I have been diagnosed with PTSD after many years in the infantry and being deployed many times. While I still believe that exercise is the best medicine that ha

I have been diagnosed with PTSD after many years in the infantry and being deployed many times. While I still believe that exercise is the best medicine that has -- for most people -- an immediate benefit (in addition to something else, which I will talk about briefly at the end of my post), there was a period of my life when I ran five miles a day and still could not shake the crushing anxiety and depression. At the time, there were some added stressors piled on top, a death in the family and my ex-wife had left me. I had exercised myself out of depression/anxiety previously, and so was dismayed to find it not working during this period of my life. This is one of the worst times of my life. I would go to the psych and get so angry because there was nothing for them to do. The only thing that worked for me were benzos and time, and in retrospect I believe the benzos were a huge mistake and the reason I do not remember the first six months of 2011. The benzos did help somewhat, but I was also set up for failure by the Army docs, as I had totally forgotten my supply when I went overseas and came off of them cold turkey and almost died. I was totally unprepared for that, having been given no warning. I wasn't educated enough about the drugs they were supplying. I wish I had better advice in this lengthy story, but when I have friends or family contact me and tell me that they know someone who is going through a lot and exercise (and sleep and proper diet) are not helping, I can only answer with "time" and that is unfortunate. My other suggestions are psilocybin mushrooms or MDMA. This may prove to be extremely unpopular here, but I would say my own life has been saved by the use of those two things and almost nothing else. You can google for research done by MAPS (in fact I was enrolled in one of their pilot research studies looking at the efficacy of MDMA in treating PTSD and anxiety). And while I must warn you against breaking the law, please buy a test kit from DanceSafe.org and know what you're putting into your body. I guess with this post I am only trying to say that I understand where you are coming from with this, and I'm really sorry exercise isn't more helpful for you.