Exercise has become a nearly universal suggestion for coping with depression. Innumerable personal and scientific accounts have confirmed that regular exercise at at least a daily minimal average of twenty to thirty minutes can greatly alleviate many symptoms of depression. Exercise boosts happy brain hormones, gets the blood pumping, builds confidence, routine, esteem, and much more. Outside exercise does an even better job of alleviating depression systems by exposing the brain to blue and green spaces.
Unfortunately, as most health trends and buzz ideas go, exercise as a form of alleviating depression symptoms became somewhat of a phenomenon as a cure for depression. Feeling depressed? The world asked. Get some exercise. You’re struggling with depression? The world scoffed. Why aren’t you exercising?
There’s a distinct difference between depressive episodes, symptoms of depression, and living with a full scale diagnosis of a depressive disorder. For people who are severely depressed, nothing sounds better than to be able to muster up the energy to get some exercise and have even the smallest mustard seed of hope that it will help them feel better over time. However, people who are having depression issues do try exercise and do find it helps them tremendously. Of course, there are those who do not find any relief.
The Washington Post reports on the fickle nature of studies which attempt to prove that exercise is a universal recommendation for depression. Some studies are impressive when groups that regularly exercise, without antidepressants, no longer meet the criteria for depression over a period of just a couple of months. Many other studies find that antidepressants can work equally as effectively, without exercise being involved.
Study sizes and study structure have an affect, the article explains. Likewise, any one treatment that works for one person is not guaranteed to work for all people. Additionally, the actual depressive nature of depression makes finding motivation inherently difficult to do.
While exercise can be helpful to depression and is highly recommended as part of a recovery program for depression, it may not be the cure all for depression. Still, depression is recommended as something to try- because when it comes to trying to live with less depression, anything is worth giving a shot.
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