Exercise Alleviates Depression
Monday September 24, 2007
The other night I arrived home from Tae Kwon Do (my teens and I take martial arts together) in a much better frame of mind then I headed out. After work I really didn’t want to go – too tired, long day, didn’t want to get all sweaty, etc. I’m sure every one of us knows all the excuses for not exercising. Luckily for me my son is quite the motivator and drags me out the door despite my whining and protests. So I arrived home with some energy to spare, started a load of laundry and plopped down to read the day’s news. Ironically, the first article I opened was Exercise on Par with Drugs for Aiding Depression. Why am I not surprised? ~ Kimberly
- Regular exercise may work as well as medication in improving symptoms of major depression, researchers have found. In a study of 202 depressed adults, investigators found that those who went through group-based exercise therapy did as well as those treated with an antidepressant drug. A third group that performed home-based exercise also improved, though to a lesser degree.
Comments
For me, bicycling has been a wonderful antidote for depression. It could be the enorphins created by rigorous aerobic activity, it could be just being outdoors and in the fresh air, it could be the speed and stimulation of the senses. It could be all these things, but one thing I know is that for me, execise is an extremely powerful antidepressant.
I found this study to be lacking. The success rate was only 40% for exercise as compared to 40% for the single SSRI they compared it with. But one SSRI does not treat everyone equally. A better comparison would be trials to different medications. In that case, medication would fair about 80% relative to rate of 40% for exercise. Exercise has it’s place in helping to treat mood disorders, but a careful analysis of this study shows it is no panacea.
Sex releases endorphins, too. Does this work for anyone else?
Exercise works great most of the time. The only tricky part is overcoming the seemingly huge barrier of depression that takes away my motivation.
C Loveall: My antidepressants almost completely eliminate my sex drive. Consequently, it does not work for me.
I consider my walks to be as important a part of my bipolar treatment as my meds and therapy. When I’m down, it spits out the endorphins and I feel better for at least a few hours after, I also feel better because I managed to do something other than lay around. It also helps clear my mind, I can have a good sob session. The sun helps too. When I am up, a walk helps absorb some of the excess energy and lets the multitude of ideas and thoughts spin around my head until they slow down a bit.
I remember forcing exercize on myself while I was in a downward spiral to a black depression. Running up and down some high, steep dirt hills near where I worked did not help. Trying to work up an endorphin felt like squeezing a dry sponge.
A couple years later, I had been riding my bike regularly for months, and that didn’t prevent me from going down into a depression either. Once in a depression,though, it seems walking is good to make one feel refreshed and to circulate blood.