Post-College Depression: Part 6 - The Exercise Solution to Depression

This is the sixth post in a series of entries I will be writing on Post-College Depression.

In the first post of this series I talked about what post-college depression is and typical symptoms and causes. In the second post we discussed how a lack of a sense of control over one's life can result in millennials and emerging adults from Generation Y developing post-college depression. In the third we talked about how the tyranny of choice and high expectations can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression after college. In the fourth we  talked about how you can use positive psychology techniques to combat postcollege depression, anxiety, and stress. In the fifth we talked about how you can use journal writing to conquer the postcollege blues. Today we will take about how you can use exercise to improve your mood and mental health.

We all know that exercise can make you look and feel better, but were you aware that it is one of the most effective ways to fight anxiety and depression? Exercise’s powerful psychological effects have been shown to consistently fight the blues and are even as effective as more traditional forms of treatment.

Exercise Compared to Therapy
In a study by psychiatrist John Griest and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin, two groups of patients with major depression were randomly assigned to either an exercise group that ran for forty minutes, three times a week, or to one of two forms of individual psychotherapy. At the end of ten weeks the participants in all three groups showed significant reductions in depression.

What was significant was that there was no difference in improvement among the three groups. In other words, exercise worked just as well as psychotherapy. The researchers also found that the people who kept exercising continued to show improvement at the one, three, six, and nine-month follow-ups.

Exercise Compared to Antidepressant Medication
Antidepressant medication is currently the number-one form of therapy for depression and yet even though more and more antidepressants are being recommended each year, the rate of depression continues to increase and shows no signs of slowing down. More importantly, antidepressants can be expensive and carry unwanted side effects such as dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, and sexual dysfunction.

So how does exercise compare? In a sixteen-week study by James Blumenthal and colleagues at Duke University, participants were assigned to an exercise group, an antidepressant group, or a combination group.

The exercise group exercised for thirty minutes, three times a week, while the medication group received the popular antidepressant Zoloft, and subjects in the exercise/medication group received the same type of medication and performed the same exercise regimen as those in the two other groups.

At the end of sixteen weeks the researchers found that all three groups experienced reductions in depressive symptoms. Over 60 percent of those in the exercise group no longer met the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder, compared to 68 percent of the people in the medication group, and 65 percent of those in the exercise/medication group.

In other words, exercise alone was comparable to the effectiveness of antidepressant medication and comparable to medication combined with exercise in alleviating the subjects’ symptoms of depression (1999).

Michael Babyak and his colleagues at Duke then followed these people for six months after the initial study and found that the subjects who continued to exercise were much less likely to see their depression return than the individuals who relied on medication alone or used a combination of both medication and exercise. In fact, only 8 percent of those in the exercise group relapsed, compared to 38 percent of those in the medication group, and 31 percent of those in the medication/exercise group.

This means that over four times as many people relapsed when they used antidepressants compared to people who used exercise alone! how soon will you begin feeling better? One question you may have is how quickly you will start feeling better after beginning to exercise regularly. Well, this answer depends on a number of factors.

Individual characteristics and the seriousness of a person’s emotional state must always be taken into account. However, Dr. Fernando Dimeo and his colleagues have found that you can start deriving the mood-elevating benefits of exercise right from your first workout.

Dimeo took twelve people diagnosed with moderate to severe depression and had them exercise on a treadmill for thirty minutes a day for ten days. Dimeo found that their symptoms had dropped by an average of 33 percent.

In fact, five of the patients had their depression scores decrease by over 50 percent in only ten days. What is even more surprising is that exercise worked faster than antidepressant drugs, which generally take two to four weeks to begin working.

Which Exercise is Best?
Is there a specific type of exercise that is best for relieving depression? The research has found that the most effective form of exercise is the one you like the most, because consistency seems to be the most important factor in producing mood-elevating effects. Walking, running, swimming, aerobic dance, weight training, and yoga have all been shown to produce similar antidepressant effects.

Whatever exercise you use, you will want to do it at least three times a week for about twenty-five to thirty minutes. You also don’t have to exercise at a high intensity to get the mental health benefits described above. Again, consistency is what matters most.

Creating Your Own Exercise Prescription
When developing your own program, you will want to keep the following in mind to get the most out of exercising:

Do something you enjoy. While I was a personal trainer I found this to be one of the most important things to consider when starting an exercise program. If you’re not having fun while you are exercising, not only will you be spending your time in a bad experience, but you will most likely lose motivation pretty quickly and not stick to your program.

One thing to look at when thinking about the kind of exercise you like is whether you like exercising by yourself or in a group. Quite often, group activities like exercise classes, walking in a group, or organized sports are great ways to get exercise that also add a social component, which can increase your enjoyment and adherence. So answer the following questions:

• What kind of exercise do you like?
• Why do you like it?
• Do you like doing it by yourself or in a group?
• Do you enjoy exercising inside, outdoors, or both?

Get specific. When thinking about your program, you will want to get specific about what you want to accomplish. To help you with your goals, apply the goal-setting techniques you learned about in chapter 2 to your exercise program. Try to set both long-and short-term goals, figure out what you need to do to accomplish them, and then in your journal measure your progress (both physical and mental).

Keep it realistic. One thing you want to keep in mind when making your goals is keeping them realistic. If you set your goals too high or think you’re suddenly going to start exercising five times a week for two hours a day, you may be setting yourself up for failure. This kind of common error can actually increase your sense of helplessness because it seems like you can’t even control this aspect of your life.

