If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨
Exercise 'no help' for depression
**helen**
Deactivated Posts: 9,235 Supreme Poster
I'm guessing some of you will have seen this research yesterday?
Here's the BBC article with some details -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18335173
What do you think of the research? (is the study valid?)
Do you have any personal experience of this?
Here's the BBC article with some details -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18335173
What do you think of the research? (is the study valid?)
Do you have any personal experience of this?
0
Comments
Nina x
I'd encourage people to read this:
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2012/06june/Pages/exercise-may-not-ease-depression.aspx
Someone pointed out that there could be a difference in someone being told to do exercise rather than choosing to do it autonomously, which I think is a good point.
the following quote is particularly misleading:
the NICE guidelines do not recommend that exercise should be advised as a treatment for severe depression. they recommend exercise as an option or in combination with low-intensity cognitive behavioural-therapy for mild to moderate depression only. it is not a recommendation for moderate, severe or complex depression.
what worries me most about this research is that it might put depressed individuals off the idea of exercise. in the end the bottom line is, if a depressed person manages to do any activity then surely it is a good thing, and we have to ask, can exercise do any harm?
Personally for me exercise helps, I notice that I'm a lot less depressed when I'm exercising (running or football). I wouldn't say its a cure, but it definitely makes me feel a bit better. I also notice that when I have time off from exercise or when I don't get the chance, the 'big black cloud' comes back with a vengeance and I feel a lot worse quite quickly, and then I need to find the motivation to get into it again before I get any worse and stay indoors staring at the walls.
That's the only problem, when it gets bad, when severe depression kicks in, even just going out to the shops is a challenge, so not sure how helpful it would be in that situation. I do think exercise can help overall, but just not for everybody.
In fact, unless I'm very careful about doing a slow cool down, a really big endorphin 'high' like a run can be really harmful for my mood because of the come-down. It's a tricky thing to manage, because in the moment I really enjoy running, swimming, cycling, etc.
Lets give it 12 months and see what they say then. It may be just like those phycists who accellerated a tachyon faster than light when it turned out they'd make a mistake or something ))))
Personally I am 100% convinced of the health benefits of exercise.
That's reasonable skepticism, but anecdotally I know a lot of people who have had negative or negligible experiences with exercising during serious bouts of depression. Of course, I know many who have found it beneficial...
I agree with this.
Sometimes, oftentimes, the short bursts and the short term is sufficient. Do I feel good now? Can I get out of bed now? Can I stop crying now? And exercise def. helps with that.
He worked for a very large pharma that handles a lot of the big contracts with the NHS so he knew what he was talking about.
Exercise doesn't need to be rigorous, but I'd argue someone who is going out for a walk 30 minutes a day every day will most likely have better odds of MH improvement than someone who stays inside stagnating.
I've often wondered just how well some of these researchers understand depression.
If someone is severely depressed, they won't be running very far because they just won't have the energy.
Research done in the neural sciences has shown that depression is not just a disorder of the mind, rather it’s a disorder of the whole body. The very great majority of people having suffered with clinical depression will attest to that.
Whereas going out for a walk (in the forest or not) can feel therapeutic, I think the issue of exercise as a treatment per se for depression has been blown out of all proportion.
Because of past and present Government policy on reducing Welfare Benefits paid to the long-term sick (Incapacity Benefit, etc) general understanding and awareness of depression has been put back into the Victorian era by reframing it as malingering.
Political rhetoric on the subjected has declared that: “work is good for depression!”
The right-wing tabloid press are only too happy to expound at length on the subject while showing no understanding of what it means to be depressed.
While being out of work can be depressing, substantial numbers of people claiming IB/ESA, and the like, have become victims of depression due to work-related stress.
How on earth some of the people who have been set up as “advisers to Government” on mental health issues and social policy have managed to get away with talking complete nonsense never ceases to amaze me.
There is a huge shortfall in the provision of mental health services in the UK. Which means that people will go longer without being diagnosed and treated, and so suffer more than they need to. And it seems the best most of those in power at Westminster can do is to talk rubbish in an attempt to re-frame and dismiss the problem.
Jed
Thing is depression is a complex illness and everyone who suffers probably suffers in slightly different ways. There are no two people who feel EXACTLY the same for EXACTLY the same reasons. As such you can't just write down 'pill A' or 'excercise daily' on the prescription script... you've got to come at this problem and basically sample all of the potential therapies and find what fits the patient.
For a lot of people, exercise will be part of the solution that works. For plenty I am sure it will have no impact on their health. I would be loathe to have a lot of people with depression discount it immediately though (as many who suffer from depression will also struggle with motivation), when in the end there could be tangible benefits.
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2012/06june/Pages/exercise-may-not-ease-depression.aspx
If exercise works for someone feeling sad or mildly depressed, then great, do it.
In my experience, most people try to "shake" themselves out of feeling depressed before asking for help.
The political dimension of this involves how depression is perceived as a condition requiring treatment through the NHS, and also issues around how fit people are to work when suffering with depression.
Various British politicians, with a lot of help from the media, have tried to re-frame depression as a malingerer's excuse for claiming welfare benefits, which has put back public awareness and understanding of depression many years.
Jed