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Effectiveness of physical activity for improving depression, anxiety, distress
- nradov 3y agoIt would be interesting to see more research that breaks out sunlight exposure as an independent variable. There is some reason to suspect that we need both physical activity and sunlight for optimal effects.
- phren0logy 3y agoNot a direct comparison, but the data on using a light box has good research support (independent of exercise). Light has a significant effect on mood.
- raun1 3y agoI can't wait to see cultural uptake of the importance of light and circadian friendly indoor lighting. Of course, I'd prefer advances in construction that would allow large amounts of full spectrum light to enter buildings, but that's only relevant to new construction.
- guzik 3y agoI completely agree that more research isolating sunlight exposure as an independent variable would be interesting. I live in Poland, where we effectively have about 2-3 months of warm, sunny summer with long days. I generally go for long walks throughout the year, thanks to the natural surroundings here—beautiful forests and the sea. I've noticed a significant shift in my mood during June, July, and August, which aligns with those sunny days. My mood changes from "okay" to "fantastic," and I've been tracking this shift year over year. The combination of physical activity and sunlight exposure certainly seems to have an "amplifier effect" on overall well-being.
- alexpotato 3y agoThis TED Talk about sunlight exposure and heart health is fascinating: https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_weller_could_the_sun_be_good_for_your_heart?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_weller_could_the_sun_be_go...
- Loic 3y agoFunny, as a French and non native English speaker, this title gives the feeling that they are testing the effectiveness of physical activity for "increasing" depression, anxiety, distress. I would have written "for reducing/mitigating" depression, ...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hombre_fatal 3y agoIt's prob simpler to just learn the lesson that "improve" doesn't mean "go up". And unlike the words "reduce" and "mitigate", you can use "improve" with a list of things that don't all swing the same direction. e.g. "By eating creatine, I improved my blood pressure (down) and bench press (up)."
- agumonkey 3y agoimproving a negative metrics has always carried a punny ambiguity
- thenerdhead 3y ago> Results showed that physical activity is effective for reducing mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety and psychological distress (median effect size range=−0.42 to –0.60), compared with usual care across all populations. > Our findings underscore the important role of physical activity in the management of mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety and psychological distress. You may also find https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4056176/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4056176/ (History of exercise as medicine) interesting.
- dweekly 3y agoOnly last month did I learn the origin of the term "medicine ball". Hippocrates prescribed its use!
- rootusrootus 3y agoAnd I am one of the 10000 people today who just learned that. Thanks for mentioning it!
- forgetfulness 3y agoThat probably tracks with a lot of people's experiences. It's good for prolonging a period where you're feeling good, or slowing down descent into a more severe episode, but when the depression has gotten to overwhelming levels, it's not of much help (if you can coordinate your limbs to perform it in the first place)
- giraffe_lady 3y agoAlso the feedback loop where a lot of the symptoms of depression are also causes of depression. And a lot of the verifiable treatments are "do the things a depressed person doesn't do." Which is not knocking either bit of real and correct knowledge. But from within the beast it's a different problem.
- agumonkey 3y agoI have a strange theory that your brain has multiple emotional stimuli sources, one it being distress, pain etc.. and one great way to not be stuck in it is to drown your brain in a flood of other positive signals (like physical activity, altruism, changes in temperature etc).
- 23B1 3y agoI don't think this is strange at all; the evidence is right there in our physiology that we evolved to take in a variety of stimuli and be mobile in our environment.
- Sparkyte 3y agoWould be weird that a complex organ like the brain to be incapable of taking in more than one stimuli and having a singular complex of emotion. The brain being two hemispheres and communicating while other sections of disconnected brain can still operate independently but disjointly. So it would make sense to assume that the brain is capable of many simutaneous emotions and not singular. I would say the theory is less strange when considering the circumstances.
