Sep 03 2009
Why is exercise so hard when you are depressed?
From personal experience I know how hard it is to exercise when you are struggling with depression. On some days I was struggling to get out of bed and the thought of getting dressed and out the front door seemed like an impossibility.
I now know that having regular exercise is the most effective depression treatment
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t say that exercise is the only strategy to pursue - just the most important. It is not just me saying that - over 3000 people from both the Ultrafeedback and the Blackdog Institute survey results said the same thing. For a free copy of the most effective depression treatments research report please go to:
http://www.iambackfromthebrink.com/landing4.html
We don’t know exactly why this is so, but I have a hypothesis that it comes down to two main factors:
- Exercise stimulates the feel good endorphins in the brain and also gets you out of the rut of being inside all the time.
- Completing some task each day provides a sense of achievement.
It doesn’t really matter why it makes you feel better - just do what works.
So how do we start doing something so good for us that we don’t feel like doing?
Feelings aren’t facts is a www.grow.net.au saying and when we are depressed we often have to go against those lethargic and hopeless feelings.
It’s not a simple process, but let me share what I have found after talking with hundreds of people on this topic. I know there is something substantial in this as some pharmaceutical companies are already seeking to duplicate the effect exercise has on the body by creating a new pill to take!!!!!!!!!
7 thoughts on getting started
- Find something you (or used to) enjoy doing - quite frankly it doesn’t matter what type of exercise you pursue - walking, jogging, dancing, cycling, rollerblading, swimming, treadmill, exercising the dog, cross country skiing etc - to be regular it is important to do something you enjoy.
- Start small - a big mistake many people make is the belief they have to exercise for two hours each day to make a difference. When you are depressed you want “whisker goals” not “stretch goals”. If you are stuck in bed or watching TV all day - for the first week decide to put on your walking shoes and just get out to the letter box. Once you’re there you may decide to walk further but you don’t have to - all you have to do is get out to front gate. Alternatively, if you are stuck in front of the TV decide to put on a timer for 5 minutes and walk up and down on the spot until the timer goes off - you get the idea. If you are not as incapacitated by your depression set yourself a “just right” goal - not too hard not too easy. I started walking 15 minutes per day and then over a period of 4 weeks built it up to 40 minutes per day.
- Just start - believe me just starting the exercise is 70% of the effort.
- Resolve to exercise everyday but don’t beat yourself up if you don’t I started off exercising every second day but often couldn’t remember if I had done it the previous day or not. Believe it or not I found it easier to exercise 6 days a week and give myself Sunday off - what a pleasure it was to sleep in on those days. If you don’t make it everyday - don’t beat yourself up - we do far too much of that when we are depressed any way - just accept it and resolve to recommence tomorrow.
- Consider exercising with a loved one or group Many people find it hard to exercise themselves but find it really difficult to let a friend or family member down. For some reason there is a greater commitment when it is with loved ones. The other benefit of exercising with others is that it also becomes a social activity which can help the problem of isolation.
- Try to be in the moment when you exercise - observe flowers, plants, insects, birds, animals, noises, smells, etc when you are walking. Some people keep a walking journal and describe being relatively free of rumination when they are concentrating on what they are going to be writing about when they return.
- Don’t be afraid to mix and match if you get sick of walking for example don’t be afraid to try something else like learn a martial art, or join a gym. Some people utilise a trainer to help provide the variety.
Be gentle on yourself - It is not how many times we stumble but how many times we get up and keep trying that will determine our fulfillment and sense of well being.
What has been your experience?
We have a wealth of wisdom amongst our members. What has been your experience with exercise? What have you found helpful to get over that lethargic feeling and start? How do you keep going when you get bored or don’t feel like it? Please share it by responding to the blog below. You only need to put your first name and email address (which won’t be published).
Kind Regards
Graeme
Hello Graeme,
I have been receiving your blog updates etc for some time and have found them very informative. I don’t suffer from depression, but my sister has for over 21 years and I have seen her struggling to cope with little good support.
I know she is a lot better when she has regular ordered excersise, like having a job to go to. Having someting set like that makes her do it, whereas if she just has to do it for her own sake, it just doesn’t happen.
She doesn’t have the internet available and does not know how to use it, so I print out the blogs or articles I hope will help her and post them to her.
Is it possible for your blog site to have a print tag where the blog and comments can be printed without all the extra bits that make it so big and use extra ink?
Thankyou so much for sharing your experiences with those who are so desperatly in need of such support.
Nan
I have to agree 100% with this. Initially when I learnt that exercise was the number one strategy for gettign well, I didn’t know HOW iw as going to manage. As you said Graeme, just the thought of getting out of bed was exhausting. However, once I learned that exercise might mean just walking to the front door, then to the letter box, then the end of the street etc., I knew that I could do this. So I began my exercise ‘regimen’ bywalking out the front dorr and standing on the porch. After a while I progressed to making it to the letterbox. It actually wasn’t too long after that I was taking my dogs for short walks again, and finally I was taking them for lengthy walks and varying the route I took so none of us got bored !!! I couldn’t believe that from only just getting to the letterbox, I oculd now walk for a good 30 or 40 minutes with little effort.
