this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
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That's lovely but as the article ticks away at the end pretty unrealistic.
Depression is a spectrum. When I was suffering I was still able to go to work and school, I was just in a sort of behavioral rut where that's all I did. Every experience I had felt like eating unseasoned food. There was no joy to it, it was just "if I don't do this I'll die and I guess I don't want that...". I tried Effexor and not only did it not help, it destabilized me pretty badly. Getting into the habit of exercising first thing in the morning every day has really turned that around.
Absolutely everyone I have talked to/seen who has taken effexor has horror stories about it. That drug should not be prescribed.
For me it caused multiple manic episodes. One where I had a seizure. One where I didn't sleep for a week and was hearing voices by the end(and some worse stuff I don't want to mention). Also weird sensory effects. It's been 4 years since I have taken it and I still don't feel like I have recovered from the trauma of that drug.
Exercise has been helping a lot lately tho. I cant say I do it every day but I do a moderately intense exercise session about 1-3 times a week. Intense enough my legs hurt the next day. Tho I do forget to do it some weeks.
I was in the "struggles to get out of bed" category of depression. For me what helped was just doing the absolute minimum amount of exercise I could muster, like jog in place for a min while I waited for my hot pocket to nuke. Just did that every once in a while when I remembered. Having a baseline of occasionally doing it let me build on that over many months to more intense exercises. I'm not going to say my depression is cured but it has very objectively improved. Getting out of bed is not nearly as hard now, and my ability to take care of myself and my environment has improved as well. Looking for work again too.
That's on them. They'd no different than them being to depressed to get up and take their medicine.
If exercise is the best treatment for depression, and someone refuses to exercise.... well, enjoy depression I guess.
One of the problems with depression is that it's corrosive to your internal drive. "Just" getting up and exercising takes the same level of will as "just" getting up and running an ultra-marathon.
Depression isn't just feeling sad. Its depression of the synapses in the brain. This means it takes FAR more effort just to do simple things. One of the areas affected is the executive functioning. This is the part that enables the shift from thinking "I want to exercise" to actually doing it. Effectively it translates will power into action. When this area is depressed it's akin to a car with a damaged gearbox, no amount of revving the engine will just make it work.
It's like "just" fighting off cancer. Depression is an illness. Exercise can be a good treatment for some people but we wouldn't leave it up to a cancer patient to determine and manage their own treatment. Especially when the illness actively prevents the patient from being able to "self medicate" as it were.
Fully agreed on that.
The only proviso is that I think it's less that exercise makes depression better, and more than a lack of exercise makes it worse. It's a subtle distinction, but makes a difference.
Unfortunately, it seems that self driven treatment is the norm. Even worse, if you stop engaging with it (due to being unable to balance everything), it's taken as you are now fine, and you are removed from care, and so back to square 1.
hustle culture is destroying us
How is hustle culture to blame for a mental illness?
swing and a miss
It was a question you fucking idiot.
it's a question that implies that you don't understand the basis of my statement. thanks for being abusive, though!
Mental illness is illness. If someone had a physical disability that made even going to physical therapy difficult, we'd expect more resources to be directed to help them get there to improve their lives. Or at the very least, we'd have enough empathy to say "damn, that sucks, and it isn't your fault alone."
I genuinely hope you never have to experience a mental health that gives you a real perspective on how that deep depression feels. But I also hope you show basic empathy to people struggling. It's a boomer mindset that's trickled down to us.
Bipolar 1 checking in:
Exercise has been a godsend. When I've been better, I would run a 5k a day at lunch. I felt calmer, more stable, and happier.
But when the depression hits, the whole process falls apart. I'll find myself smoking weed to try and numb the feelings but I just end up in a hole for weeks or months. Are these things I can change? Yea, but if I don't have the support of professionals, meds, friends and family, I don't get that push that gets me out of it.
But maybe you have had that experience of waking up on a new day. Perhaps the first day of spring. Perhaps after an oddly good sleep. You wake up and that voice saying "it doesn't have to be like this" is louder than the voice telling you "it's hopeless to try".
Moods go up, moods go down. I have found the time I'm strongest against my depression is when I'm stable, and it's the actions I do then that help me survive the darkness. Exercise won't get me out of a depression, but it does keep it from rearing it's ugly head; at least for one more day.
I know one day I will go back to that hole. I know full well my brightest days will come to an end and I will feel that empty feeling. Until then, I try to put on my running shoes, start my running playlist, and take it one step at a time.
P.S, sorry for launching you meeps.
🌎 🚀🥺 🌔
So what's the solution?
There's no direct one-size-fits-all solution because mental illness is complex and very personal. Anecdotally, depression can be more of a symptom than the underlying root cause in a lot of cases, especially if trauma is involved. A good therapist and support from peers is invaluable for identifying deeper causes and patterns. On a day-to-day level, depressed people may need gentle encouragement from someone in their proximity, something to break their routine in a positive way, support if they're frustrated with what little they're able to accomplish, and help breaking down big tasks into small pieces that they can more easily summon the energy for.
Medication can certainly help, as well as exercise and diet - but if someone's not there yet, simply pointing to those and treating someone like they're just not putting the effort in is extremely damaging. It reinforces the catastrophization that can occur and makes people feel like they'll never be able to take control of their lives and it's their fault. And if deeper causes are involved, they may not be able to explore those around someone telling them to just exercise more.
Spoken like someone with no empathy and no idea what they are talking about.
Cool story bro.
I hope you never experience crippling depression where it takes all your mental energy just to get out of bed and shower, where, the thought of doing anything more is just too much.
Exercise is wonderful, and yes helps massively. But depression is a feedback loop. You know exercise (or going to therapy) will make you feel better, but depression stops you, so you start beating yourself up about how much of a worthless piece of shit stain person you are because yes, you're right it is, on you and you're making your depression worse you can't even fucking help yourself you lazy fucking cunt arse piece of shit fucker. And society thinks you're a lazy fat useless slob who is no good to anyone and what's the point of it anyway. What's the point of trying to help yourself when you'll just fuck it up anyway like you fuck up everything because you're a useless waste of oxygen.
My take away from what you said was I was right. Lol, thanks for all that.
And my takeaway is you're either 14, an idiot or a troll. Or maybe all three.
My takeaway is that your empathy and self-awareness are low. You seem to live in that magic threshold of "too dumb to be aware of your own dumb."
But, truly, reading your posts.. they come across as massively lacking awareness, cocksure, poorly written, and still convinced that discussion is a contest.
Try absorbing an idea instead of attempting (faultily) to disregard what others say, believe it or not.. other people know things that can make you a better person.
You need to do a lot of growing and introspection.
Those were some great insults, I'm very impressed.
Thank you, I hope they'll help your development. Everyone has potential for growth if they have the ability to open their mind. Some minds are accepting of new ideas and others are as armored as a pineapple skin.
Which is yours? Which do you want yours to be?
Just cause you said a lot of things doesn't mean you're right, lol.
Really living up to your namesake there cause judging by that comment you're dense as fuck.
It's fucking reality bro.
There isn't going to be a miracle cure. If exercise rant really does treat depression effectively, and someone won't exercise... what the fuck else is supposed to happen?
If you don't go to your cancer treatment cause you're too tired from previous treatment.... I guess you don't get treated.
Do you want people to come pick up depressed individuals and start moving their arms for them??
No one takes you seriously because you sound incredibly ignorant. My guess is this how you are with everything.
Whiner
Loser
Lol!
I hope one day you get help and you learn to love others.
The fucking reality is you don't know what you are talking about. You don't know depression, you never had it so kindly stfu when talking about a sickness you know exactly zero about.