- agumonkey 3y agoI described it as strange because only grave illnesses gave me some insights into the evolution of pain and emotions in mental disease. And when experienced.. it does feel very strange to kinda sense more data from your own brain and be able to witness nonsensical patterns come and go, while in your normal years your emotional layer probably felt very logical and coherent.
- Sparkyte 3y agoBeen through a lot, I've experienced stuff and that as only made myself capable of individual identifying my individual feelings rather than them be one mono-feeling. I get what you're saying.
- 1MachineElf 3y ago
- chiefalchemist 3y agoRecently I've read "The Comfort Crisis", "Exercised", and finally "Burn". All are in agreement...daily physical activity is our evolutionary norm. That is, the lack of physical activity is counter to our DNA and evolution. Anecdotally, I run (daily, 2 to 5 miles). No ear buds, etc. Just me and the road. The sweat is good, but being able to clear my head is for me the key benefit. Some people, including myself, have aha ideas in the shower. I tend to have them when I'm on a run. Physical activity might not be The Answer for All. That said, I cannot imagine the advantage of a lack of physical activity; the benefit from violating our history. https://eastermichael.com/book/ https://eastermichael.com/book/ https://scholar.harvard.edu/exercised/home https://scholar.harvard.edu/exercised/home https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/603894/burn-by-herman-pontzer-phd/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/603894/burn-by-herm...
- jnovek 3y agoPhysical activity is undeniably important to managing mood and chronic pain for me. Something that isn't discussed whenever this topic comes up, though, is how unbelievably hard it is to get started when you aren't active. I had to force myself to go to the gym, take walks etc for six months before I felt like I actually enjoyed those things. For those of us who default to couch-potato it's a massive barrier that is often ignored (at least, from my experience, by medical professionals).
- giraffe_lady 3y agoI think really very few people truly enjoy exercise for its own sake, and so you depend on having the discipline and habits to enjoy it for its benefits which is harder. Or you can find an activity that you enjoy but that is also exercise. But then you need someone or maybe a team to do it with and a lot of them are seasonal like cycling, tennis etc. I've noticed that both indoor rock climbing and bjj have gotten really popular in cities in the last decade and I think this is basically why. Active indoor activities that are enjoyable for a lot of people.
- hinkley 3y agoI have activities I enjoy that are themselves exercise to one degree or another, but they’re more enjoyable if I also exercise.
- scheveningen 3y agosorry to be an evangelist, but coming out of lurking to say that cycling is no longer seasonal, thanks to indoor/online platforms such as Zwift. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMGbZFEZOM8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMGbZFEZOM8 you can ride with a club/friends at any time of day, any season of the year, anywhere in the world. still not a perfect solution, since startup costs are required, but if you've got a bike and can swing a smart trainer, it's pretty awesome.
- giraffe_lady 3y agoI guess. Pedaling is my least favorite part of cycling but maybe I'm an outlier.
- rajeshp1986 3y agoModern city lifestyle doesn't have much physical activity. This could be the reason why we see increased depression and anxiety. This could also be the reason why people in third world countries don't have this level of depression and anxiety in their society. They have much higher level of physical activity and movement throughout the day.
- 303uru 3y agoCar culture and city planning in the US doesn't help. Walk-able cities get people outdoors for a half-hour or more each day.
- Mizoguchi 3y agoPeople in underdeveloped nations are also unfit. Mexico has chronic obesity among children, among the worst in the entire world. 1/4 of the Brazilian population is obese. Almost all islands in Polynesia, Micronesia and the Caribbean have more than half of their population obese. There's also a lot of anxiety and depression in underdeveloped nations where you have to struggle to get the most basic things like water, electricity and food, deal with crime, gangs, brutal dictators and war. Just because you don't see mass shootings and suicides it doesn't mean people from many of these countries don't deal with extreme levels of stress, anxiety and mental disorders on a daily basis.
- lazide 3y agoIndia too, along with extreme levels of heart disease.
- apozem 3y agoCars don’t have much physical activity. Walkable cities with public transit are amazing for staying fit. When I lived in New York City, I averaged 17,000 steps a day. New Yorkers joke about having to get “city fit” when you move there.
