Maybe that’s why they both do nothing for me
Yeah, I have severe (suicidal) depression and exercise doesn’t do shit for me. Sometimes it makes things worse even.
The meds have never worked lol
Don’t have much to add to this conversation, but I really hope things get better for you both.
u n me both lol
I guess I should clarify that they don’t do literally nothing, it’s that neither helps long-term. And yes, same as you, sometimes they have negative effects.
Medication-induced insomnia, plus dealing with a society of assholes every time I try to go on a bike ride, yay…
“It helps as much as medication” is not the same as “it helps the same people who are helped by medication”.
Ooh, science brainteaser: design one or more experiments that could be used to test this hypothesis
Depression is a label used to describe a combination of symptoms, but the cause of this combination can differ from person to person. That’s why in some cases meds and exercise might not help. Unfortunately there’s just still a lot we don’t know about the different causes.
It’s also why meds OR exercise may not help.
I hate these articles because they imply that anti-depressants aren’t useful (“just excercise more!”). In my personal experience, having had about 20 years of depression and suicidal ideation since I was a child, nothing worked until I finally was on venlafaxine. That drug seriously saved and transformed my life, and I hate that there are people that will read this article for whom it might be the only treatment that will work for them, but they’ll try excercise, not get better, and blame themselves because they always could have exercised more.
Depression is a symptom of likely different hidden diseases, and some treatments will only work for some of them. That’s why it’s not uncommon for patients to need to try multiple medications before finding one that treats their underlying disease (for example, the first drug I tried, wellbutrin, actually exaccerbated my depression).
Likely excercise can be a successful treatment for some people, but it won’t work for everyone, and a headline that says it’s as effective as medication fails to communicate that that’s averaged across a population. Just like how a typical anti-depressant is only somewhat effective (amazing for some, nothing for others), I imagine exercise is the same.
they imply that anti-depressants aren’t useful
The title says they’re just as effective as excercise. The only way to intrepret this as saying medication isn’t useful is if you think excercise isn’t useful either.
It can be used in a “why do you take meds when you could just as well exercise instead, it’s just as useful” way.
Citation: Exercise for Depression: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004366.pub7/full
Its bullshit, and i hate it, but it does help a bit…
I feel like we all intuitively knew this but every few months a study comes out and headlines say “exercise does nothing to help depression” or “exercise does heaps to help depression” so I have no idea what the actual truth is on this.
I have seen the exact opposite. Every couple years, a new study finds that exercise helps with depression. People boohoo it or ignore it or say that’s obvious and then it repeats a couple years later.
To be fair, I think the problem is that exercise helps many or most people, but knowing that doesn’t help anyone to start exercising when they’re depressed.
There’s also a lot of people who take studies like these and use them to argue that medications are all bad and everyone should just exercise instead. The Maha nuts and the naturalistic fallacy lovers they spawned from are prime examples. Mental health conditions that are in the category of “normal thing to a disordered degree” such as depression, anxiety, and adhd have a ton of people who just blanket oppose medication as a solution. And I think a lot of people react to these studies as though they’re those people.
Like, I’m a huge fan of regular exercise and time in nature. I think both are vital to most people’s mental health and if possible are a great first step for many mental illnesses. But I depend on prescription stimulants to be able to do such things consistently and safely. My first step is meds, and the lifestyle stuff is important and built on that foundation.
Not doing anything at all is as effective as (most) medication in treating depression. One needs to find the correct medication for themselves.
This definitely tracks on a personal level (though I’ve never been diagnosed with depression and never tried meds) - if I get outside and do something - almost anything - I feel 100% better.
It gets me like 10-20% better; but when I’m in the pits, 10-20% is a big deal.
This doesn’t surprise me. While I take some low dose meds, the periods of my life where I exercise even just a little, are significantly better overall. I started my current low intensity program now and I have much more energy to balance work and being a dad and husband. Glad the science is backing it up, but I hope this doesn’t cause people to just assume exercise will help everyone with much greater burdens than I have.
Endorphins, better blood oxygen capacity, much better sleep, eventually better stamina in everyday life … all very tangible benefits of daily exercise. You don’t need a gym or equipment either. Running, walking, burpees, crunches, push-ups, maybe a pull-up bar can take you pretty far on their own.
None of this will directly fix all of your problems but it can better equip you to deal with stuff. A diet that is mostly fruits and veggies helps a ton too but that’s a whole other discussion.
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Study finds wrong.
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