Mental Health and Exercise

As has been discussed, exercise alone won't cure mental illness but it really can help with fighting it, and it's individual, i.e. it'll help some people more than others. but in my case it definitely did help a lot. but I would never recommend it as a substitute for seeking professional help... just as something to do in addition to seeking professional help.

you cannot make this sweeping statement.

it is not accurate for everyone. popping pills and going to therapy does not work for everyone, so just the same as your generalization, one could not make the generalization that medication and therapy will help everyone with mental illness, because it will not.

You're being really oversensitive to sweeping generalistions and you seem to be projecting your own issues onto what other people are saying. Are you saying you know of a case where exercise, and exercise alone cured a mental illness? If so, then great for that person, but that would be very uncommon.

And I didn't say that popping pills or going to therapy will work for everyone - in fact I didn't mention pills at all. You're reading stuff into my post that's not there. Also, seeking professional help does not mean "popping pills and going to therapy" it means seeking professional help, which involves a professional working with you to help you find what works best for you, which may or may not include "popping pills and going to therapy" amongst other possible approaches. And I didn't say it would work for everyone, I said that exercise should not be a substitute to seeking professional help.

diagnosed MDD and social phobia/anxiety. I've noticed that the days i go on walks around the block, whether it be alone or with my brother, helps my mood a bit. Does it help tremendously? No, but that would be due to another mental disorder of mine. :grumble: I'm not on any medication for these things.

As has been discussed, exercise alone won't cure mental illness but it really can help with fighting it, and it's individual, i.e. it'll help some people more than others. but in my case it definitely did help a lot. but I would never recommend it as a substitute for seeking professional help... just as something to do in addition to seeking professional help.

you cannot make this sweeping statement.

it is not accurate for everyone. popping pills and going to therapy does not work for everyone, so just the same as your generalization, one could not make the generalization that medication and therapy will help everyone with mental illness, because it will not.

You're being really oversensitive to sweeping generalistions and you seem to be projecting your own issues onto what other people are saying. Are you saying you know of a case where exercise, and exercise alone cured a mental illness? If so, then great for that person, but that would be very uncommon.

And I didn't say that popping pills or going to therapy will work for everyone - in fact I didn't mention pills at all. You're reading stuff into my post that's not there. Also, seeking professional help does not mean "popping pills and going to therapy" it means seeking professional help, which involves a professional working with you to help you find what works best for you, which may or may not include "popping pills and going to therapy" amongst other possible approaches. And I didn't say it would work for everyone, I said that exercise should not be a substitute to seeking professional help.

i don't think i am being oversensitive. it's frustrating me that the idea that it is possible to use alternative methods (in this case diet and exercise and routine specifically) to completely overcome is being ignored. while it may not be very common to the majority, it is possible.

Nowhere did I say that everyone's mental health problem can be completely overcome - this is an idea you've projected into my post somehow. You're assuming I said this when I didn't. I'm talking about what can help. I'm well aware that a lot of mental health problems can never be cured. However, there's still a lot of things that can help.

and while you didn't mention medication, your reference to seeking professional help aided my assumption that that would include medication and therapy.

Again, you're assuming that I mean something that I didn't say.

Personally, I never had any medication at all in my treatment for PTSD. I'm not against medication, it works very well for some people but in my case medication was not possible so I had to do without, and with just talking therapy (CBT combined with some other things that work well for PTSD) and lifestyle changes (exercise, exposure to sunlight on a daily basis, being more active, plus the CBT involved a lot of things I had to do in my own time between sessions)

Professional help includes many different thing and a good professional should go way beyond just standard therapy approaches and medication. I know that's not the experience many people have with it, but that's how it should be and that's how it is with good professionals. Again, it's your assumption that by "professional help" I meant only medication and conventional talking therapy and nothing else.

there is no absolute when treating mental illness. no method should be shunned (unless, of course, it is harmful to the individual).

I never said there was any absolute - I was saying what helped me in my recovery, and giving some general advice. You read some absolutes in there, and not just in my post but in other posts as well.

my initial post here stated that i am very curious at what studies would find that looked at and compared the two: medication and therapy vs. very routine and moderated diet and intense exercise. i remain curious, and would love to see a solid scientific study done on the neurology of two different groups of individuals using the two methods.

You'd have to look at psychology and psychiatry journals for that kind of thing. On a forum like this, you'll get people sharing their own experiences and what worked for them. about 1 in 4 people suffer from some kind of mental health issue, so there are lots of people on here with experiences to share. But there's not likely to be many people who have studied this kind of thing at postgraduate level at university to be able to give you a run down of the current literature.

You need to ask researchers in the field for that kind of thing. But based on what I know, exercise can help a lot with symptomatic relief and management of a condition, but it does not cure it, because the cause of mental illness is not lack of exercise. There are probably some exceptions to that (people are not carbon copies of each other, and mental illness even the same condition may affect two people in very different ways), but my statement that exercise should not be a substitute to seeking professional help still stands, because in the vast majority of cases, that's what's needed, and even if it was a case that lifestyle changes are all that are needed, a good professional who works with the person properly should be able to come to that conclusion as a result of working with the person.

Hi all, I suffered from postpartum depression for over a year after having my son. All I did easiest and sleep. When I was finally diagnosed, I was also diagnosed with PTSD and bipolar disorder. I was put on three different medications that made caused me to gain more weight. Altogether I have gained about 130 pounds and it has been extremely difficult to get it off. With the weight gain comes more depression and the fear that someone will make fun of me and that makes me not want to work out. My grocery shopping lists and cooking sucks because my husband is a crappie eater. He eats nothing but junk and it is in the house all the time. When I try to talk to him about it he gets mad. He gives me the excuse of what am I going to take to work. Now he has my 5 year old autistic son doing the same thing. So to try and lose weight I am finding that I either eat more then 1200 calories or way under 1000 calories without realizing because I get frustrated. There are times when I want to take all the junk and throw it in the trash and tell my husband he is full of doo-doo. I hate having to make two meals too. I feel like I am a doormat and my husband is a 2 year-old unwilling to try new things. Sorry for the rant, but that actually felt good. It gives me a little motivation and makes me want to keep going and not give up. Know one has to respond, I just need to vent sometimes.