- Detrytus 3y agoBut "walkable cities" can overdo that. I live in big European city, do not have a car, and I work from home, and I have most of the places that I need to go to (grocery store, dry cleaning, dentist's office, pharmacy, restaurants, etc) within half a mile radius, which means I average like 3500 steps per day, having no need to go any further. 17000 steps is what I did on my vacation in Lisbon, when I did A LOT of sightseeing. Can't imagine walking that much in my home city.
- godelski 3y agoWhat personally helped me a lot is listening to Robert Sapolsky's lectures[0,1]. The reason I really like them is because they decompose depression into different causes. He breaks it down into: Anhedonia, Grief, Guilt, Self-injury, and Psychomotor retardation. For example, if you are exhibiting anhedonia and psychomotor retardation then the SSRIs probably aren't going to work for you. But at the same time, if you have self-injury and psychomotor retardation giving you energy may actually kill you (you now have the will to act). I think mental illnesses are very personal. It is still good to do studies like these, but they are also too aggregated. We put autism on a spectrum, I don't understand why we don't do for other things like depression. The most I see is anxiety/depression, like this. There's far more nuance involved and it isn't surprising that in these experiments that there are high variances. I'm not saying the studies aren't useful, but that these have been done for decades and it's time to add complexity to the studies. Nuance is necessary, but few people are taught to perform multi-variate analysis. It is always rather surprising given how many statistical "paradoxes" are due to aggregation errors. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc [1] HTTP link, you will get warnings http://www.robertsapolskyrocks.com/depression.html http://www.robertsapolskyrocks.com/depression.html
- hinkley 3y agoThere are certain other disabilities and neurodiversity’s that are “associated” with depression and it’s never quite clear whether it’s situational depression or intrinsic. If all your grandparents die in six months, that’s situational depression. If dyslexia makes you feel like a failure with a secret, leading a double life, that’s situational. If ADHD means you keep hurting people you love and you never achieve your goals, situational. Certain symptoms of ADHD respond well to repetitive motions. And walking/cycling/running/gum chewing/fidgeting/leg bouncing can help as a coping strategy. Successful coping means less situational depression, regardless of whether the activity also reduces depression. I don’t think it’s a spectrum, I think it’s a grid. There are several things going on and there are quadrants that are dangerous and ones that are mediocre.
- wpietri 3y agoThis is a very good point. And I'd add that in a society tuned for the "normal" participant, I'd add that many differences create the opportunity for situational anxiety and depression that are invisible to people who are sufficiently "normal". E.g., living in San Francisco I know plenty of queer people who came here from more queer-hostile places. Or I remember a time before I moved out here when I spent a few days in a colo. It blew my mind that so many of the people walking in and out looked and talked like me. I realized that I had spent years being the odd nerdy person out without ever quite noticing how fraught that was. My baseline level of anxiety has dropped a lot living here.
- 303uru 3y agoExercise is huge for my well being. I lift 3-4 hours a week and cycle 8-12. I didn't realize how stabilizing it was until I had a slipped disc put me out of commission for a couple months with almost a year of ramping exercise back up. I felt like absolute crap, couldn't control my eating and turned to food, staying up late playing video games and other things to fill my bucket. I really noticed the effects when I had kids. I think a lot of people stop exercising when they have kids because finding time is hard, and that is true. But I have so much more energy and patience with them by keeping going. One other thing I wonder about, I get a lot of sunlight. I'm in Denver and can get outside almost year round. Vitamin D is always strong, as confirmed with labs.
- dsco 3y agoRunning and cycling to work is a sure bet to get some exercise in even if you have kids.
- notnaut 3y agoWho wants to get to work sweaty and stinky though?
- 11101010001100 3y agowho gives?
- lotsofpulp 3y agoPeople with olfactory sensors.
