Unhappy Mom/Wife

Well, exercise does make your brain release endorphins. It also distracts you from the day's irritations by simply being focused on the activity. :flowerforyou:

Exercise releases natural endorphins which will make you feel good - if you do this on a daily basis - you can feel good every day.

Some people need meds as their brain chemicals are not working properly. I am on anxiety meds because I have debilitating anxiety without them - however, being on the meds has made it much more difficult to take the weight off.

As hard as it is to start exercising - when I'm done, I feel AMAZING. You can't put a price on that!

Try taking a nice walk with your kids to explore - go slow, at their pace. Each day try to walk a little longer. Then when you feel you are walking too far with them, shorten the walk to their ability and have your husband watch them at a different time and take that longer walk for YOU. That way you are getting two great walks in - one for you - and one for them.

It's little changes that add up to big losses

Yes.

Depression meds should be a last resort.

Adapt a healthier lifestyle first.

I need help..I am always unhappy and easily upset. I have an awesome husband and 2 little girls. I am also at least 100lbs overweight. I have never enjoyed exercise and lead a fairly sedintary lifestyle. I would prefer not to ask my doctor to put me on depression meds. This is what I want to know...will exercising and losing weight make me feel better? Not just physically but more importantly will I be a happier person?

You will be a thinner person if you lose weight, but you will not be any happier.

If you have been diagnosed with depression, find a therapist.

Doing something for yourself and for your own health will definitely make you feel better about yourself, but we can't predict to which degree. We should never rely on a single thing for our happiness (e.g. weightloss...), I like to think about it as an "extra" good thing that happened to my life and helped me to enjoy it better. I say definitely do it for yourself and your children, weight loss is very important while speaking about health. Anyway, if you feel like you can't do it all alone don't be ashamed to ask for help to a professional... human beings need to interact with each other and reaching for help is indispensible for us. Just do what's best for you and build your happiness step by step!

Medication for diagnosed mental disorders should be taken as appropriate, not never, and not as a last resort. Would you get a broken arm set only as a last resort? I would see a qualified mental health professional and get some help with depression. That doesn't necessarily mean medication, but can include cognitive behavior therapy.

Life does not have to be so hard.

Yes, I think exercise helps mood tremendously. It won't do much for clinical depression, but if you are experiencing situational depression, it can help. Just having that time to yourself to focus on you is wonderful, and scheduling exercise into your day can be a great motivator to get the rest of your life organized as well. Losing weight just makes you feel better physically and mentally in general, but as a mom, it's nice to be able to tick off some check boxes (do workout, logging food, staying under calories) and know that task is done for the day when so much of your day-to-day activities are endless chores like dishes, laundry, or cleaning up after people.

Yes, find a therapist. You needn't commit to taking anti-depressants. Try talk therapy first.

For me exercise is "me" time, it improves my mood, my health and my body so I do believe it is good for you. Happiness and sadness is in the way you choose to look at things. I do not like mood altering drugs but agree some people may need them. If you haven't tried the all natural approach like choosing to be happier, eating right, exercising etc then maybe you should try talking to a doctor, life is too short to be sad!

yes, it's worth a try. do it for your awesome husband and kids

A mixture of counselling, exercise, possible medications will ALL help. I think it's very important to find out the WHY you are feeling low - is it because you don't have any alone time, do you need meds, has something happened in the past, etc etc. I have spent time with a psychologist, am on medications, got back into exercising. Every part of it has helped me to be the person I love being. Speaking with a psychologist was the worst and most painful thing I ever did, I found out stuff that I had suppressed for so so long but it was also the most powerful thing I did to better myself and be a happier person within. Over time I learned to use strategies to get me through the difficult moments.
Exercise empowers me, I feel awesome afterwards, it's a total focus on me time. At times I damn well hate it while doing it but afterwards I feel amazing even with the aches and soreness following a tough workout.
Medication has lessened my anxiety and I have gained so much self confidence and don't have the social anxiety that imprisoned me in my earlier years.
There is help available, make it a priority to put yourself first and get the help that is there and that you are entitled to, to enable you to be the person you want to be.

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Agree with others, if you are experiencing profound depression and especially if you are having thoughts about harming yourself or others, please do not wait, get help NOW. The national suicide prevention helpline is 1-800-273-8255 and they have caring people staffing the lines who can help you.

As to your other question...I suffered a lot with depression in my life and exercise has been one of the best helps for it...however, it's the exercise itself, not getting thinner, that has helped. The problems you have in your life now will not magically disappear if you lose weight. I have a coworker who had weight loss surgery thinking all her problems would disappear once she was smaller...it didn't work out that way. She is a happier person, but her life is very different than what it was or even what she hoped it would be.

Sometimes just making one, small positive change towards feeling better and having a better life can help a lot, as can making a plan for how you are going to fix/change things...good luck to you and I hope you feel better soon.

I think exercise will help, with a caveat. It needs to be an exercise you enjoy and will continue. If it becomes another chore, especially a chore that gets skipped, it can become another source of negative feelings. Just taking a walk every night while listening to music could help, it gives you some time to unplug, and yes, natural mood lifting from endorphin.

If you never seem to get out of the negative mood, you probably should talk to a psychiatrist or therapist. It may not be drugs you need but someone who can listen and offer help.

When was the last time you had a physical? If it's been a while you might want to go in and rule out any physical causes that could be making things worse.