For the last 14 years of my life, I've struggled off and on with depression and anxiety. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 18 percent of adults struggle with anxiety disorders.

While I was never clinically diagnosed with such — it didn't take long for me to understand at 14 years old, I wasn't OK. Given that I never saw a doctor, I never went through the trials and tribulations (and sometimes successes) of being medicated for my depression and anxiety. For the longest time, I didn't even attempt to fight it, especially considering the fact I got really good at hiding it from those around me. However, as I got older, hiding the bad days from the ones I love proved to be more difficult than when I was "a moody teenage boy."

To paint a picture of what the bad days have always felt like, it's as if I have $1 billion dollars worth of pennies, stacked on my soul suffocating me from the inside. It's hard to breath, hard to communicate and it becomes hard to pray. Each time these pennies crush my morning, it feels like I spend the entire day, or days, shoveling them away.

Thankfully, in recent years as I have begun to better understand my struggles, I am able to ask my trusted friends and family for help with the shoveling — which makes it easier to get out from under those pennies. Anymore, the bouts with depression and anxiety are few and far between, but seeing as I work in the corporate business world, it seems as though the depression has merely been replaced with stress and the anxiety still remains. What I'm about to tell you about how I cope with stress and anxiety, is something I wish I had started doing years ago.

Running has saved me from myself on countless occasions. You have to understand, I am in no way built like a runner. At 5'10" and 275 lbs, for most of the last eight years of my life, I was definitely not built for this sport. At least that's what I told myself for seven of those eight years.

It wasn't until some changes at work at the start of 2015 and the opening of a new gym set me on a course that has brought me in a direction I never thought possible. It all started with just wanting to be healthier, more active and, yes, a little lighter in the weight department than when I started.

I started working out pretty regularly, and I had some success. But while I was going routinely, I wasn't all-in, and it certainly was not the remedy for my internal battles. There was still something missing.

I don't recall exactly when I started running again, something I hadn't done since those lovely (SARCASM) soccer practices Coach Erb used to run us through in high school. But in the beginning, I didn't take it very seriously. After eight months in the gym though, I started running more frequently. In fact, a year ago this month I posted a tweet celebrating completing my first three mile run in about seven years. It was at that point, a year ago, that I started to catch this running bug.

The more I did it, the more I loved it. I started to notice that when I went for a run, my stress and anxiety seemed to melt away. So much so, that for Christmas last year I asked my parents for a Garmin VivoActive watch, so that I could begin 2016 with tracking my runs. I had grand plans for my new year and new hobby. Alas though, my disdain for the cold weather and inherent laziness prevented me from getting really serious about it. Full disclosure, the first four months of the year, I still wasn't incredibly consistent in my running habits.

At the beginning of May, my best bud (and former roommate) challenged me to a 50 Mile May. The goal, was to run 50 miles in the month of May. 31 days. Shouldn't be that hard right?

Wrong. It was one of the most grueling challenges I have ever been a part of. Throughout a lot of April I battled some planters fasciitis and shin splints, and I honestly wasn't sure if my body could handle it. So instead of wimping out, I upped my own ante. I told myself if I completed the 50 Mile May, I could treat myself to new running shoes. I started out strong, running 10 miles in that first week. However, I started to allow work, friends, and other commitments get in the way and began to slack off again. With 8 days left in the month (six days of running) I still needed 24 miles to hit my goal. Thankfully, my body held things together until that final day, and I hit my 50 miles. Since then I have completed two 5K races and am one month away from running my first Half Marathon.

Now, there is a reason I tell you that story — and it's not so you can be "impressed" by this fat kid running 50 miles in a single month. I tell you that because I also saw changes in my every day life thanks to all of that running. Work wasn't as stressful, my personal and spiritual life were growing at a healthy pace, and best of all, I didn't have a single anxiety attack. Over the last few months, I can say I haven't had a single bad day and in large part, I owe that to running.

I am so thankful that I have found the release from the stress, anxiety and depression that had it's hold on me for so long. Running has not only improved my physical health, but it has also improved my spiritual, mental and emotional health. I have pushed myself to new lengths,and created new, loftier goals with my running. It's certainly not a sprint, but a marathon! Running truly has saved me from myself.