- dlivingston 3y agoThis is the main reason I don't bike / jog to work. I shower in the morning, do my hair, etc. etc.; I fear getting into work sweaty & stinky & disheveled would be a bad look. Those who bike / jog to work, how do you work around this?
- tppiotrowski 3y agoI think there's a segment of people for who depression and anxiety is an inability to quiet their mind. They're unable to go about their day or be present in their thoughts because they're ruminating on a thought that's evoking bad emotions. Exercise is one way to break the thought cycle. Just holding your breath is another. When you're suffocating, your brain tends to shut down unnecessary thinking. I also think this is why people enjoy rock climbing. It's the potential for injury that shuts down rumination for a lot of people I know who fail to find the same focus through meditation.
- jlkuester7 3y agoMy anecdotal personal experience aligns well with this! I am not an adrenaline junky, but I have noticed that one of the reasons I enjoy mountain biking so much is the effect the perceived danger has on my brain. A challenging down-hill run will zero-in my focus to just what is necessary to avoid disaster (I am not great at mtn biking...). My mind is emptied of all else! Very similar feeling to what I experience when meditating!
- lazide 3y agoThe challenge comes when the rumination is the minds attempt to process as legitimately dangerous and confusing situation. It almost never actually works of course. But recognizing it for what it is can help figure out that the circumstances around it are a real problem, and figuring out how to address it. Extreme focus can be dangerous when it prevents us from seeing the semi-truck headed right for us, essentially.
- patmorgan23 3y agoAll things in moderation as they say.
- xnx 3y agoPhysical activity isn't very effective for fat loss, but it's great for so many other things. It's the closest thing to a magic pill that we have.
- Fricken 3y agoI completed an 8 day bike tour a week ago and came back less 8 pounds of weight I was doing my damnedest to not lose. I just couldn't eat enough. My metabolism was jacked up like a hummingbird, it has only in the past couple days cooled down to reasonable levels.
- tstrimple 3y agoSo if you bike instead of working a full time job you can lose a pound a day! Most of which would be water weight initially. That doesn't seem very effective or realistic for long term weight loss. The intake is almost universally the problem.
- Fricken 3y agoI also had a 2 year sedentary period, following an injury, in which I slowly but steadily accumulated an extra 25 pounds. When I decided to do something about myself I first had to get fit, and when fit enough I took that weight off over 5 weeks sprinting stairs for an hour every 3 days; a form of high intensity interval training, which is a little more realistic. I personally don't have the willpower to diet, and diets usually fail, as they tend to make people miserable[1], so it's not something one is likely to remain beholden to indefinitely. Regular, vigorous exercise, your whole damn life, just like the doctor recommends. It's for so much more than just managing weight. Unfortunately for too many people "exercise" is a dirty word. It isn't easy to make a sustainable practice out if you've let yourself go for too long. [1]https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/diet-and-depression-2018022213309 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/diet-and-depression-2018...
- tasuki 3y ago> I personally don't have the willpower to diet, diets usually fail Diet as a temporary change of eating habits obviously fails. Diet as in what eating habits you have acquired over your lifetime, that doesn't fail.
- hkt 3y agoI've always wanted to know if anyone has studied the psychological difficulties in establishing exercise routines in people suffering from these afflictions. My experience has been finding the motivation is incredibly hard.
- ilrwbwrkhv 3y agoThe reason this works is beyond the chemical benefits. We are story driven creatures and physical activity gives us the feeling that we have accomplished something positive. Optimism about the future is very important and also accomplishing goals makes us feel optimistic. You can also get similar benefits by doing any small task which is meaningful to you.
- westcoast49 3y agoI tend to think it's specifically tied to physical activity. My explanation is that we're conditioned, as a species, to survive by performing physical tasks during the day, to a degree where the brain expects it. If we sit still in front of a computer all day, and do nothing else, it creates a disconnect between what our body and brain is built to expect, and what we actually get.
- ilrwbwrkhv 3y agoI agree that physical accomplishments are easier to quantify by our minds to spin it into a story.
