It's also absolutely amazing for mental health. It's a shame it isn't considered a first line of treatment for mental health because it's super effective (and free).
It’s tough because I’ve known this for 15 years or so, but when I’m in a hole it somehow seems like it’ll only make things worse. I understand why someone who hasn’t had the experience of feeling better from exercise would see the entire premise as unlikely or absurd.
This is the same problem with CPAP machines - they nominally have a huge efficacy rate, and a rock-bottom rate of people sticking to them, because for a lot of people, they're deeply invasive and uncomfortable, and insurance (in the US) in many cases has stopped paying for them if their obsessive babysitting doesn't swear you've used it 95% of the time, so people just say "hell with it" and stop stressing about, say, not being able to take a hike for a few days of camping because their insurance will stop paying for it.
It all goes back to the fundamental premise of "if your solution requires changing people, you will not succeed."
Also how is this related to depression, you said “this is the same problem” after you mentioned depression.
CPAP machines are often prescribed for people who are not necessarily at acute risk of death so much as having no consistent high quality sleep, which has a lot of complicated possible knock-on effects. Unfortunately, since it takes a long time sometimes to notice positive effects, while they're uncomfortable to use from the start (among other reasons), it becomes difficult to convince people to keep using them for unseen benefits. (To my understanding, yes, insurance will just stop paying for it if you don't hit some threshold of usage. I've not had insurance that did that, but I have personally known multiple people who had to avoid certain activities because they would have been away from electricity for too long.)
Similarly, if you suggest exercise, an activity that requires a significant investment of mental effort for many people to engage in absent habit, as a sole treatment for a condition where people sometimes cannot manage to invest enough effort to eat, an activity which many people enjoy doing, it will not be constructive.
(I'm not arguing against either as part of a larger treatment plan, but if you don't consider the reasons that people might not have done them beyond "I didn't know it was an option", then you will often end up giving advice that is technically correct but not usefully actionable.)
I started jogging a month or so ago and have definitely seen an improvement in my mental health.
I've had friends able to start exercising a few months in their treatments, when the medication gave them more mental leeway. Before that they were fighting to wake up and properly eat, and do anything really.
(Would be great if there were actually prescribed work-compatible supervised exercise sessions on offer, but AFAIK that's not a thing offered anywhere by any health service)
It feels a bit like the US approach to pain management – instead of massages or physical therapy, some opioid pill is cheaper to prescribe.
I can't fix my social anxiety through workout. But I sure can feel better about myself when doing it and then approach those anxieties with more confidence, but the anxieties are still there.
> my social anxiety
Same way an opioid pill is still prescribed in cases of cancer or severe pain. Just that there are probably better, milder alternatives that don't have as many side effects that could fit a lot of these people with milder problems.
So yeah, my takeaway is we should embrace workout, or maybe not necesserily straight workout, but just simple movement/exercise, more than meds. Especially here in germany I notice a very bad/prejudice mindset about doctors. I myself had very good experience. Either just because of pure luck or because I went to them, because I geniuenely believe that they are professionals who can help me. And that's what they (most of the time, not always) did.
For most folks, that connection doesn't exist. Hell, I work out 3x a week and even I don't notice the obvious side-effects even though I'm certain they exist.
When we're dealing with ordinary people living their daily lives, the idea that something so "non-mental" - in the most literal sense "physical" can have an effect on the mental, is a really tough thing to swallow, understand and hell, even percept when things are going well?
Sorry. But I'm an avid gym-goer and even I have to remind myself of the positive it's doing. We're not all the same.
Maybe you're one of the people that for whatever reason exercise does nothing to - though I highly doubt it. I'm not sure what training you do exactly but to reap most of the benefits the workout should include moderate cardio work. I don't think going to lift weights for a 40-60 minutes with plenty of rest between sets will cut it. Running for 45+ minutes is what most people should aim for, of course beginners will do less.
Anyway I agree with you - for most folks the connection doesn't exist, perhaps its time this changed.
