Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

sciencedaily.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 407 posts

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

#391

Post by femto »

benji8000 wrote: post #280
femto wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key I found was to avoid self flagellation. Try your hardest to do each session, but if you miss a session don't try to make it up. Just get on and do a normal session the next time it falls due. You're in it for the long term, so long term it doesn't matter if you were intermittent when building the habit, or the occasional session gets missed for a reason.

This, plus start small. Just do those 5 or 10 minutes of karate exercises per day, at a fixed time, or 5 new flashcards per day.

I agree. If you're in it for the long term, it doesn't matter if you start low or increment slowly. You will eventually get to an equilibrium that has an effect.

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

#392

Post by smeej »

nradov wrote: post #387
smeej wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think discipline is if not willpower? This might explain why we're talking past each other. I can do the exact same thing a hundred days in a row as long as the circumstances happen to be the same. And I can try to make them as similar as I possibly can. My lights come on at the same time. I eat the same food. My clothes are in the same place. But the second something happens that I can't control, the nig…

Willpower is making a choice in the moment. Discipline is removing the choice.

This doesn't answer the question on any level. There is ALWAYS a choice. Where does the choice go when you remove it? What exists in its stead? How is there ever not a choice?

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

#393

Post by smeej »

machomaster wrote: post #389
smeej wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just 100% effort of resting and recovering, without any distractions. You say that like the distractions are exclusively outside. I'm not the person you're replying to, but if I close all my blackout curtains, turn off all the lights, and turn off all but the white noise, but I'm not sleepy, my mind will go in a thousand directions at once. How do I or anyone else explain that to you? The challenge is in the brain.…

You are saying it as if that't uncommon (for non-adhd people) or a bad thing. Yeah, and it is fine that the mind goes somewhere. This is called meditation and it is good for you. You get valuable insights, figure out important issues, get energy and motivation.

No no. Not "somewhere." A thousand places. At once. Not in sequence. Not from one to another. At the exact same time. And then they each fractal off in their own directions.

Take away the external reminders and my reality fragments into thousands of tiny pieces, all of which are just as real to me as the rest, just as pressing, just as important, or just as unimportant, because they all get lost in each other.

We are not describing the same thing. It's confusing that this is somehow not obvious from your side, because it's SCREAMING obvious from this side.

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

#395

Post by smeej »

machomaster wrote: post #390
fastasucan wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Do you ever feel unmotivated to go to the toilet despite needing to? Has this lack of motivation ever stopped you from getting from your chair? A lot of people with depression and adhd will nod "yes" here. Sorry but you have no idea. Great it works for you. When I am healthy I can work out 4-5 times a week (l When I am ill all I can is to try my best to be a dad. You have no idea.

Doesn't seem like you understood. Has your lack of motivation ever stopped you from getting from your chair, and go to the toilet; instead you decided to pee and crap in your pants? How has it worked for you? Well enough that you have been repeating the behavior?

No, you don't understand. On about a weekly basis, my need to go to the bathroom does not make itself pressing enough to get me there without leakage. It is not more than 15 steps from my desk chair to the toilet. Sometimes I roll the chair over because if I stand up, I won't make it.

Is it really impossible for you to believe that someone else's brain might be this different from yours? Presumably you have no trouble believing someone's eyes might be completely different from yours (i.e., might exist but not see a damn thing), or their legs might be completely different from yours. Why should brains be any different? What possible reason could there be for that?

Why, when there are full-blown medical specialties dealing with these sorts of differences, do you maintain the sort of willful ignorance that denies other people's brains might be completely different from yours in a way that makes things that work for your brain not work at all for their brains?