- SoftTalker 3y agoI wonder if studies support the effectiveness of doing anything productive. Exercise is good because it's easy to quantify the result: I ran 5 miles or I lifted 5,000 lbs (cumulative) in that workout. Or I went X more distance or faster than last time. I can feel the results of that effort in my muscles and lungs. But I've also noticed that simple stuff: I did the dishes, I folded a load of laundry, I fixed a leaky faucet, whatever. Anything that has an achievement or makes an objective improvement makes me feel better. I can see the result of what I've done. Note that I don't get this from video games, social media, etc. Maybe some people do, but those things just feel more like escapes from reality. That is the difference for me. Sitting here reading HN occupies some time, but doesn't make me feel any better (in fact often I feel worse because I'll start thinking about what else I could have done with that time that would have been more productive).
- neilk 3y agoThis is an established theory in psychology. One model of depression is "learned helplessness". Something about your life has taught your mind and body that it's pointless to try. So literally anything that teaches you that you have agency is a counter to depression. It's probably best if it's a small thing, to start. I myself had a period where I "learned" agency by teaching myself vim shortcuts. I have wondered the same thing about exercise. It's a quick hack for learned agency. Very few people feel worse after a modest amount of exercise. Even a walk down to the corner store gets you a change of scenery, an amount of social interaction, and movement. It will improve anybody's day.
- Aurornis 3y agoThere's an entire field of therapy called "behavioral activation" that fosters exactly what you describe: Re-learning how to do things even when you don't initially feel like it. Part of the therapy is to recognize that your depressed brain isn't doing a good job of identifying things that will make you feel good. You then go through some exercises to identify activities that make you feel better and create plans to do them. Then you learn to observe how you feel after doing those activities, which starts the process of re-learning how to do things that make you feel better. There's obviously more to it than I'm describing here, but the underlying idea is that taking steps to relearn how to do and enjoy things actually does work.
- nonethewiser 3y agoSomething we need to consider when talking about depression is that it varies widely in intensity and the boundaries are vague because it's all self reported. This makes it very hard to talk about. Sometimes you will hear "just get off your ass and do something" to which someone may reply "it doesn't work like that." Well, both of these people are right. It depends on the specific instantiation of the things we call depression.
- tstrimple 3y ago> "just get off your ass and do something" If I don't have something external demanding attention, sometimes just getting out of bed is that "something" I'm doing for the day. I almost feel like I'm in a sci-fi novel. I'm in cryogenic sleep until there's a problem that needs to be solved. Then I am thawed and put to work until the problem is fixed and I go back on ice. It feels like I have little to no agency between fixing those external problems.
- wrftaylor 3y agoI would recommend Spark by John Ratey for a brilliant look at the mechanisms at play here.
- munificent 3y agoMy pet theory around anxiety/depression is: For many people, the two are deeply intertwined and often share a root cause: The need to feel like a capable agent in the world. Anxiety is your brain saying, "You need to do something, but you're going to screw it up so obsess about how to avoid that!" Depression is your brain saying, "You need to do something, but it won't help anyway so just give up." I'm over-simplifying, of course, but the gist is that we're wired to want to do and we feel bad when we aren't doing enough or what we're doing doesn't matter. The modern world is antithetical to that. We are surrounded by media that provides short term gratification to consume but involves absolutely no action or agency on our part. After an hour of TikTok scrolling, our body and subconscious is screaming that we should be doing something. Punching a time card at a bullshit job burns all of our energy but provides no meaning in return. Physical activity addresses that. It's both good for us at an actual kinesthetic level, but it is also the strongest, simplest signal that we can send our brains that, "Look, I am an active functional agent in the world." I like to imagine Martians setting up a human zoo. If you were building a zoo for any kind of animal, you'd certainly make sure the animals had plenty of room to move and explore. You'd give them things to do, and make and move. If it's an animal that digs, you'd give them dirt to dig. If it builds nests, you'd give them twigs. You sure as hell wouldn't stick them in a tiny box with a screen and a button that just changes what's on the screen. That would be torture. Martians building a human zoo would give us room to walk and run and explore, materials to craft with, and other humans to connect to emotionally and physically. Instead, many of us have put ourselves in that dumb empty box with just a screen or two, and then we're surprised when we don't feel good.
