Just a simple question to those of you suffering from depression, anxiety or are just going through a tough time. Now or sometime in the past.
Have you tried exercising, and did it help? What kind, and how did it make you feel?
It has. Easier to go to sleep after exercising and so. But the most major benefit is that I got out of the house and did something. Felt great!
Hiking helped me a lot. I was out in the wilderness, touching grass, actually doing something for my health. Exploring the Alps was one of the best ideas I have ever had.
“Touching grass “ sounds like a Sexual Innuendo. Maybe it’s just me. Didn’t mean anything by it just thought it was funny :( Womp womp
Yes.
Also, don’t take anyone else’s recommendation; any kind of movement is exercise, so figure out what you want to do. Any activity counts as exercise, so bike or swim or swing a broadsword or a katana or a baseball bat. Even singing counts as exercise and joining a chorus is a great way to get out and meet people.
Singing is great for having something to do, but the physical health benefits are nowhere near the same as actual strenuous exercise
No, not at all. It made things worse. I really think it is very good that many people benefit from exercise. However, it can in some cases also harm your mental health. I think it is important for people to know this. The benefits of exercise are so well known, that the people who it is harmful for often are pressured into exercising anyway and made to feel like a failure if it does not benefit them. It took me a long time and a lot of pain to find this out. I want to tell my story in case someone is in the same boat as me.
Years ago I was feeling so bad I could not get out of bed for a couple of months. The psychologist I was seeing kept pressuring me to exercise. So, I tried it and I hated it. I really had a lot of trouble even doing the smallest things, like making food for myself or go to the supermarket. It all seemed like an impossible task. Now I had to spend the little energy I had to regulate myself to go to the gym or to run.
When I was exercising, it felt like genuine torture. I just hated every second. Afterwards, I would just feel extra tired and very sad about the pain Inhad been in and anxious about having to go again next time.
I was too timid to really stand up for myself and I did not want to fail at yet another thing. I thought it was just my fault and I just was too lazy and should be harder on myself. So, I tried to keep going, even though I could not sleep the night before and I went there crying. When I said something about it, the psychologist kept pressuring me to do it like it was some magic fix for everything. I just needed to do it often enough.
On my way to the gym, I started to wish more and more that I would be in an accident and get wounded so I did not have to go anymore. One time, on my way to the gym, I tripped and fell. I had a big bruise on my knee, but it was not bad enough to not have to exercise anymore. So, I sat on my knee on the bruise the whole night in the hope that it would get worse. It hurt, but it was not nearly as bad as exercising. When I told my psychologist she said that she could not help me if I self-harmed and I should go somewhere else. However, I was not self-harming to harm myself. I was actually protecting myself against something that was bad for me. I could not explain that at the time.
Years later, I went to a psychosomatic physiotherapist. In the years in between, I got the advise to exercise for my mental health numerous times. Each time I tried it, I failed. No matter how much I tried, it keep feeling like torture, my mood got worse and physically I did not improve at all. I always kept thinking that it was my fault and just not trying hard enough.
So, when I went to the new physiotherapist, I started out with telling him that I knew I should exercise and that I was stupid foe not doing so. He immediately stopped me and told me I should not exercise at all. He explained to me that when you exercise, your stress levels go up temporarily and then they go down and usually lower than they were before you started exercising. That is why most people benefit from stress reduction after exercise.
However, in my case, my stress levels were extremely high, all the time. They were so high that if I started to exercise, they would be pushed up above the maximum that my body was able to handle (he drew a chart where the line hit the top of the chart). So, for my body, exercise did not feel like a temporary increase in stress that would go down after a while, it felt like an extreme emergency situation that it could not adapt to. This would further disregulate my stress system. That is why it felt like torture, and why my mood got worse and why I did not have any physical improvement from exercise.
He told me moving was good to calm my nervous system. So, slow walking in the forest and things like that. And just quit as soon as I did not feel like it, or it gave me stress and just try some other time when I felt like it again. And that worked like a charm. I walk now for 4 to 6 hours a week and it calms me down. I do not have to push myself. I just feel like doing it and if I don’t, I just won’t go.
So, the point is that exercise can be great to help with stress, if your stress is maybe at 70% or 80%. However, if your stress level is consistently at 95% then it is harmful and you should not do it. (Mindfulness probably will not help either in that case btw.) If exercise keeps feeling like torture and it does not help you, do not feel like a failure and keep torturing yourself. It is not your fault if it does not work for you! Go to a psychosomatic therapist instead that has expertise in stress management. They might be able to help you.
This is a crazy story, really great that you have access to lovely walking trails and they are helping you. Sending you love!
