Can moderate exercise help with anxiety/ depression?

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  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member

    For those who is suffering from a mild form of depression, do you find exercise helps lift your mood?

    You betcha! I find pool exercise is one of the best for lightening moods (nothing hurts, unlike going to the gym sometimes). The people in my class will often come in to the class looking kind of glum--but they always leave smiling and happy. :smile:
  • Alidecker
    Alidecker Posts: 1,262 Member
    Speaking as someone who has suffered from depression most of my life, yes. Getting into an exercise routine helped me tremendously. It's the first thing my therapist asks me now when I start to show signs of depression again. "Have you stopped exercising?"

    No matter my mood, my therapist asks me this every time.
  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
    from personal experience (PTSD which has led to depression in the past) - yes, it absolutely does help and it's definitely worth forcing yourself to exercise when the depression is making you feel like everything is impossible.

    one caution though.... it's not going to cure it. It relieves the symptoms (sometimes quite dramatically) by producing endorphins and also getting stress hormones out of the body (adrenaline etc is for fight and flight and it prepares you for really strenuous exercise, because that's how we evolved... so giving your body the strenuous exercise it expects when your anxiety levels are high does help to reduce the anxiety levels, which can reduce the severity of the depression later on). Combined with a healthy diet (I'd recommend balanced macros, low carb can make anxiety worse for some people, and insufficient omega 3s (from fat) and vitamin D (fat soluble vitamin) are thought to make depression worse, so go for moderate carb and moderate fat) these things can really help to keep anxiety and depression under control, but they don't get to the root cause. So IMO it shouldn't be seen as an alternative to seeing a qualified, experienced mental health doctor/counsellor, rather it's something to do alongside that.

    ETA: also in my experience, strenuous exercise works better than moderate exercise for this. as in sprints or heavy lifting. Again going back to the fight or flight thing... if you're in fight or flight mode in the palaeolithic era, then you're running or fighting for your life, i.e 100% ,max effort. So emulating that IMO helps more than steady state cardio, but in my experience any kind of exercise helps a bit.

    yes. this. All this.


    I should have been more clear with my answer. Simple exercise has never affected my depression or anxiety levels. Running, on the other hand, has made a world of difference in management of my symptoms.

    It's symptom management - it's not a cure. Still - symptom management is a wonderful thing.
  • watfordjc
    watfordjc Posts: 304 Member
    Exercise has absolutely no effect on my depression (chronic + periods of double) or anxiety. It might leave me feeling neutral for a few minutes afterwards, however, if I have reached the point of having to force myself to continue (for walking that reached the point of a minimum of 15 miles, for running that is the reason I am injured, and for weight training my mood doesn't change throughout the session).

    Having an exercise schedule and missing workouts due to being curled up in bed and not having the energy to do anything leading to more "failure", and a short-lived period of feeling neutral towards the end of some workouts... for me exercise is something I may do, not something I have do to and definitely not something I must do to help my mood.

    How do I feel after exercise? Like when I was on citalopram except the zombie feeling lasts nowhere near as long.
  • CEHayes73
    CEHayes73 Posts: 221 Member
    YES! YES! YES! From personal experience as someone with chronic moderate depression. I'm on medication too, but the exercise component is a huge factor in living with my depression. For me, when I have an episode, just going for a walk helps. Even if I'm not really going fast enough to be doing much good from an exercise point of view, it helps my mood. And if I can start, then I can get a little better each day. That being said, there are so many other things to try, too. Talk therapy, herbal remedies, and medication have all worked for me at different times, but the fact that I can start to make things better on my own is one of the things that has made exercise so crucial for me.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    Also I find my tendency to get angry can be channelled into a great workout.

    Yes. When I want to reach through the computer screen and strangle a poster, I find it is most helpful to get out and run a couple of miles. Or 10.
  • rosalindjschneider
    rosalindjschneider Posts: 3 Member
    I have anxiety... ranges from mild to ridiculous.... lexipro has helped a little but I started working out in Feb, and do at least 4 workouts per week, usually 5, and it has made a significant impact. More so than anything else I have tried. I knew it would, but could not or would not commit the time and effort. Now I can't live without exercise.... my family will attest to the benefits after seeing me go for such a long period without any big anxiety peaks. I cannot say enough how much this has helped me..I have spent years with anxiety and meds alone didn't do the trick.
  • andreahanlon
    andreahanlon Posts: 263 Member
    Dealing with an episode of depression in 2008 was what started me on exercising. I literally didn't care if I lived or died but wanted to try natural remedies instead of pills if possible. And YES, exercise does make one feel better. I would put on music and use the treadmill for 40 or 60 minutes. Listening to music or being outside along with the chemicals released in the brain from the walking definitely helped.
  • harlanJEN
    harlanJEN Posts: 1,089 Member
    Absolutely !!

    Taking even a 15 minute walk is beneficial. Exercise is incredibly stress relieving and elevates mood. The tough part is starting when you are in a blue mood / stressed. However, I promise if you make the effort to put your shoes on and at least take a walk - you will feel better. The better you feel, the more yin want to keep doing. Endorphins ROCK!
  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
    Yes. I don't know if it's a chemical thing, or if I just feel like a badass after a great workout, but either way it seems to help. It also helps me reduce stress and get some frustration and anger out.
  • prefabsey
    prefabsey Posts: 25 Member
    For some more evidence, check out this book: Exercise for Mood and Anxiety: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well-Being.

    I haven't read it in its entirety, but the authors provide a lot of information about the benefits of exercise on mood and anxiety.

    It's fairly cheap on amazon.

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