ABOUT FOUR PERCENT OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION experiences depression. Today, I ask this provocative question: Is exercise as effective as anti-depressants for mental health?
A new study shows that running offers a health benefit similar to anti-depressants.
These results add to a growing literature illustrating the power of physical activity to improve our mental well-being. Today, I want to explore how moving can be medicine.
Thoughts About Sadness
I want to begin by sharing some thoughts of others regarding sadness and depression.
Edison Price Vizzini (1981 — 2013) was the American author of four books for young adults. He wrote It’s Kind of a Funny Story, which National Public Radio (NPR) named #56 of the “100 Best-Ever Teen Novels” and is the basis of the film of the same name.
Vizzini had depression, spending time in a psychiatric ward in his early 20s, and authored several works about the illness. He died of an apparent suicide at 32.
“I didn’t want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that’s really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you’re so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.”
― Ned Vizzini, It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Here is the author of The Chronicles of Narnia:
“Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Depression is Common
Nearly four percent of us experience depression. This number includes four out of ten men and six of ten women.