The only thing more consistent than the benefits exercise has brought to my mental health, is the strange irrational hatred some people have for the idea that it can help.
I try to exercise 3 days a week and can say it dramatically improves my mental performance as well as my overall disposition. Always find it sad when people are against exercise and at the same time seem like they could really even fit from the emotional psychological boost
Not to start a flame war with you, but in the hope that maybe I can make this panacea a little less popular I want to get something off my chest. Every time someone has a problem with mental health, whether it's depression, anxiety, drug withdrawal, etc the answer from the audience is always exercise.
I'm only one data point, but I've exercised more days of my life than not and have observed absolutely no difference in mental health between the me that exercises and the me that doesn't.
What about athletes: students-athletes, NBA players, olympians. Do they show a significantly lower rate of mental health issues?
This argument has been floating around in my head for a while. The reason I think this suggestion is harmful is because it is the most vocal and popular, and yet excludes anyone who already exercises.
Who is recommending this? My hypothesis is people who only exercise every once in a while and so they get a huge hit of endorphins and think, "Man if I did this every day I would feel great." Maybe, some people with mental health issues use exercise as an escape and are really recommending it for its temporary relief. But I'm just in denial about the majority of people being people who didn't exercise, were miserable/anxious/whatever, started exercising and now they're happy/normal/perfect.
Again, I'm not trying to start any arguments here. For those of you who have been saved by exercise, I'm envious. I would really just like to see more answers than this instead of seeing it as the go to answer. It makes the assumption that people who have mental health issues don't exercise.
Believe me I'm not saying exercise has solved my issues because it hasn't. But I know that science shows that it does in fact help with many mental health ailments such as anxiety and depression, and I'm merely noting that I recognize the benefit.
Everyone needs to do exercise because it has a range of important side effects.
The evidence for exercise as a treatment for mental ill health is not good. It's really hard to disentangle the effect of any form of "activation" (this doesn't have to be exercise, it could be joining a book reading club) from the benefits gained through exercise.
We know it can be difficult for people to start and then maintain an exercise regime, and this failure to stick to it can cause some people to feel bad about the failure.
See, I both agree and disagree with your statement.
Exercise itself has never produced results for me. Generally, it meant I was still stuck in the house doing something I hated. I haven't always had the luxury of going on regular walks or anything like that. I don't get a rush from being physical. Until recently, I couldn't even afford sports bras for running. Without the bras, anything too "jumpy" was physically painful. (I wear a special size, even when thin like I am now, and they generally cost between $60 and $100 when I can find them. Pre-internet, I simply couldn't find them).
All this said, having better physical health does help a bit. But eating well and feeling some pride that you've changed your diet for good? Yeah, that has benefits. The hardest part was finding the combination that worked for me (mostly vegetarian with the exception of fish). Losing weight? Yeah, that had definitely helped (I, too, have lost a great deal of weight and kept it off for years). Walking as a main form of transportation? That is my physical activity and I take some pride in being able to do it regularly. I still hate exercise for the sake of exercise, though.
It definitely wasn't a cure at all - that took actually changing my life. And it was hard. And i'm gonna guess that your exercise was a combination of things - like being able to use the coping mechanisms better. Simply growing up (I started a lot of my life changes in my late 20's, and I'm 39 now) I got out of a bad, stressful relationship with a schizophrenic man. I learned that a lot of the negative feedback I had gotten from others over the years wasn't necessarily true and the few friends I have are positive influence. Heck, I actually have a couple friends that aren't family.
Some of it was pure luck - I wound up moving overseas to a place that I fit in better than I did in small-to-medium towns in the midwest. I'm able to completely be myself at home: A weird bisexual artist that spends a lot of free time at home. I learned how to relax.
