Exercise should be a “core treatment” for people with depression, academics have said, after a new study suggested that some forms of exercise were just as good as therapy and even better than anti-depressants.
Walking, jogging, yoga and strength training appeared to be more effective than other types of exercises, according to a major new analysis.
And the more vigorous the exercise, the better, according to a research team led by academics in Australia.
But even low intensity exercises such as walking and yoga had meaningful benefit.
The effect of exercise appeared superior to antidepressants, according to the study which has been published in The BMJ.
But when exercise was combined with antidepressants, this improved the effect of the drugs.
Depression is a spectrum. When I was suffering I was still able to go to work and school, I was just in a sort of behavioral rut where that’s all I did. Every experience I had felt like eating unseasoned food. There was no joy to it, it was just “if I don’t do this I’ll die and I guess I don’t want that…”. I tried Effexor and not only did it not help, it destabilized me pretty badly. Getting into the habit of exercising first thing in the morning every day has really turned that around.
Absolutely everyone I have talked to/seen who has taken effexor has horror stories about it. That drug should not be prescribed.
For me it caused multiple manic episodes. One where I had a seizure. One where I didn’t sleep for a week and was hearing voices by the end(and some worse stuff I don’t want to mention). Also weird sensory effects. It’s been 4 years since I have taken it and I still don’t feel like I have recovered from the trauma of that drug.
Exercise has been helping a lot lately tho. I cant say I do it every day but I do a moderately intense exercise session about 1-3 times a week. Intense enough my legs hurt the next day. Tho I do forget to do it some weeks.
I was in the “struggles to get out of bed” category of depression. For me what helped was just doing the absolute minimum amount of exercise I could muster, like jog in place for a min while I waited for my hot pocket to nuke. Just did that every once in a while when I remembered. Having a baseline of occasionally doing it let me build on that over many months to more intense exercises. I’m not going to say my depression is cured but it has very objectively improved. Getting out of bed is not nearly as hard now, and my ability to take care of myself and my environment has improved as well. Looking for work again too.