- avgcorrection 3y ago> Instead, many of us have put ourselves in that dumb empty box with just a screen or two, and then we're surprised when we don't feel good. “Stop hitting yourself” is a common pet theory on depression.
- 4gotunameagain 3y ago“Everything is out of my control” is a common pet theory about self treatable mental illnesses.
- wonderwonder 3y agoUp until a couple years ago was pretty depressed and absolutely burned out at work. I could not focus on the now, always thinking of what was next. Could not just enjoy sitting down with my family. I had been like this for years, was also very out of shape. I used to dread getting up in the morning and having to log in. I'm mid 40's for context. I used to be in excellent shape. I got on TRT and started working out again. The boost in self confidence, and ability to just be calm was immense. I am now in close to the best shape of my life and definitely stronger than I have ever been. I have been working on my diet as well. On top of that I started smoking marijuana after work. I consume cannabis probably 3 - 4 times a week. It has worked miracles for my ability to just be in the moment. I can just sit and talk to my kids or play sports with them. I'm not focused on constantly learning new things or doom scrolling. I have noticed a huge improvement in my entire families well being as I am more present. My wife has noticed the same. We just sit and talk for hours, something we had not done since before the kids. My kids do not know I smoke and I likely wont tell them until after high school as at the end of the day it is a drug. I drink maybe 1 drink a week if that. These 2 things worked wonders for me and my depressed state of being and my inability to connect with the now. It allows me to appreciate what I have instead of always focusing on what I want to achieve. I am also excelling at work. Not advocating for others to try, just wanted to say what worked for me.
- Aurornis 3y agoMarijuana is well known to exacerbate depression over long periods of time. It tends to make people feel "better" in the short term because that's the main reason people consume it, but the cumulative effects of chronic use set in over months or years. Many people believe they have positive initial effects and then continue to use it for years, then eventually discontinue and are shocked by how much better they feel without it.
- neilk 3y agoIf I can get on my soapbox: physical activity is still very underrated, especially by people who spend a lot of time on the computer. I have so many colleagues with anxieties and other pathologies that would be greatly relieved by even modest physical activity. But there are good cultural reasons why nerds avoid physical activity. North American cultural tropes, especially from high school on up, make out physical activity to be a kind of war. It is supposed to require extreme discipline and a punitive degree of focus. It's supposed to separate winners from losers. Those who are lesser (too weak, too fat, too short, too... whatever) are just embarrassing and should not try to do physical things in public view, unless they are trying to atone for their weaknesses with self-flagellation. Lately I decided I would do physical activity but only when it was fun. I had no goals at all other than fun. I had to do something every other day and then stop when it wasn't fun. Sometimes this meant very short bursts of activity, or going to the gym for ten minutes and then leaving. I also explicitly was not trying to lose weight at all. I was trying to hack my psychology and associate physical activity with pleasure. I think it's working. I'm much stronger and my endurance is much higher. I set myself goals just for fun at the gym or on my bike and then complete them. And, full disclosure, I haven't lost any weight at all (in accordance with my goals!) but my body composition appears to be changing somewhat.