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

#396

Post by cindyllm »

PaulHoule wrote: post #226
stuffn wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Pfizer ad or not I'll say my AD experience was positive. I got it prescribed by a psychiatric NP in a time when my job situation was about to go to hell but I was planning to tough it out till I got the project done. I did get the sexual side effects but because men often come too quick it can be a blessing as much as a curse, personally I found it took longer to orgasm and when it did happen it was a much more compl…

[dead]

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

#397

Post by Forgeties79 »

nradov wrote: post #387
smeej wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think discipline is if not willpower? This might explain why we're talking past each other. I can do the exact same thing a hundred days in a row as long as the circumstances happen to be the same. And I can try to make them as similar as I possibly can. My lights come on at the same time. I eat the same food. My clothes are in the same place. But the second something happens that I can't control, the nig…

Willpower is making a choice in the moment. Discipline is removing the choice.

That belongs on the wall in a CrossFit gym. It doesn’t actually mean anything.

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

#398

Post by kayodelycaon »

machomaster wrote: post #371
kayodelycaon wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me try again. I shouldn't have mentioned willpower. Let me restate the problem. I try to do something and I have the physical sensation of hitting a wall that shouldn't be there. Thoughts never stop at that part of the brain. I'm talking about a fundamentally different mechanism than thinking something is too hard. It's a hardware interruption that I have no control over. I've spent my entire life working around…

Let't imagine that you have a task, that you started doing, but then hit the hardware wall. How physically/emotionally/intellectually tired are you at that point? What will happen if you just rest? Sleep, eat, exercise/go on a walk, lay down. No phone, no social media, no doom scrolling, no tv, no netflix, no gaming. Just 100% effort of resting and recovering, without any distractions. Would you not get bored at some…

I truly believe you're sincere but I can't get my point across. :/ Please read carefully.

Stop thinking about how to fix the problem. You might find this interesting if you look at it scientifically.

When it comes to things like ADHD and bipolar, executive function is compromised at the biological level. Put it simply, the baseline is broken.

You're talking about are inputs to this baseline. To use an analogy, explaining how to make macOS apps to someone who's making a Windows application. There are a lot of principles in common, but the implementations are very different.

The default state for this brain is restless, looking for things to focus on. The recovery methods you're talking about are sensory depth deprivation, the worst possible solution. For myself, the best thing I can do is feed the bastard carefully until it calms down. Think of using calm words to get a screaming toddler who just woke up to stop running around and go back to bed. That's not happening.

Sometimes I can't wrestle this thing into control and focus on what I want to. And you want me to relax? That's a bit optimistic. :)

With ADHD, there are a lot of individuals who are able to find a way to work with this and some use it to their advantage, masking the real cause. For those who have it worse, the underlying problem becomes visible, and they get asked why they can't be like other ADHD people who manage. It's like asking why a two year old can't act like a six year old.

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

#399

Post by seec »

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.

Your parents determine a lot of your trajectory. If they don't make the same investement in their kids as the average for the socioeconomic, you start with a heavy penalty. You can work hard, but you'll have to work twice as hard as everyone else.

If you friends gets permit, cars, fully financed studies but you get thrown out to work straight out of high school what is the probability you would give to be able to accomplish the same things as your friends in a similar timeline. Sure you can work hard and you will get somewhere, but is that somewhere anywhere near what could be possible ? I would argue not.

The left often argues about unfair advantage from famillies having money. In my experience it's not the having money part that is important, its the parent willing to invest it in their children. I know some people who accomplished a lot with poor parents, but they got full support from both gov aids and parents, it generally explains a lot.

Without talking about the genetic lottery, life is unfair and hard work isn't really all that's needed. It can never hurt but at the same time you can work much harder than most and never get as much. Add politics in the mix and anything goes.

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

#400

Post by bunnybomb2 »

fastasucan wrote: post #378
bunnybomb2 wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its funny, because thats exactly how it works... I've had severe mental illness and I suffer from it daily. You still arent special. Im not lacking some unique viewpoint just because you are mentally ill. Try harder. Stop being weak. Unless its schizophrenia/bipolar, then take ur meds

The fact that you say "stop being weak" without having any insight tells me that you have much growing to do.

Whatever happened to Gary Cooper, the strong, silent type?
Post reply on HN