Let's talk about mental illness...and exercise!

Mental illness is a very serious and sensitive subject. Assumptions about causes, treatments, or the validity of mental illnesses are often met with offense. For example, when someone expresses their struggles with depression, a frequent and misguided recommendation is just to exercise. “Have you tried working out. It’s proven to boost your mood!” While someone who says this is coming from a good place, they often don’t understand that depression is much more than just being in a bad mood. In fact (and I am no expert on mental illness, but), I know depression can often be difficult to even recognize and some of the most joyous-seeming people could be suffering.

Let’s go back to the exercise recommendation. Working out is proven to boost your mood. Is this a valid treatment option for people with depression, or even suicidal thoughts? Could it actually make a significant improvement in their lives? David Levine explores this in his recent article about the connection between brain inflammation and suicidal thoughts. Levine references a journal in Biological Psychiatry that finds patients with major depressive disorder and patients experiencing suicidal thoughts had increased inflammation in their brains. Dr. Peter S. Tablot, a senior lecturer at the University of Manchestor is sited believing that “this tends to suggest that brain inflammation is a feature of the biology of depression.” The takeaway from these findings is the assumption that decreasing this inflammation could reduce intensity of depression or suicidal thoughts. What is one way to reduce inflammation in the body AND the brain? Regular exercise.

Is it naïve to think working out could genuinely treat serious mental illness? What are your thoughts? Do these findings prove exercise to be the best medicine?