Admittedly, I'd not recommend some of what I've done to folks since I'm pretty partial to hallucinogens and visit Amsterdam every once in a while, both with my spouse and by myself. I'm gonna guess some of my crap wasn't depression, though - I completely understand why MDMA is seeming like a wonder drug to the researchers. I had a marked change in thought process after doing it once. By the time I tried it, though, I had already come a long way.
Too 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.
I dislike this black n white rhetoric from both sides. "Just do some workout" - "no this doesn't work for me". Yes, workout does help, but mental illness is still real. Both sides should try to be more sensitive and more understanding in my opinion.
I can't fix my social anxiety through workout. But I sure can feel better about myself when doing it and then approach those anxieties with more confidence, but the anxieties are still there.
I'm similar and ironically I think having exercise as a coping mechanism, if you like, is actually a way better motivator than for health reasons, and makes it easier to stick with. I think if people could get into a routine of exercising for mental relaxation, and see the benefits that way, it would make it more attractive.
I look at exercise as a form of self-domination. How can I dominate my life if I can't even dominate myself?
I had a roommate that refused to shower for a week when we ran out of gas because he couldn't even bear the thought of a single 30-second cold shower.
I hate every moment of exercising, but as soon as I'm leaving the gym, it doesn't matter anymore and I'm glad I did it. Even if I wasn't glad, it's necessary for my health. Tough potatoes.
I don't think anyone is surprised that people hate exercise. That's why a tiny portion of the population exercises daily, and everyone else has excuses for why they can't, like "it's particularly unpleasant for me, you just don't understand."
Saying no to another donut also sucks, but that's not a very good reason to eat donuts.
Ditto. Some people simply don't understand that other people hate exercise. It is extremely unpleasant for me.
I get that other people enjoy it. Wish I did, but I hate it. The only choice of activity that makes physical work bearable for me is some sort of tangible payoff - I can work hard building things. Some of my heaviest physical activity is carpentry and light construction. I still don't enjoy it, but working towards making something is enough payoff to make it worth it. For this reason, I do quite a bit more of that sort of thing than is probably normal for a desk jockey. I also walk about two miles a day, just two and from work.
For whatever reason, my brain wiring doesn't see "vaguely feeling a bit better in three months, maybe living an extra year or two when everything is falling apart anyway" as sufficient.
The puritans can start on with the you-weren't-raised-right judgements now. I've heard it before.
It's weird though, because exercising physically can increase stress in the short term and can greatly elevate heart rate. Exercising is really unpleasant to me and I would really rather not do so.
The only reason I choose to exercise anyway is because of the people online and the scientific evidence saying that exercise is better for you in the long term. I certainly don't feel like it in the moment, and in fact sometimes worry if my heart is going to give out as I exercise. But if I am going to believe that exercise is beneficial overall, but that you can't experience the benefits it brings until it's too late to change things, I don't really know what else to do except listen to them and keep exercising, while getting over the unpleasantness and complete draining of energy and motivation to do things I'd rather do that it causes.
Maybe that's what some things in life come down to. It either comes down to eating diets like ones with plants prioritized and getting over the fact that they don't taste as pleasant as foods with refined sugars, or accepting the impact on your health by choosing the latter. Maybe some people just make their own peace with the taste of such foods, somehow.
We're not disputing the claim that it's helpful, we're disputing the claim that those who do not exercise necessarily "feel like shit" and would cease to "feel like shit" and/or would feel significantly better if they did exercise, when controlling for everything else.
Same here; exercise does nothing for me mentally other than making me tired. I still do it because I want to improve my health and appearance, but apparently I'm not getting the endorphin release or whatever it is that makes everybody else feel better. Or it could be a placebo effect that works for most people and not me.
While I don't deny that exercise helps some people feel better, this has got to quite variable from individual to individual. For example exercise doesn't make me happy or energized, it just makes me tired.
Regular exercise is the foundation for mental health. It leads to better sleep, healthier eating, and better mood, all of which improve relationships and improved cognitive performance. It's not a cure all, but the closest thing to it I've found.
reply