- Aurornis 3y ago> But there are good cultural reasons why nerds avoid physical activity. North American cultural tropes, especially from high school on up, make out physical activity to be a kind of war. It is supposed to require extreme discipline and a punitive degree of focus. It's supposed to separate winners from losers. Those who are lesser (too weak, too fat, too short, too... whatever) are just embarrassing and should not try to do physical things in public view, unless they are trying to atone for their weaknesses with self-flagellation. As someone who grew up as a nerd and only later discovered the joys of sports and fitness: This idea that physical fitness is "war" and excruciating painful and only for jocks is largely self-inflicted by nerds upon themselves. It comes from movies and TV and internet tropes more than the real world. Once you step out of the nerd bubble and try some physical fitness or casual sports you realize it's nothing like the movies. It's also nothing like the fitness influencers who post about their daily Crossfit grind or other social media displays. In fact, your local amateur soccer club or climbing gym is probably full of nerds and even people you might think are "out of shape", but who still have a great time. I run into a lot of engineers at these activities. I think the concept that sports are pain and only for the elite few and/or dumb jocks is a comforting myth for those who want to believe they're making the right choice by not exercising, but it's not true.
- powerbroker 3y agoI've never seen a depressed person on a bicycle. Well, maybe I was, when I had to bike home after breaking my collarbone riding my bike. ... OK, there was that one time I hit an armadillo. Ok,Ok, Ok. I'll admit it, I wasn't happy when my bicycle seat fell off, and I had to ride without the seat. There. Now maybe I've cured at least one reader's depression, after reading about how awesome cycling is. Don't forget to tip your waiters.
- darrenf 3y agoI'll contribute my anecdote. When I sought counselling in 2013 the only regular appointment I could get was on a Saturday morning, 11am. So I'd get up and do Parkrun[0], get home, shower, and head out to see the counsellor. I'd cheerfully regale how utterly, paralysingly miserable and borderline suicidal I'd been all week. All the current stuff I was failing to deal with, and all the past stuff I just couldn't stop ruminating on. The withdrawal, the isolation, the intrusive thoughts, the insomnia. After a couple of weeks they asked: why aren't you ever depressed when you turn up here? You're making jokes, you have energy, you're able to describe all these symptoms yet aren't actually displaying a single one. What's going on? I said, well, on a Saturday morning I do Parkrun and ... oh. Oh! OH!!! And thus the penny dropped. There's an absolute correlation over the medium/long term, for me, between how much exercise I do and how happy I am (or rather, how little I experience depression). These days, 11 years on, I'm out at sunrise or earlier 4+ days a week. It doesn't have to be running, but I'm yet to find anything preferable. [0] https://www.parkrun.com/ https://www.parkrun.com/
- lucidguppy 3y agoAmerican civilization is designed to make money - if it can make more money with you sick and depressed vs happy - you know what they will do. Now that e-bikes will flatten many hilly towns - we can all get outside a bit more. Towns need to orient their lots to be centered around 1/2 mile x 1/2 mile mixed use zoning nodes where very little parking exists. Single family zoning between the village nodes. That alone will do half the work of eliminating obesity. Just get people walking 1/4 mile two times a day. I wish the rich people around 1900 had more financial interest in livable cities than the huge automobile dystopia we all live in now.
- Gualdrapo 3y agoI was jobless from october 2015 to march 2018 - and on top of not having money, being at the verge of depression and the systematic bullying from my own sister, lost my best friend in the world and could not do anything about it (my dog). Riding a bicycle kept me alive in that time. Even if it was an absolute crap bicycle. Riding a bicycle also kept me alive in the lockdown days.
- tasuki 3y ago> Even if it was an absolute crap bicycle. I'm surprised you bring that up at all. I've always ridden all kinds of crappy bikes. Recently I borrowed an expensive bike. Yes it goes a little faster and is a little more comfortable. It isn't more "fun" for sure. The main difference is that the expensive one you need to keep an eye on because it's so expensive. Not worth it imo...
