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| Beats a 10K run |
The brains behind this study coaxed out 361 sufferers of depression, half of whom were helped to increase their activity levels (by beating the black dog off with a large stick perhaps). By the end of the study, though, there was no difference in recovery between the two groups. Problem is that current guidelines suggest that those in the grip of this stinking disease exercise three times a week.
What, may I ask, the frig? My experience alone could have shown how exercise is about as helpful to depression as setting fire to your own farts. Over the years I've done everything from running and aerobics to yoga and gentle strolls and none of it did anything to prevent the oncoming freight train of depression.
Worse, when I'm in the grip of the black stuff the last thing I am capable of is exercise thrice a week. Jesus, during my breakdown I barely got out of bed for an entire year. I'll be fucked if I was capable for going for a spin around the local velodrome.
See, it's easy to prescribe exercise but the monumental effort involved in doing it when you are depressed is one frig of a different ball game. And I don't know about you but the pressure to exercise at the weakest points in my life was pressure I could have done without. My feeling of supreme uselessness was simply compounded by the fact that leaving the house for a 20 minute walk was beyond me.
So thank fuck that urgings to exercise your way through a breakdown are being tested. Yeah, the effort is great when you are perfectly healthy but when you are not? Well, perhaps it's OK to occasionally curl into a ball and mentally hibernate until your brain has healed itself. It sure as shit beats forcing your carcass through a list of physical jerks while all your body wants is sleep.
Yet again, thank fuck for the NHS. And studies that, for once, make perfect sense.
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