Your first psychologist was awful. Holy hell, nobody should have to deal with that from the person who’s supposed to help when already struggling with depression.
For me, exercise always feels good afterward, but I always dread it anyway… So I’ve not done it in forever. Maybe I should try just walking…
I’m glad you found something and someone that could help you
Yes, my first psychologist really was terrible. She really made things worse. She just always made me feel like I just should try harder and like a failure. That was the opposite of what I needed.
I was actually much too harsh on myself. I am trying tor learn to be more kind to myself and to take how I feel seriously. It is difficult if you are not used to it, but that helps me really well. My physiotherapist keeps telling me that I only have to do things I want. This sounds like a very basic thing, but it is quite new to me to ask myself “do I want this?” instead of just pushing myself because I think I should.
I am glad exercise works fine you. I think it works for most people. However, I have never in my life felt good after exercise. So, I think that is the difference.
If it helps for you, definitely start doing it again. Maybe you can be kind to yourself too and see how you can make your life easier in another way to have more room mentally to get yourself to start.
You mention gym and running. Both are super demanding imo. Have you tried swimming or bicycling at your own pace yet? Especially bicycling should be much more relaxing if you have the environment to do it, since you focus on the places you go as opposed to the performance.
Edit: I have a similar, albeit not as strong experience with the gym and running. I even hired a personal trainer to help me, but just felt like pressure all around and unpleasant pain instead of the good kind of soreness. Same with running that can impact your legs/knees a lot. Swimming at your own pace, without setting lofty time-based goals, has probably the least impact on the body.
I hired the personal trainer too. I just kept thinking I was doing something wrong and I should just follow his schedule. So I did exactly what he said, and that did not work either. I even did worse on the stamina test after training with him for a while than on the test at the start. That is when I quit.
Ihave tried bicycling and I had similar issues with that. But maybe I did not keep enough to my own pace. That was back when I did not understand how it worked and just tried a schedule to build up stamina. You are exactly right, it should not be about performance. Maybe I should try it again with my new mindset. Thanks!
Swimming does work if I go slow! So, I am in the lane with the elderly and just go slowly back and forth. The physiotherapist did tell me I should not go into water that is too cold, because my stress might increase from that as well. So, I found somewhere to swim when the water is warm. I try to do it once a week.
Should anything like this ever come up in front of me, I’ll be sure to remember your story, Shelena. Thank you for telling us. <3
This is really frustrating to type out, but honestly no. I’ve been working out consistently for 2-3 months now, and if anything I feel more tired and irritated throughout the day than I did before. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, so it’s possible that the extra activity minus a little bit of sleep is to blame rather than the exercise itself. I look and feel much stronger than I did before, and I’d like to think that my mental attitude has improved, but honestly ever since I started working out I just always want to be in bed.
I think you’ve identified the issue. Sleep is just as important. Substituting one for the other won’t get you anywhere.
That said, personally I find it much easier to sleep when I am exercising adequately.
It’s really just the time aspect of things. Working out when I get home means everything else I need to do gets pushed back at least an hour. I’d love to get a better sleep schedule, and I’ve been trying to focus on it the last week or two, but I’ve just got so much crap to do and having no time to decompress between activities is wearing me out. Sometimes I have to eat dinner and go straight to bed, which my body does not like. I’ll figure something out eventually, but right now things just kinda suck 🤷🏾♂️
My watch pointed out my HRV suffers if I eat right before bed. It shows how “restful” my sleep is and if I eat in the last two hours before bed, the sleep barely gets into “rest” levels. Like equivalent to sitting down in a chair instead of sleeping for the first couple hours.
I know it sucks but maybe consider a larger lunch and just a light protein shake or something before bed if you really need calories then. I’m still figuring all this out too, but that really makes a big difference for me
I have had a very similar and frustrating experience where I’ve been exercising regularly since the beginning of the year pretty much but my insomnia honestly felt like it got worse so I was just exhausted all the time, plus frustrated that I wasn’t able to do as much stuff that I actually enjoyed because working out would take up extra time in my day, and on top of that I haven’t seen any weight loss from it (despite also dieting). In the past I never had this issue and I’d be able to work out regularly and feel better and healthier so I’m not sure if it’s just my worsening mental health or new stressors or what but it’s awful.
Yup definitely feel you on the “not having enough time” aspect of things. I think that’s one of the major factors to my situation, at least for my general mood. My schedule is pretty much wake up, go to school/work, come home and work out, get some stuff ready for my DnD game, then go to sleep. Outside of the DnD stuff, I’ve barely had any free time to just chill or play videogames. Since working out, my days have had to be planned damn near down to the minute and it’s so exhausting feeling like I always need to be doing something.