- sebringj 3y agoPersonally this is my experience. I've had a couple of very distressful/low times in my life and I've always instinctually exercised rigorously in terms of weights, running, swimming, etc during those times to take my mind off of things outside of my control and have found it very therapeutic. The adrenaline and pain felt from pushing yourself through a hard workout takes your mind off of things and also makes you feel more alive and energetic. It is very difficult to feel down when you are experiencing these feeling from working out IMO. From my perspective, I like to describe it as I could not escape my own mind of a stream of negative and impending doom of thoughts but when working out and giving it your all, it allows you to feel and focus on the environment around you and get outside your head or negative thoughts, giving you a break mentally from that constant stream of bad mojo. I would have to guess working out like that puts you in flight or fight mode. Which I think is part of our evolution when in fight or flight mode to have a heightened sense of awareness of the environment around you which due to our limited locus of attention, shifts attention or focus from inward negativity to the "immediacy of being". This also seems to coincide with my normally perceived fast tempo of music that seems to slow down when in a hard workout.
- Auracle 3y agoI’ve advocated for this several times here, but I very much recommend a standing desk + walking treadmill to anyone with a desk job - especially if you WFH. I got one years ago. It takes a while to get used to it. At first, I could only use it while doing menial tasks. After a year or so I could use it all of the time. You would think it would tire you out, but at least for me it does the opposite. I get mentally tired if I’m not using it. I can also eat like I’m a teenager again and not gain weight. My leg muscles are pretty nice now, especially my calves. I’ve started to put some 3d printed risers under the front to incline it to work on my butt muscles more and make it something of a physical challenge again. Most of all it’s just time efficient. I get exercise without needing to dedicate any free time to it. Unfortunately my treadmill broke last week and it won’t be until next week that I get a new one. It’s really bumming me out and making it hard ti get through my work days.
- oarfish 3y agoToo bad it doesn't work for everyone. I exercise a lot and it has made me no better. It gets tiring and frustrating seeing exercise touted as that one weird trick online that will fix you, ignoring that depression or anxiety are highly individual and complex conditions.
- gandalfgreybeer 3y agoAs someone who was diagnosed with MDD, it's not something that will magically fix you. But it's something that will (should) improve your base mood. My floor was higher when I started to exercise. It also gave me something to focus on. I feel like it's the same thing as saying exercise doesn't cure obesity. It won't fix it if there are no other diet and lifestyle changes but it helps and is a vector in the right direction.
- patmorgan23 3y agoThere's a non-zero percentage of people where exercise is what they need to solve their depression. For everyone else it's one piece of the puzzle.
- torossian 3y ago"Mean participant age ranged from 29 to 86 (median=55) years" I wonder what the results would've shown for a younger demographic? Feel like stagnation typically increases with age, and I'd imagine the benefits are felt a lot more when your body has a worse baseline to begin with. Great study regardless, glad light is being shined on the benefits of physical activity!
- Horffupolde 3y agoPeople don’t understand that “physical activity” is just a part of life itself as primates. Only in modern times have we separated “life” from “physical activity”.
- thefz 3y agoEvery time any acquaintance who spends almost all waking hours in front of a screen, not moving, eating bad food, smoking, with not much socialization outside of digital communications tells me "I feel bad" or "my mental health is bad" I can only bring it all back to lack of activity. Besides the "but I am a nerd and sport is for jocks" stance is just an excuse.
- crtified 3y agoThere is a certain self-prophecy in sports medicine specialists finding that sport is beneficial to all-and-sundry. Not that it isn't true at large - "fitness = wellness" - but there's so much unspoken nuance. After all, the playing of video games has been linked to happiness and mental acuity, too. If a person is thoroughly depressed in an office all day, does putting them on a treadmill (but having all else remain the same) change their life for the better? Sure, I suppose, but some might argue it'd be a fairly incremental improvement, and if the myriad concerns driving their depression are valid, then the treadmill won't address them. Take that same amount of physical activity, and translate it to the context of a social activity with other people, and I suspect the readings would drastically differ again (from the desk+treadmill scenario). How much of the mental benefit is coming from the social aspect vs the physical aspect? how much from the context surrounding the activity? I'm sure I sound overly cynical, but I do agree with the findings. I just think that the finding "Doing Things sucks less than Doing Nothing & Being Sad" is a bit of a self-evident truth.