Not doing anything at all is as effective as (most) medication in treating depression.
depends on which kind of depression, like depression from stress might. but other forms, not so much.
Depends on the individual. I have persistent depressive disorder and I can absolutely see a significant change for the worse when I get off track with my exercise.
But being better than depression medication is a very low bar to beat.
Is this strictly related to doing sports and the hormones it creates, or could this be linked to having a routine?
I don’t believe establishing an exact causation is possible because of how complex the brain is. It’s likely a mixture of the two, though, since you’re routinely releasing the hormones by exercising.
Depression is a label used to describe a combination of symptoms, but the cause of this combination can differ from person to person. That’s why in some cases meds and exercise might not help. Unfortunately there’s just still a lot we don’t know about the different causes.
It’s also why meds OR exercise may not help.
I hate these articles because they imply that anti-depressants aren’t useful (“just excercise more!”). In my personal experience, having had about 20 years of depression and suicidal ideation since I was a child, nothing worked until I finally was on venlafaxine. That drug seriously saved and transformed my life, and I hate that there are people that will read this article for whom it might be the only treatment that will work for them, but they’ll try excercise, not get better, and blame themselves because they always could have exercised more.
Depression is a symptom of likely different hidden diseases, and some treatments will only work for some of them. That’s why it’s not uncommon for patients to need to try multiple medications before finding one that treats their underlying disease (for example, the first drug I tried, wellbutrin, actually exaccerbated my depression).
Likely excercise can be a successful treatment for some people, but it won’t work for everyone, and a headline that says it’s as effective as medication fails to communicate that that’s averaged across a population. Just like how a typical anti-depressant is only somewhat effective (amazing for some, nothing for others), I imagine exercise is the same.
they imply that anti-depressants aren’t useful
The title says they’re just as effective as excercise. The only way to intrepret this as saying medication isn’t useful is if you think excercise isn’t useful either.
It can be used in a “why do you take meds when you could just as well exercise instead, it’s just as useful” way.
Por que no los dos?
Maybe that’s why they both do nothing for me
“It helps as much as medication” is not the same as “it helps the same people who are helped by medication”.
Ooh, science brainteaser: design one or more experiments that could be used to test this hypothesis
Yeah, I have severe (suicidal) depression and exercise doesn’t do shit for me. Sometimes it makes things worse even.
The meds have never worked lol
Don’t have much to add to this conversation, but I really hope things get better for you both.
u n me both lol
I guess I should clarify that they don’t do literally nothing, it’s that neither helps long-term. And yes, same as you, sometimes they have negative effects.
Medication-induced insomnia, plus dealing with a society of assholes every time I try to go on a bike ride, yay…
The thing people often forget about depression meds is that they’re really not meant to be a long term cure for depression. They should be used as an aid so that you can do stuff that does help long term, like therapy and mindfulness.
I get that therapy is out of some people’s reach, but there’s a lot of research supporting mindfulness as a depression treatment.
I think this may be hit or miss. I’m in therapy, but the effects are minimal. Then again, I may just be ‘too sick’. I don’t know.
I think people are trying, and that’s great. But I know I’m losing my battle. It’s just matter of time. Nothing I do changes this.
Just me though. Good luck to y’all, the world sucks right now.
There are several different types of therapy, so you might try a different one if you haven’t yet.
Thanks. I mean I’ll keep trying until I can’t. I haven’t given up yet.
Appreciate you for your support
I’m always happy to try to share ways to help that people might not be aware of.
Have you looked into Mindfulness as well? It’s more or less guided meditation, but studies have shown it to be extremely effective in treating depression. It’s basically rewiring the way you think, and IIRC there’s evidence of actual brain structure changes.
Have you tried this new, totally different 12th SSRI? /s
Sometimes it be like that.
Ask some women who went through the process of finding hormonal birth control that doesn’t suck.
Psychiatry is basically throwing darts at a board and trying whatever it lands on until something works. 0.
Although there is a metabolic test that can be done to tell which mental health drugs your body can metabolize the best. But there still no guarantee anything on your list will work.
Its bullshit, and i hate it, but it does help a bit…
It’s such a double edged sword. Exercise helps my low energy and motivation due to depression, but low energy and motivation make it extremely difficult to start exercising.
But I absolutely see a drop in both when I get off track. That’s why, even if I’m sick (and not incapacitated), I’ll still go do something, even if it’s just walking on the treadmill for 15 minutes (at home, I’m not going in public when contagious)
Yep. Easiest way ive found to start is to get a buddy and guilt trip each other into going regularly
I stopped in October and started again yesterday (combination of sickness and weather) everything hurts a bit but i feel better, and im going back tomorrow 😐 takes a few weeks to stop hurting and start feeling good
Citation: Exercise for Depression: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004366.pub7/full
I feel like we all intuitively knew this but every few months a study comes out and headlines say “exercise does nothing to help depression” or “exercise does heaps to help depression” so I have no idea what the actual truth is on this.
I have seen the exact opposite. Every couple years, a new study finds that exercise helps with depression. People boohoo it or ignore it or say that’s obvious and then it repeats a couple years later.
To be fair, I think the problem is that exercise helps many or most people, but knowing that doesn’t help anyone to start exercising when they’re depressed.
There’s also a lot of people who take studies like these and use them to argue that medications are all bad and everyone should just exercise instead. The Maha nuts and the naturalistic fallacy lovers they spawned from are prime examples. Mental health conditions that are in the category of “normal thing to a disordered degree” such as depression, anxiety, and adhd have a ton of people who just blanket oppose medication as a solution. And I think a lot of people react to these studies as though they’re those people.
Like, I’m a huge fan of regular exercise and time in nature. I think both are vital to most people’s mental health and if possible are a great first step for many mental illnesses. But I depend on prescription stimulants to be able to do such things consistently and safely. My first step is meds, and the lifestyle stuff is important and built on that foundation.
Yup. The symptoms of depression make it really hard to start.
But, that’s a great way to use antidepressants. Let them help your energy and motivation enough that you can start getting healthier.
It’s both! Everyone is different.
This definitely tracks on a personal level (though I’ve never been diagnosed with depression and never tried meds) - if I get outside and do something - almost anything - I feel 100% better.
It’s almost like humans didn’t evolve to sit inside and stare at a box for all of the daylight hours.
Honestly, though, if your circadian rhythm is off due to depression, an unplugged camping trip can help reset it. The natural day/night cycles and all.
I don’t want to diminish the experiences of those with legit chemical imbalances that modern chemistry can do wonders for. The closest I’ve had to something like that is maybe SAD in the winter months of locations that have less sunshine.
This is not about that. But I do think quite a bit of medication is about making people functional under a very dysfunctional system/environment.
If someone is feeling depressed because of being mostly inside, working long hours and/or more than one job, shoveling in poor substitutes for food, but high in caloric content, between one obligation or the other, and having sleep disrupted by doomscrolling late at night, stressed out about how to make ends meet, well, it’s no wonder, honestly. Trying to reverse that is no small task.
Study finds wrong.
Explain the flaws you find in their methodology, please.
Research that exercise helps depression has been steadily coming out for like 20 years at least.
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This doesn’t surprise me. While I take some low dose meds, the periods of my life where I exercise even just a little, are significantly better overall. I started my current low intensity program now and I have much more energy to balance work and being a dad and husband. Glad the science is backing it up, but I hope this doesn’t cause people to just assume exercise will help everyone with much greater burdens than I have.
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What else ya got?