I didn't exercise basically at all for well over decade. But I felt fine, wasn't overweight or gaining weight or anything like that.
But I decided that I should probably exercise, so have been for awhile now. Fortunately I have what appears to be a very high amount of self control so I'm able to just force myself to go exercise even though I hate every second of it and it just feels like a waste of time.
I haven't noticed any changes to anything that I can think of since going from no exercise to 3-4 days a week of about 1 hour sessions of zone 2+ exercise.
I just keep waiting for this magical benefit that some people talk about, but I get nothing.
I'm only doing it because if I don't, supposedly "bad things" will happen to my body in the future.
Also - don't take it the wrong way but it's going to be very hard for you to notice anything positive about the whole thing if you're convinced you hate every minute of it. I'm not sure how you can get out of this mindset but I think it's important that you do. Or try different kinds of exercise that you don't hate.
I was defining zone 2 mainly by how it feels. Not too hard and where I can breathe fairly normally and easily have a conversation. But also by the heartrate being in the 65-75% range, so for age 36 I was keeping it around 125-130. My resting heart rate is 52 but not sure if that matters. It's always been that even when I was more than a decade of sedentary.
Another reason I was doing all zone 2 is because I thought that I had some sort of aerobic deficiency syndrome thing from being sedentary for so long. Basically my heart rate would shoot up into zone 3 with pretty minimal exercise, and I read that the only way to fix this was to do lots and lots of long zone 2 exercise for months.
I'm sure if I did more fun things it would be easier to be enthusiastic about it, but I am not even sure what active activity I would like. Sure I like hiking, but that's something I like to do on a trip somewhere exotic like a state or national park, not something I can easily do regularly locally.
My energy levels honestly feel somewhat more depleted when I am working out. Like I just want to take a nap after a workout and I feel like nodding off. Not like instantly, but maybe like an hour after or so.
I just haven't been able to understand or feel the connection people find with exercise. Like I said, I never felt any issue or lacking in my energy levels or mood, or sleep or focus when I was more or less completely sedentary, and I always watched what I ate so I was healthy in that regard (perfect scores on biometric blood tests), normal weight, etc.
So exercise just feels like a time waster, just an uncomfortable time sweating etc and overall possibly a little more tired and drained because of it.
My only motivation for keeping doing it is the prospect that it will help prevent some sort of future complications and health issues, and I guess that's good enough for me to convince myself to keep going.
Hating it is maybe too strong of a word, but I definitely don't look forward to it in any way and I just want to get it over with for the day so I can move onto something that I actually enjoy. It just feels like a chore. Something that we need to do to live a good life, so we do it.
Anyway good luck! I hope you'll take away from this that its OK to change /mix things up and see what works for you.
Exercise does nothing for severe depression.
It doesn’t make the bad thoughts go away. It doesn’t turn off the bad feelings. I’d still be diagnosed with severe depression if I went in with a fresh slate. What it does is give me the energy to endure it, though. The physiological symptoms subside quite a bit, and it makes a meaningful difference.
It also helps more than medication since I seem to be a non-responder. It’s a big help in my life.
Neither is therapy or taking chemicals. Yet we whole heartedly push it on people. Is it easy to go to a complete stranger and start talking about your most intimate childhood issues? Sometimes for years on? That is if you're lucky enough to find a therapist you actually click with and who knows what he/she is doing which is far from guaranteed (and that is if you can even afford the whole thing). I don't think it is easy or rewarding at all, to me running sounds easier. But as a society we just became conditioned to operate in our current bizarre ways - it doesn't mean its easy or sensible it just is.
> Just saying "you should do more exercise" is completely useless
Since the vast majority don't see exercise as a viable mental health therapy (as far as I know) it is indeed a bit useless to say it. If it was taken more seriously by the mental health community and society in general - then people would take it more seriously. By taking it seriously I mean a whole societal change. I see no reason why exercise shouldn't be subsidized just like other therapies sometimes are. Yes you will get a subsidy for a personal trainer who will work with you because you need it for your mental health - why isn't this happening at all?