Posted by SLS on April 7, 2006, at 10:43:56
In reply to Re: Drugs versus Psychotherapy - Backlash?, posted by Sobriquet Style on April 7, 2006, at 9:24:53
> > > Another thing to consider is exercise.
> > Been there. No dice. Not for me. Not for many others either.> From what I understand, exercise acts as a biological intervention for improving mood, depression and overall general health and well being - for depression which is thought to be of a biological cause, studies have shown it can be equally and sometimes more effective than both psychotherapy and medication.
Let me state things in another way. Exercise does nothing to improve my depressed affective state. To my detriment, the homunculus operating my brain stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the studies you and I have read.
To tell someone with bipolar disorder (BD) or a severe recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD) that exercise will relieve them of their depression is to sabotage their treatment and possibly bring them closer to reaching a point of hopelessness.
I don't begrudge anyone who can relieve themselves of depression by using exercise. I just wish they wouldn't tell me that it must certainly do the same for me. It doesn't. They are not me. I am not them. Studies of exercise do not demonstrate a 100% success rate. I don't think the exercise treatment failures should be ignored or be given the message that they themselves are failures at performing exercise.
As with healthy people, exercise can affect some people with BD or MDD by giving them a transient boost in activation, mental energy, or animation. This is not, however, an antidepressant response.
Depends on the person, I guess.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:629584
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060403/msgs/630054.html