Well, no surprises here, but I know that for us depressed people, the idea of something that a lot of us find 'boring' or 'exhausting' or even 'impossible to accomplish' (since all we want to do is sleep, eh?!) will actually make us feel better, is very difficult to believe!!! (cognitive distortion anyone ;) )
Anyways, one of my goals is to exercise at least 4 times per week. So far I've been successful at this, knock on wood.
But the thing that I just wanted to say is that I CAN TESTIFY THAT EXERCISE DOES WORK TO COUNTERACT DEPRESSION!!!
Might be the sense of accomplishment, the release of feel-good hormones, the blood pumping, the getting back in touch with ones' body, the music on the iPod, or all of the above, but it does work. Today I had a pretty bad day and cried all morning because my health insurance company denied my request for some blood tests that my doctor ordered. Needless to say I made a mega tantrum and went into a spiral of negative thinking, covering all range of cognitive distortions, lol (I did my thought record!!). Anyway, point is, at some point in the evening, I felt a small, almost not there impulse to go to the gym (I had decided earlier I wouldn't because I was feeling so sorry for myself and I just wanted to vegetate on the sofa and eat). So I went, and after approximantely 10 minutes on the stationary bike, I actually started to feel better. Then I thought of what the program says, "exercise is one of the best tools against depression", and that alone made me smile. Then the songs of my favourite band made me smile even more. Then the sense of 'conquering', of 'turning around' such a sucky day, really made it for me. Not feeling on the top of the world at the moment, but much better, hell yes. I even called my mum for some 'moral support' (I usually don't call my dear ones when I have a bad day, because I don't want to 'bother' them... ah, working on changing that as well :) ).
Thanks again for this program, work it people, it works if you work it :)
Be well and happy.
