Workouts and depression

How do you know that you wouldn't feel worse sans exercise?

Working out helps my depression, especially when it is super intense and I sweat a lot. I think that chemically we are all different and that not everything will work for everyone, however, you may also consider asking a doctor. Until I was on the right medicine for my thyroid issues working out made me angry, and before I was diagnosed I didn't always have the energy to finish which just made me more sad.

I think that others have mentioned, also, that really loving what you are doing (or at least liking it) is what gives you that extra boost of dopamine and endorphins. Also try working out with someone else for that boost of oxytocin. I'm a nature freak so hiking and swimming in natural waters are one of my favorite workouts. I try to bring people with me every time, usually my kids or siblings. I also use cize because I love to dance, which means I'm having fun and laughing the whole time. PiYo I got to help me with my injuries because cize was too much jumping around sometimes, but also because I love yoga but prefer to keep it moving. I also have found some awesome belly dance aerobic instruction on YouTube for days where that is the most appealing. I think variety helps, too.

Being depressed sucks a lot. I have major depression disorder and I don't take any meds but those for thyroid. What keeps me from falling apart or hiding myself away is a combination of my health and fitness regimen, keeping myself accountable with challenge groups (which keeps me social, which means oxyticin), and constant personal development. As a full time student, mom, & entreprenuer, finding time for feel-good reading is difficult but worth it. I wish you the best of luck and please feel free to message/add me if I can help in any way.

I'm wondering if vitamin D might help. My US geography is not good. If you moved from a southern state to a more northern one you could be sunshine deficient causing you to become low in mood because your body is not able to have the sun to keep your vitamin D levels up. You would not have enough time returning on vacations to increase your sun exposure adequately quickly enough to make a significant difference. One recent piece of research recommends everyone in the UK take Vit D at least for the winter months!

I suffered PND after my 2nd child was born, had meds for a while. Im now 9wks post partum with 3rd child and feel great as long as I keep doing things. Either just go out for a walk with the pushchair and kids or a proper workout. I always feel better and less stressed after a cardio or resistance workout so I am starting to add more workouts into my week. I think exercise does help at least it did for me x

It could be the type of exercise. My mood's generally pretty good and relaxed after a couple hours of swimming, but I do fifteen minutes of aerobics and I'm ready to bite someone's head off. As for depression, it tends to flare up if I have a bad performance day, but I'm much less negative about myself than I used to be.

The most cited studies on exercise and depression are regarding an hour a day of aerobic exercise, which isn't realistic for everyone. There may be new studies regarding resistance workouts as well. (And for a study to be a success, to say the treatment works, it just has to produce a reduction in symptoms above and beyond the control group that didn't do the exercise, there's no study that says it worked for everyone, so there's nothing inherently wrong with you if you're working out and not seeing an improvement in mood. And at the least you know there are benefits besides the mood so it's not like it's wasted effort.)

There are some very well done studies regarding being outdoors for exercise, with benefits starting after 5 minutes. You might like to take a look at this one: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3710158/

You mentioned you're in school, I think-- can you get mental health services through the health center at your school? Exercise could be a good building block in an all around program. Good luck.

Just to share a personal side of things.. I've always suffered from bi-polar disorder and manic depression, unmedicated. Being a guinea pig for a while to see if something does or does not work terrifies me and further ignites my anxiety. I'm not totally against medicine, but I'm trying my kitten off to work this out on my own.

Anyway, The month of July I simply maintained(Thank goodness because if I had gained it would have spiraled me further). I still worked out, but it never boosted my mood. Most of that month my moods were wildly unpredictable and I was deeply pulled down by depression. I thought back about what was different about the past few weeks and I had been "comforting" myself with a lower calorie version of ice cream... a lot. But it was always within my maintenance calories, no biggie? It had some sort of sugar alcohol in it, I forget.

I was just so exhausted by my mood swings I decided to really try something different and cut grains, added sugars and fruit. Never done that before in my life and I know it's really extreme but I just wanted to try it.
With the exception of testing things out to see how I react to fruits and chocolate(still not so well on my stomach or skin) I have been depression free for 25 days. My resting heart rate has dropped by 10bpm. (Also, yoga helped some days but not all days)

ETA: Since my moods are so much more stable, it's easier to keep within my calories without emotional eating/bingeing.

Like I said, it's extreme and I still am going to allow myself maybe one serving of fruit a day and the occasional treat once or twice a month.. but the effects of lowering it has sincerely changed my mental health around. I'm excited to see how it pans out(and to indulge in a piece of birthday cake next month).

tldr: Look into more than just exercise for natural help.

12Sarah2015 wrote: »

Maybe exercise with music?

Adding music that I absolutely love helps me

It might be a hormonal imbalance that working out aggravates more. Such as too much testosterone maybe. Id get hormones checked.