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Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

sciencedaily.com

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Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#191

Post by _whiteCaps_ »

jjulius wrote: post #185
BoneShard wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and not have any kids.

Nah, you can do it with kids! I have two that are about to be 4 and 6, here are my weekdays: - Alarm at 4:30. 5 mins of breathing exercises, 20 mins of meditation. - Make coffee, have breakfast, out the door to work by ~5:30. - Get to work's gym by 5:45, cardio for 60 mins. - In my office by 7:00-7:15. - 3:30, 25 mins of breathe work and meditation again. Tuesdays and Thursdays, this is 3:15 so I can fit in ~30 mins…

I'm genuinely jealous of your ability to either:

- fall asleep at 9:31 and function on 7 hours of sleep

- or fall asleep at 10:30 and function on 6 hours of sleep

If I'm not getting 8 hours, I feel like a zombie the next morning.

Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#192

Post by lightbulbish »

cheald wrote: post #2

This is a finding that keeps coming up, and I've certainly found it true in my life, but there's a significant chicken-and-egg problem in that depression frequently precludes the motivation to exercise, and if you don't already have a deeply-disciplined routine to overcome the lack of motivation, people won't do it. Exhortation to develop those good habits in the good times, I suppose.

That is true. And motivation is not a fixed variable. It is possible to get increased motivation by a better plan, resulting in increased self efficacy.

From studies like this, maybe more awareness and perhaps funding to solutions providing smaller steps

Shameless plug, I am building one: Low friction mini games, social, squats/situps/pushups. Feelgoodcrew.com

Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#193

Post by Geee »

I've found out that running outside just for 10 minutes with quite high intensity is really effective for anxiety / depression with instant effect. Also, specifically lactic acid producing exercises, such as doing free squats quickly works too. It might have something to do with how the brain uses lactic acid for some functions, but this is just my guess.

Found out that there's some research on this: https://www.biotechniques.com/biochemistry/exercise-lactate-...

Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#194

Post by D-Machine »

stuffn wrote: post #34
PaulHoule wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that depression kills and optimal therapy is: anti-depressants, exercise AND talking therapy and the time to start is NOW. I wouldn't knock the effectiveness of any of them with the caveats that: (1) you can get anti-depressants from you primary care doc, the best practice is to start on something, ramp up your dose and try something different if it is not working or you don't like the sides. I really thoug…

Or avoid medication for anything but treatment resistant depression. SSRIs are not well understood. Their side effects are not great. Getting off them is miserable. I had them. I felt dead inside. Mission accomplished. Depression was gone, so was my desire to eat, have sex, or do anything else. I wasn’t depressed, I was a zombie. 8 adjustments and medications later I got off them and realized they’re yet another pill…

Dunno why you are being downvoted, probably cope. It is well known by now that antidepressants are only marginally effective on average [1-2]. You're right they should probably only be prescribed for quite severe or treatment-resistant depression. Although the treatment-by-severity effect has been somewhat disputed [3-4], it has rough support [5], and makes sense since it is dubious that we should be giving ineffective medication with serious costs and side-effects to people with moderate depression.

[1] https://ebm.bmj.com/content/27/2/69.abstract

[2] https://ebm.bmj.com/content/25/4/130.abstract

[3] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1744-859X-12-26

[4] https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.116.187773

[5] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/18515...

Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#195

Post by arpinum »

gehsty wrote: post #21
ge96 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that $5K deductible though...

Apologies - one of the very few great things left in UK is the NHS and my diagnosis was free and my prescription is £9/month. I take sertraline (Zoloft in the US I think) and that is cheap - $20/30 month.

You would pay less than £9 in the USA for 1 month of sertraline.

Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#196

Post by bmicraft »

darrenf wrote: post #154
yomismoaqui wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motivation is fleeting but routine persists. When there is something that you want to do regularly (exercise, doing the final boring part of some sideproject, cleaning the house...) you remove willpower from the equation and set a day and a time. For example, everyday from 18 to 19 I work on my sideprojects, or saturdays from 16 to 18 is house cleaning time. There is no question if I want to do it, it is set at that…

I found this to be true, and that it perfectly dovetailed with TFA. When I was at my absolute depth (so far…) back in 2013, I would see my counsellor at 1130 on a Saturday. I’d be able to recount the darkness of the previous 7 days in stark vivid detail, yet cheerfully and not feeling at all depressed in the moment. The counsellor asked what I did on Saturday morning except the session and my answer was, well I do Pa…

This reads like an ad. Why would you capitalize it like a product name and then even link to the website?

