At some point you're gonna find something that works for you, and then you're gonna know.

>>36357918
I've always been anxious, insecure, and previously depressed.

Docs can give you all kinda pills and you can try counseling but it's never really helped me personally. Not everyone who gets fit gets amazing life changes, but at the very least it's a positive change no matter how you frame it.

I had my worst struggles while I was working on getting fit and eventually it snowballed into an endless list of changes for the better.

Look good because you're fit -> confident -> do more in every day life with energy -> finish degree -> talk more because I'm confident -> more confident because I can talk more -> get better social skills -> motivation for working out more etc etc...

Unless you're literally holding a gun to your head and you're a threat to yourself, no medication can do something like that for you. Fundamentally that's something I feel is wrong with how depression is dealt with.

Try it out and see how it goes. Also if you're a skinny nerd like me you should lift and skip on the cardio. Eat a shitload and read the sticky.

>>36358161
Well I have been diagnosed with BPD (borderline personality disorder), and secondary to that, MDD (major depressive disorder) and SAD (serious anxiety disorder).

I really wish that I could just "deal" with my mental issues. I've tried cognitive behavioural therapy, different kinds of medication, experimental medications, recreational drugs, mindfulness (meditation technique), self-help books that have been proven to work...

Nothing stops me from crying every day from how much of a shit person I think I am, how lonely I am, how inept I am at doing or saying anything right, and how much emotional pain I am in (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pain#Emotional_agony_in_borderline_personality_disorder)

>>36357918
>>36357997
>>36358038
>>>/r9k/ is that way faggot --->

I'm directing you there, because you don't want our help and you don't want to change. You just like the idea of change, are idealizing the fantasy and are here attention whoring to feed your ideal. I know this, because you're addicted to
>muh mental illness
So much so that you're using it as a crutch to explain your shortcomings and are likely addicted to the drama you create from your crutch.

So fuck off.

If you really wanted to change you would change, you wouldn't make a fucking thread asking for "advice" while falling back on "muh mental illness" or "muh suicide". You're unhealthy and we don't want your type of unhealthy shit here, take it to /r9k/ where they'll love you for it.

Fuck off!

>>36358211
Well this post is making me cry a lot so I'm just going to delete this thread

>>36358211
Not even OP, but confirmed for never having lived through mental illness.

> You don't want to change
> if you did, you'd just DO it
> Just beeeeeeeeeeeeeee yourself
> Just do things
> Just stop being depressed
> Duh, it's so easy

>>36358231
Oh well apparently you can't delete threads anymore but I'm going to leave
Sorry

>>36358185
>I really wish that I could just "deal" with my mental issues. I've tried cognitive behavioural therapy, different kinds of medication, experimental medications, recreational drugs, mindfulness (meditation technique), self-help books that have been proven to work...

Yup, I'm officially out of real advice, I can just tell you that it's definitely your brain that lifting is not the way to fix it and you should continue to try and find something that works.

>>36358185

My friend has borderline and had some of the same symptoms. He finally moved back to his folks' village and spends all his time outside, walking, exercising, playing with his dog and working at the animal ambulance. It really saved him. Have you considered doing something with nature or with animals? It seems to help with so many depression type problems.

>>36358241

Dude if you're gonna up and run at the first assholish post you're never gonna make it. Most people here are trying to be helpful, calm down. But you're probably gone by now...

>>36358211
I get the idea that some people can get caught up in being a sack of potatoes being deep in depression. I just don't know why you'd tell someone clinically depressed and anxious to "just change" when some are so deep in the dark they can't get out of bed.

I guess it's a little hard to understand for some people that there's are others who legitimately have a much more warped reality than your own and suffer with it.

Maybe these kind of people do attentionwhore because in essence they really are tossing a rope out there for someone to hear them out on their problems.

>>36358296
>you're never gonna make it
He's never going to make it, because he doesn't want to make it, retard. He just wanted attention. He belongs in /r9k/.

>>36358302
Are you fucking retarded? When did I tell him "just change"? God, Allah, Ra, Zyzz himself could tell him to change and he wouldn't, because the change has to come from within him. And you know what? It's not there now, otherwise he would be changing not making these /r9k/ threads, get the picture?

No. These people attention whore because they're addicted to their misery and their struggle and get a little self-pity high anytime they can bitch to someone about how tough they have it. We don't need that shit here.

/fit/ is one of the few boards for genuine (inb4 fraud) self-improvement. We make fun of our heights, congratulate each other on our 1rm, 5k time, pat each other on the back and stroke each other's dicks (no homo). We're there for each other when we visit snap city or don't know how to reply to a text. It doesn't matter if we belittle each other 80% of the time, because overall we know we're all brothers here trying to make it, brah. What we are not are here to promote or celebrate misery and toxic lifestyles.

It won't "fix" your mental issues, I have plenty of nights standing there in the shower... Just me, my muscles, and my demons wondering wtf is wrong with me, but it does help in alot of ways, it takes off alot of those day to day intrusive thoughts "fuck I'm ugly, I look like shit no wonder no one likes me" "look at yourself you're a fuckin pussy". .. And so on, and it does feel good to get a smile from a girl and the rare boost of confidence which could be from looking better or just your attitude overall, so yeah it helps but it also brings on the body dismorphia, you will still see every flaw and now you get the added bonus of always wanting to look better no matter how good you look... Life's a bitch dude

>>36358469
You've clearly never dealt with mental health issues, and as such are woefully inadequate when it comes to discussing it. Literally every single thing you say can be discounted, because you've never lived through the soul-crushing despair that depression can bring.

And if you HAVE done that, and are still acting this way, then you're an even bigger cunt.

meditate.

The brain is a muscle. mental issues are like being a slow gainer, or being an amputee, or being in a wheelchair.

You'll never reach a mental ideal, but you can easily get within the realm of inner peace and contentment, accepting what you have and letting it go.

meditate 20 minutes a day. focus on your breath, or some sort of focal point. focusing on the feeling of the air flowing in and out of your nose is a good way to start meditating. When you get into the habit of it, you can change you're focal point.

I like to meditate on my posture, making my focal point how my body feels, and visualizing that in my mind. When anohter thought enters my mind, I use my inner dialog to tell myself what the thought is, (Example: I was thinking about my ex and how I want to jizz in her asshole), and then I let it go, going back to focusing on my posture.

Some other focal points can be things like God, or the concept of the universe/infinity we all belong in. Or it can be other points of focus of your breathe (torso shifting as you breath, the feeling in your nasal cavity instead of nostrils), or actual feelings, like peace, contentment, compassion, or my favorite, confidence.

Find whatever focal point works for you, but in each session, pick one and stick to it for 20 minutes. Don't change focal points mid-meditation.

It won't eliminate your problems. Imagine your mental problems are storms in your brain, that you are fully exposed to. Meditation is like building shelter in your mind. The storms will still come, but you'll endure them significantly better.

>>36357918

Start lifting, boy. Lifting will give you some measure discipline, lifting will make you realize where your limits are and push past them, and if you're directionless lifting will also give you some direction. It's not a cure-all and don't expect instant results (it can take a year to get anywhere). My recommendation is start Starting Strength (get the book and DVD) and do that for around 4 months or until you max out on strength gains, then switch to something else, a Texas Method Upper/Lower split for example. Read the sticky. Also this:

http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/strength-articles/iron-henry-rollins