Dreading running making my life worse - help!

Have you tried not scheduling your run? Just say "Tomorrow's Tuesday, and I run on Tuesday, so I'll run... at some point tomorrow." If there's no set time and place, you may find your anxiety doesn't really have anything to latch onto. By the time it realizes a spur-of-the-moment run is coming, you're already tying your laces.

If, like me, you also struggle to actually do things that don't have a specific schedule, you might be able to combine the above with tricking your brain into thinking your run is sweet, sweet forbidden fruit. Pick a time, be it first thing in the morning or at lunch or whatever works for you, set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes, and do something running-related. Browse /r/running or read click-bait articles about running nutrition or read your athletic horoscope or window-shop for athletic apparel or... whatever dumb enjoyable thing you could normally do for longer than the amount of time you set your timer for. When the timer goes off: stop. Close the book, get off reddit, whatever. Tell your brain that's all the running it's allowed to think about. Go on about your day. If you're anything like me, your brain will fucking hate it. It will demand to continue thinking about that post on reddit that was wrong. It will insist on obsessing over trying that "one quick pre-bedtime hack to boost your running performance" that you know is batshit but also probably wouldn't hurt to try. It will spend the next hour or two screaming about running. Eventually, sigh resignedly and "allow" the run. With any luck, you get your run, your anxiety didn't even see it coming, and you tricked your brain into giving you the free dopamine hit that comes with "giving in to temptation."

/r/running Thread