Running is recommended when you have depression or anxiety, so it would make sense that runners have a higher percentage of depression and anxiety. Did the study control for that?
Of course, people can still be stressed and exhausted from running (or their goals and training regime). But I’m wondering how much this study actually tells us.
And if you’re peeing blood, you’re doing something wrong I think 😳
Yeah, the question should not be “do you have anxiety or depression” but how does that change before and after starting running, how does it evolve over time with respect to the hobby you are understanding, does it get better if you quit and so on. (I am no great fan of running, but ill-constructed statistics grind my gears to no end)
A potentially interesting topic, but the style in which this article is written is very irritating. It’s trying to put words into the reader’s mouth, and most of the “replies” are rather insulting and overtly stereotypical.
Back onto the topic itself - some runners run away from something bad in their lives, or have adopted addiction to running to replace some other addiction, usually drugs or overworking. I know a few like that personally, and they are indeed unhappy.
I’m not a fan of how the article is written, but as someone who runs marathons, I do think it offers some conversation points.
For me, training for a marathon is like preparing for a moon landing. It takes a lot of time and commitment, and it’s sometimes hard to fit in. Then on race day, if you don’t get the time you’ve been training for, you can feel quite dejected afterwards.
Why not just run with friends recreationally, and then sign up for a marathon for the social aspect and enjoy hanging out with people while running too far?
Presupposition
Paywall, so I can’t read this even if I wanted to.
I’ll guess at a couple of possible reasons: 1. people with depression and anxiety get into long distance running more than those without. 2. Although we have evolved to thrive in response to a certain amount of hardship, too much is negative. This might include exercise.
But what is the point of posting as paywalled article? Is this an advert?
No paywall here with an ad blocker enabled.
Not an advert, and I didn’t know the Guardian has a paywall. In any case, here is the article text:
Name: Marathons.
Age: The first modern Olympic marathon was run in 1896, inspired by the 490BC tale of Pheidippides and his 240km run to ask the Spartans for help battling the Persians.
Maybe 240km should be my next training goal. I love endurance running – I’m just back from a four-hour fartlek, actually. I don’t need to know that. And you might want to consider cooling it. A new study suggests marathon runners don’t enjoy particularly good mental health.
Nonsense – I’m happy as a clam. Is this some stupid survey by a sofa shop or slipper seller? No, it’s a serious academic study and the first author, Leo Lundy, is actually a multi-marathoner himself: he’s done more than 400.
He must have calves of steel. And what has Lundy found? Multi-marathoners generally “experience slightly higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to the general population” and a subset show “clinically significant mental health issues”. Lundy told the Times that while 94% of the runners he interviewed thought running was good for them, testing revealed “worryingly high” levels of anxiety and depression in 25% of subjects.
But decades of research show exercise is good for your mental health! There’s exercise and exercise, I suppose. It’s not that surprising the kind that demands intense levels of commitment over many months, minces your nipples, gives you the runs and can make you pee blood might not make you the happiest.
What about the famed runner’s high? I’m euphoric after long races – the endorphin buzz is incredible! But how long does it last?
I must admit a certain … emptiness does creep in after a while. That tracks – another study from Linnaeus University found that endurance athletes experienced “varied post-race emotions that were both physically and mentally challenging”, including “loss of energy, ambivalence and melancholy”.
It’s OK – when that happens, I just start training for another race. Hmm. “For some runners, the habit becomes more of a coping mechanism than a joy,” as Lundy put it. How are your relationships?
Amazing! I love trading PBs with my running club buddies and fitness app pals. I mean intimate relationships – do you have a partner?
For now – but last week they did say: “There are three of us in this marriage and one of them is your Strava.” That’s another emotional downside to endurance running. Partners can feel excluded and alienated by a loved one never being around or being utterly exhausted when they are. It’s an identity transformation that can potentially jeopardise relationships, research suggests. Some call it “divorce by marathon”.
But Harry Styles runs sub-three-hour marathons and he’s dating Zoë Kravitz! That’s your argument in favour of multi-marathoning, is it?
If I stop, I’m going to have to confront what I’m running from … There, there. It’s OK. There’s this thing called “therapy”.
Do say: “Marathon runners should prioritise enjoyment, recovery and relationships to protect their mental health.”
Don’t say: "You do know Pheidippides died at the end?
It is already in archive.is, so it takes very minimal effort to find, if you did actually want to read.