I found too, that once I had established an exercise regimen, it became easier to add on another strategy, then another and another etc., It took only a couple months in the end, but soon I was achieving each of the seven strategies you talked about in your webcast. I truly believe that it was by following these startegies that I was able to get well, and stay well after what was my worst ever episode of depression. In a not so serious episode several years ago, it was five years before I was able to return to work, whereas this time, I returne to work within the year ~ something I could never have imagined that day I walked to the letterbox !
I have added one of my own strategies, and funnily enough it follows on from the Grow saying you mentioned in your email ~ ‘Feeling aren’t Facts’. My own strategy is not to confuse feelings with reality. So often we ‘assume’ something is happening, being said etc., when all too often, what’s really happening is far from what we think. It is better to clarify the position so you are dealing with reality, rather than dealing with inaccurate beliefs. Inaccurate beliefs are more often than not, negative, and just feed into our feelings of lowered self-worth.
Thanks Graeme, another interesting blog
Take care, Kathy
Very true Graeme - sometimes it needs us to self talk ourselves to get out of bed by saying “put the left foot on the floor, now the right foot, stand up and walk”, and keep this self talk happening through each tiny step so that, like Kathy we can develop it at our own pace. I like the bit about paying attention to the flowers or whatever I am seeing. Thanks again. Marney
Hi Nan, Kathy, and Marley,
Wonderful comments from all of you.
Nan with regards to printing from the blog, I will look into it and if I can make that amendment I will certainly do it.
The other way you could do it is to open WORD or another word processing program and then copy and past the part that you want from the blog onto the word document - then print it. The beauty of that is you then always have a copy of it on your computer if you would like to pass it on to anything else.
Thank you Kathy for sharing your personal experience with exercising while depressed. How wonderful it was to hear how to progressed from the letterbox til three months later having good healthy outdoor adventures with your dogs. Such wonderful progress to hear that you are now back at work again. I also love your strategy of challenging your feelings by doing a reality check. Congratulations Kathy.
Thank you Marney for sharing your strategy of just placing one foot in front of the other. We get overwhelmed when we think of big things and it is so easy to forget when you are depressed that tiny things can lead to bigger things.
Kind Regards
Graeme
Graeme.
I came across a book.
The Mindful way through Depression
Freeing yourself from Chronic Unhappiness.
by,
M Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn
Very helpful.
Have a good day
Anthony
I have discovered that Play is a vital part of activation of exercise. We think about exercise as a task that we have to begin in order to get well. By discovering that child like play we once had to just kick a ball or fly a kite or sit on a beach and make a sandcastle we begin to escape the boundaries that keep us from engaging in activities of exercise. I totally agree that it has to be ‘Baby Step’ out of bed even onto the lounge, then out the door and to the letterbox. A Movie I saw quite some years ago and now have purchased it on DVD is called What about Bob. Bill Murray is Bob and Richard Dryffus is his psychiatrist. Of course Bill drives his Psychiatrist round the bend with his ‘Baby Steps’ into his life while on vacation. It is a funny movie but it does show the ‘Baby Steps’ principal. I would recommend this movie to anyone it will give you a belly laugh and also give you some food for thought.
Going further that the GROW saying which is quite good wisdom.. Feelings are not right or wrong, neither negative nor positive. Feelings are a product of situations. It becomes right or wrong – positive or negative when we enact on the feeling. So many people see anger as a very negative feeling, but anger in its self is neither, it is what one does with the anger.. Look at what some people have achieved by harnessing their anger to a positive Endeavour. Ian Kernan of the ‘Clean Up Australia’ campaign. He was angry of how we indiscriminative threw our rubbish away. Now we have come so far since he began.
Depression and Anxiety plus chronic pain is a vicious cycle. One feeds the other the pain makes it difficult to exercise which is really good for Arthritis pain, but then the body is sore cannot do the things that once were so easily done. So Depression sets in and it continues the cycle. Now when it comes to exercise I do what I can within the limits of my pain, but to exercise the mind by playing a game at least activated the brain. One of my friends has found it so helpful for her depression to play a current game on Facebook tending to a virtual farm. She now is getting up and showed and dressed to go to the computer at the times to tend to the farm. Then now she is up she has gone out to visit a friend. Where as previously she was staying in a darkened room all day and night.. We have to find our own equation of life to get the best outcome for ourself.
Thanks Graeme always good to read your blogs..
But I still have many Questions regarding the GROW method..still not answered or addressed from this organisation… It is such a shame they will not communicate with me.. I am sadened by their response to me and could never refer anyone to thier method as it stands.. I would appreciate any comments on these 12 Step Programs.
I’m getting up at 6 each day now and walking for 40 minutes or so. I might take the dog for a walk late afternoon as well. I dont feel much happier but it feels ok. It also creates some sort of routine for my mornings as well and I’m sleeping better [5-7 hrs as opposed to 3-5 hrs before.]
