The NHS recommends exercising to manage anxiety, as do many healthcare professionals. The benefits are plentiful: reduced muscle tension, improved self-esteem, increased cognitive function. However, anxiety disorders are individualistic and complex and it’s hard to say how any person with anxiety will react to certain types of exercise. There’s also little available information about how to safely exercise with anxiety.

I wish I’d known more about moving with a  Generalised Anxiety Disorder when I started exercising for the first time last year. In a bid to take my fitness more seriously, I did my first HIIT workout and was blown away by the pay-off; I felt like my body and mind were shining. After the second class, however, I felt significantly less buoyed up. As my heart rate quickened and my body began to sweat, my mind went into overdrive. I couldn’t tell if I was panicking or if I was just more unfit than I’d anticipated. Putting the initial benefits down to beginner’s luck, I persisted with the HIIT training – and so did my anxiety symptoms. For the 8.2 million Brits like me who live with chronic anxiety, those sensations of anxiety can feel similar to terror.