I still have no idea what it really is. From the name I'd think you're going for a run at a local park. The website calls it a "5k and 2k community event", what that's supposed to mean I have no clue. It insists you either "join" or "volunteer", all while being as non-specific as possible why I should even care

2/5k what? people? distance? currency? number of events? It almost reads like in-group speak of a cult I don't partake in.

-- Rant over --

Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#197

Post by yousif_123123 »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #162

This leads to a fairly obvious conjecture : That since for 100,000 years humans were roaming the landscape gathering or hunting, and for 10,000 years engaged in heavy agricultural work, is the modern day rise in depression not just correlated but caused by the modern day reduction in daily heavy exercise? It’s such an obvious idea I am wondering if folks know of any research / studies on it?

Don't underestimate the meaning and relationships people had in those times, hunting together to feed your family, farming with your community and interacting with animals etc.

I think physical activity, even just going on walks makes one feel change is possible. If something sucks and I sit home all day on YouTube, then it continues to suck. If I can change my environment, do things outside, see new people and find myself if different situations, then the thing that sucks starts feeling like maybe it also could change.

For example I doubt exercising in a basement just by yourself on 1 machine is likely to materially help with depression. At least not as much as going out doing a variety of things, or playing a game of basketball at the local gym/community center.

Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#198

Post by kayodelycaon »

dugidugout wrote: post #181
kayodelycaon wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This method requires a significant amount of executive function. My body doesn't feel the passage of time consistently. So my mind is never prepared to switch activities when it needs to. And there are times my brain stops working on a particular task and nothing can get it started again. It's like a leg going out, you just can't stand on it. This isn't occasionally where habit could be picked back up. This has been…

I struggle daily to urge myself to eat after years of habitual starvation. The process of storing and making food through-out the week is extremely difficult for me to say the least... I also don't have room in my finances to out-source this completely. To combat this, I have been successfully meal prepping on the weekends; however, I still often struggle with the basic task of eating the food, prepped and served. It…

I should make an exception for suggestions on how to change my environment to better suit me.

Those don’t bother me because they don’t fundamentally misunderstand the problem.

Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#199

Post by roguechimpanzee »

andy99 wrote: post #158
roguechimpanzee wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you’re being smart but these things are all possible if you want to make them happen

People would rather blame external factors and not take responsibility. It’s actually insulting to people who work hard that some people assume they have it easy somehow, like the “must be nice” comment upstream. Not everyone takes the view that you can’t control what happens to you, it’s pretty easy to see who does.

You can actually just choose to lock in. And you don't need a perfect streak. Waking up early, working out and eating a nutritious breakfast is a perfect morning for probably 90% of people but our society is so broken that being healthy is associated with being either a grifter or a fascist.

Re: Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

#200

Post by iammjm »

thewebguyd wrote: post #178
iammjm wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also have ADHD and i also find living as minimally as possible very helpful. Could you elaborate on more of those tactics that work for you? I am also curious how you apply this to your work life

Basically things that eliminate friction. I wear only slip on shoes because having to tie & untie is friction. I replaced our kitchen cupboards with those glass window ones so I can see whats inside every cabinet without opening it. I have multiple laundry bins, so I actually don't put clothes away in a dresser when done. I just leave them in the bin, pull out what I'm going to wear, and then have separate bin(s) for…

Thanks. I'll also add a couple of my tactics for other ADHDrs out there: I only have black same socks, underwear and T-shirts so I never have to bothered by them. I replaced my coffee machine with a simple French press, so the cleaning and maintenance is quick and easy. I add every fixed-date event to my calendar so that I get a notification when something is due and don't have to remember it. I write everything down and make lists so I keep track of stuff. I try to reduce all the fluff from my life to simplify it, and I am extremely weary of getting new things, because each thing comes with responsibilities such as maintenance, cleaning, storing and of course using it. I basically want daily stuff to leave me the fuck alone and I feel like this frees up a lot of mental resources for me
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