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Comment by verasio | Hacker News Reader

Personal anecdote: During a bad depressive time I saw a psychiatrist who enthusiastically prescribed serious antidepressant medications like they were M&M's. One to lift me up, one to help me sleep, one to take the edge off, one just in case an anxious episode occurred during the day, etc, etc. That kind of thing. And he said to me "There is still nothing I can prescribe you that is as effective as exercise."

Specifically, heavy weights.

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I have a similar anecdote! Except mine ends with me becoming a marathon runner. I'm kinda glad none of the pills worked or else I might not have discovered the best natural anti-depressant.

The unfortunate thing is that often times when one is depressed, exercise is the the last thing on one's mind. And it also doesn't help that it can take a long time to have noticeable effects.

That's the most frustrating part of depression- You can have a nice protective mindset and habits carefully constructed and working great and then depression comes along and throws it all into darkness. You really have to work to keep pushing ahead and through it. I literally visualize putting one foot in front of the other to get through the hardest days.

I had a similar mindset change the last time I had a prolonged depressive episode. Usually, I would be either happy and productive and feel on top of the world, or I would feel like shit and do nothing.

My recent epiphany is a lot like "putting one foot in front of the other". It's mostly a change in values--instead of worrying so damn much about my own happiness, I just kind of thought, "I don't have to ENJOY being a high-functioning human being, but at least I can BE a high-functioning human being." Grim determination isn't really that much fun, but at least it breaks the part of the depressive spiral where you feel useless and your obligations continue to pile up.

The same happened to me, sort of. I never once had a psych say "You might try exercising to treat your depression." They would only prescribe medication. Then a few years ago my GP, who took over maintaining my prescriptions, asked me if I exercised regularly. I wasn't. So I started going 3 times a week, then 5-6, and I've been much less reliant on my medication to keep my spirits up. It's pretty shocking to me that this is neither a standard question psychs ask nor a suggested (additional) treatment modality.

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