Hi Chris and Marc,
Thank you for your comments.
Chris thanks for recommending the movie “What about Bob” - I love watching movies and if it helps to convey a principle in a funny manner - all the better.
With regards to you comments about GROW - it has been very helpful for many people but I would have to say that for an organisation that promotes personal change it is incredibly slow to change itself. Having said that, it is the only national mental health support group and many people receive a lot of benefit from the social support it provides. One of its greatest drawbacks is that it is still using material that is over 30 years old and it’s some of it’s language and principles are clearly outdated. I always advise people to try something (if it has been shown to help others) and if it doesn’t work for them - move on. I have helped create a new support group and that may be something that can be duplicated once it has established itself.
Marc, with regards to you starting to exercise - congratualations - well done. Don’t be concerned about still feeling unhappy as sometimes it takes time. The fact that you are now sleeping better is definitely a plus. I don’t say exercise is the only strategy to pursue - just the most effective for the vast majority of people.
The 7 strategies I advocate are:
1. Exercise
2. Support of family and friends
3. Psychological counselling - seeing things as they really are
4. Fulfilling work - be it paid or voluntary
5. Meditation/relaxation
6. Nutrition
7. Medication
I am very close to releasing a CD and workbook program called BEATING DEPRESSION TOGETHER in which I outline how to incorporate these activities into your day to day life.
This contains the material from my webinar program which Kathy was alluding to in her comment.
Hang in there.
Kind Regards
Graeme
Thanks Graeme for being so open and answering my question on GROW and 12 steps.. I would love to know how to put the right sort of pressure on the organisation for change without it getting nasty so to speak as I have had a somewhat not nice reaction from one person in a rather high position in Grow.. I would like it if you could email me privately anything which could be helpful. You see I can see where change is needed but it falls on deaf ears.. I would love to know more about alternative group as I feel the group situation is invaluable but with a lot of changes to the structure of what is an outdated method..I do not want to go into details on here so I would love to talk further to you on this subject.
You certainly are doing well with your endeavorer for mental health.. I believe we need to break down the stigma.. That is why I am partisipating in a Living Book presentation at our local library during October..
I think you are on the right track with your 7 strategies.. it is a combination that has so much potential to bring about so many more positive outcomes, and even when falling one is able to get up much quicker than previously. Being involved in a fulfilling way I feed is the most important thing for me.. But I do have to get up and get involved which means exercise too.. If by any chance you are up around your old stamping grounds of the mid north coast I know that 2BOB will be having several spots for community partisipation on air and I am sure our community would love to hear you..
Keep up your good work… but when your books come out in an audio book I would love to know.. I did ask you about it when I was at your talk at Forster but have not heard any more.. Reading is difficult for me and I think many others so an audio book would be wonderful..
Thanks again
regards Chris
Hi Graeme, Always good to hear from you, and to hear other peoples hints on their self help or rehabilitation strategies. When out exercising ,walking, its advantagious to walk where the scene / surrounds are edifying, e.g. along a beach, a park rather than a highway or main thoroughfare. And to think pleasant thoughts whilst out and about. To dwell on the warmth of the sun, the beautiful trees etc., in other words train your thoughts to be thankful to give thanks.
Regards Helen
I am new to this site. Thank you - it is empowering.
Marc, from my reading it takes 6 to 8 weeks before real benefit from regular exercise is felt. I guess that is why I find it hard to keep it up each morning when not feeling benefit!
Hilary
Hi Graeme,
I have been in a manic episode for the better part of last year, culminating in a lengthy hospitalisation, and terrible problems associated with over spending and potential marriage breakdown,all associated with Bipolar Disorder.
Unfortunately, what goes up, must come down. And depression is what I am experiencing now. My Pyschiatrist won’t put me on antidepressants for fear of cycling into mania again and repeating the potential problems .
Upon surfing the net, I came across your site and am particularly interested in the 7 strategies you mention. Especially exercise. My main problem I suffer with depression, is the diurnal variation, with the symptoms being much worse in the morning which makes getting out of bed so difficult.
I must say that when I do exercise, which I do regularly. Not only does it benefit the dog, but my mood lifts too.
Thanks for the positive comments and words of encouragement.
Peter
i know how helpful exercise can be, but my biggest problem is not getting out of bed but knowing that whenever I am on my own I cry so walking is out of the question for me. umfortunately I live in a small isolated community and I don’t have the option of walking with someone else.
Any suggestions?
Paula
to Paula, maybe doing some form of meditation might help. i have a copy of a Tai Chi dvd and it is excellent. It is a very good form of exercise and helps you relax and you cant worry about things because you have to concentrate on the slow movements you need to do and your breathing. It is a gentle form of exercise and I got the dvd originally from the local library. It doesnt cost anything to join the library and if your town doesnt have one then maybe there is a mobile library that comes to town. good luck!