So start out with a realistic goal—something like exercising three times a week for twenty to thirty minutes. As you integrate physical activity in your life, you can gradually increase the intensity or frequency.

Post your comments here

Life After College Resources

• Life After Graduation
• Working After College
• Commencement Information
• Graduation Announcements
• Caps, Gowns, and Diplomas

Liked the post? Then subscribe, join my network,
share on Facebook, Digg It, or send to a friend!

RSS | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook |

Share on Facebook

Comments

[Margaret "Maggie" New]

Marcos - enjoy your reports very much!!!
cheers,
Maggie

[Marcos]

Thanks Maggie! Hope all is well in DC!

[generic viagra]

Couldn't agree more with you, for me playing tennis and soccer are the best ways to deal with my stress. Great post.

[family practice emr]

Thanks for bringing this up..Physical exercise is definitely one of the most effective ways of relieving stress.It reduces stress and thus reduces stress-related illnesses.

[Buy Cozaar]

Major depression is manifested by a combination of symptoms that interfere with your ability to work, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. These impairing episodes of depression can occur once, twice, or several times in a lifetime.

[Generic Arimidex]

It doesn't take much exercise to lift your mood, so you don't have to train for a marathon. Set a goal to walk around the block. Promise yourself you'll walk around the block at least 3 times that day. The next day, do more. Try to improve just a little bit each day.

[Abraham]

Hey.I'm a 100% non synthetically-medicated psyiohtcc kid. Diagnosed schizophrenic and have very serious positive symptoms and equally horrible negative symptoms. Here is what I do to keep on top of the depression that is one of my negative symptoms.1) Omega 3 Fish Oil. You may have to buy a brand manufactured for kids because adult brands don't tend to be filtered for mercury and you DEFINITELY want a mercury-free product. 2) Multi-vitamins. Take something with a very high iron, vitamin D and magnesium.3) Exercise. If you're overweight, a healthier bodyweight will help you out. If you're not, exercise will still release endorphins. Personally when I'm at my worst I do yoga from flashcards, (this is when I cannot leave the house) boxing, and jumping jacks while a music channel (usually rock but I figure anything with a good beat that you like listening to when you're happy will work) is on. I also go running, when I'm not as bad, usually in a forest on warm days or at a beach on cold days, somewhere where I'll be alone with nature and my ipod. 4) Music. I mentioned the music channel & ipod above, but I also blare Queen, Bowling for Soup, Blink-182 and the All-American Rejects (aka nobody who sings about death, depression, suicide, sadness, or has a downbeat - less than 4/4 - track) and I HATE IT. It makes me MAD and MAD is better than depressed. It is more productive. ;]5) I force myself to do things I enjoy when I'm happy. I take a shower with the nice smelling soap and warm my towels on the radiator, I watch the funny episodes of Firefly and my favourite films and read magazines and This Book Will Save Your Life (A.M Homes - it's my favourite book). And if that sucks, I do the laundry and hoover. For me what works is just keeping moving. Then even if my whole day sucks and I can't bear it, the next day I can wake up to something good I've done and maybe feel better for it - or I have fond memories of my favourite movie etc.6) My favourite one - I read a book I've written. It's a big old book that I bought ages ago and when I'm happy, I write things I like in the book. Stupid stuff like, Xander from Buffy, and the sound from line arrays, and Diamond 4's, and sherbert lemons, and Harry Potter 1, and Gandhi quotes, things that have no consequence. If I'm only mildly down, it can get me back up.7) Meditation. Just sit quietly and concentrate on not concentrating on anything. If that makes sense. Don't allow yourself to have thoughts. Let your only thought be the thought that stops you thinking about anything. It sounds complex but you probably get my meaning. I like to meditate either in the dark in my room but the sunlight is good for depression so I force myself to sit in the middle of the living room with all the shades open in the sunlight. Therapy. Not from a councillor - from a psychologist, in particular a psychologist who is a qualified Cognitive Behavioural Therapist - these people are like GOLDDUST. They will teach you how to get through your worst moments and help you tailor your recovery techniques to your own personality. Plus, they're also usually really cool not-up-themselves people. Interview a few different psych's if you can, and if they're in an office and wearing a suit, don't bother. Find someone who wears jeans and listens to the music you like and likes the TV shows you like, so you geniunely like their company and that way, you'll get a lot more out of your time with them - it'll be more friendly and less clinical. And that in itself will lift your mood.Please bear in mind that the most important thing to have to get over depression without meds is psychological resilience. You need to be the type of depressed person who says, this sucks, but I WILL GET THROUGH THIS. I WILL NOT GIVE UP.. I WILL FORCE MYSELF THROUGH THIS. If you're prone to giving up (I am not saying this is something to be ashamed of, it's just something to be honest about - I understand fully that being a can't-be-f*cking-bothered/don't-want-to-can't-make-me depressive is horrific and not something the depressive can help) you may have to come to terms with the fact that you may need a low dosage of meds (Citalopram is good in low doses) to get you through, and you may have to rely more heavily on therapy. Either way, get a CBT and remember you are not alone, and you should never give up on yourself.'When all you've got to keep is strong, move along. And even when your hope is gone, move along.'Good luck. Was this answer helpful?

[plendil]

Hi
Regular exercise is an excellent way to boost your mood and get in shape. Learn more from WebMD about the benefits of daily exercise on depression.
Thank you