I’ve not been diagnosed with depression so I find it hard to empathise with people who have it. Still many times, I’ve not been able to get through situations alone. I agree with the comment above that a man will be able to ask for help.

Also, major clinical depression is not a “case of the blues.” If you have experienced major clinical depression, you’d absolutely know it. Neurochemical imbalance is most definitely a proven factor in major clinical depression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_depression#Physiological

That said, exercise and diet is the bedrock foundation of a productive existence.

Personally, I feel the term is overused. There is a difference between clinical depression and just feeling (extremely) down. Doctors do not always jump to medication as a solution; if one does so, this is an irresponsible doctor. In cases of clinical depression, as some have mentioned above, medication is needed as an aid. It is not prescribed just to cure all the symptoms. It doesn’t work without taking steps and finding support to pull one’s self out of depression.

I think you mean to suggest exercise as a solution to the down and out feelings that people will often say, “I am depressed”. This I agree, because often I feel a high after exerting myself. If you don’t have clinical depression, stop moping and go out for a run or something.

Yes, all seems fuzzy and there is great lack of motivation when one is depressed. But just as much of this site talks about, it’s a matter of being the man and rising up to the moment and doing the right thing when it really is hard to do so that shows how much of a man you are. You may not want to work out, you might not feel the attractiveness of it. Most people, when depressed, are only motivated to do things that make them even more sad, like moap around in how sad their lives are, watch tragic movies to self-reflect with, etc.

But doesn’t getting out of most cases of depression involve starting a positive momentum in life and maintaining it? Some say that drugs and chemical adjustment to your brain is needed because your brain is holding you back. But I believe this is true only for the few most severe cases of depression that initiated from some biological issue. From what I can tell most people’s depressions are caused by negative interaction with life that perhaps ended up in a chemical imbalance.

Think of it this way. Just like a long relationship ending can cause you to crash hard and develop depression and thus chemical imbalance, starting something new and seeking out joys in life and self-respect through exercise and other positive acts can promote chemical balance. I think it’s this modern lack-of-responsibility that’s preventing most common depressives from pushing through and taking initiative. It’s hard, but you gotta do it. No different from anything else.

And yes, I’ve been depressed.

If people feel pressured into dropping their medication because of this blog posts ‘man up and stop taking your pills’ message and then suffer, their blood is on your hands.

If anyone suffering from depression is reading this – please talk to your doctor about the various treatments available – medication, diet, exercise, therapy and so on. Be aware that different combinations of these will work for different people. Do not withdraw from your medication without checking with a doctor first.

The point stands that the author of the blog post has commited the flaw in reasoning of promoting “may” to “is”. If you read the links you can see the amount of backpedalling done by the interviewed researchers to stop people from making this mistake. For anyone who wants to learn more about how to interpret scientific studies and the pop-sci articles written about them, the bad science blog and the book ‘Voodoo Science’ are worth looking at.

Studies always use the word “may” because with any scientific study it is hard to prove something 100%. But the fact that exercise worked just as well as SSRI’s IS what the study found. And follow-up studies showed the same thing.

Also see the NYT link above for an article that shows conclusively that SSRI’s ARE only marginally more effective than sugar pills.

A brisk 30-minute walk or jog around the track three times a week may be just as effective in relieving the symptoms of major depression as the standard treatment of anti-depressant medications, according to the results of a Duke University Medical Center study.

and

Exercise is not only just as effective as antidepressants, its side effects are all beneficial.

Is it “may” or “is”?

Also, this is factually incorrect:

“And when was the last time you heard of a doctor prescribing exercise to a depressed patient?”

It is very common for doctors to tell depressed patients to try exercise. It’s printed in most ‘what to do if you are depressed’ leaflets. It is beyond the capabilities of a doctor to ‘prescribe’ anything other than medication.

“I do not think, AGT, that proposing that people try exercise over drugs is in any way a dangerous idea. Remember, SSRI’s and exercise proved just as effective in alleviating depression.”

This is dangerous misinformation. Some forms of depression have a suicide rate of 20%.

Part of being a man is knowing when to ask for help… YES! But if your Idea of asking for help is asking somebody for a chemical that your body is obviously not deficient in then you need some lessons in manliness. In my case, asking for help was reading up on the cause of depression and learning that the hormonal and physiological imbalances were due to the lack of exercise, wrong type of diet and lack of spiritual and emotional fulfillment that can be easily corrected through hard work. The depression is there for a reason. It is trying to tell you something is wrong. And no, its not that you need some crazy f’ng drug in your body.

It takes hard work people, and a type of attitude that you can overcome anything with the proper determination. What do you think Teddy Roosevelt would say if you told him that people with Asthma always need inhalers??? He would laugh in your face and tell you to be a man and climb a mountain and to stop making excuses. He would tell you that your asthma was caused by a lack of exercise and that you have the ability to make the kind of body that you want through hard work.

This Idea is the essence of manliness.

This article is an expression of the personal determination required of men who wish to become self reliant champions in their lives’

I wrote a very similar article on my blog check it out:
http://livingindubiously.com/pitch-your-prozac-5-ways-to-treat-depression-naturally/

I hope to see you around here more often. Take care.

I knew when I wrote this post it would probably cause a debate. It wasn’t my intention to offend people who suffer from depression. I just wanted to bring to light a different perspective on possible solutions.

I don’t think what I wrote was irresponsible. I didn’t pull these ideas out of thin air. They came from a legitimate scientific study. I do not think, AGT, that proposing that people try exercise over drugs is in any way a dangerous idea. Remember, SSRI’s and exercise proved just as effective in alleviating depression.

I don’t claim to be a scientist or expert on depression. And I will be quick to admit that this is a complicated issue. But I don’t think it is delved into deeply enough by many people. For example, in addition to the study showing that exercise is just as effective as medication to cure depression, a recent report has come out showing that pharmaceutical companies failed to publish reports that antidepressants only marginally outperform placebos in effectiveness.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/health/17depress.html

The way advertisements present SSRI’s, you’d think they were a miracle drug. It is not “foolish” to present exercise as a possible cure; it is foolish to widely recommend drugs that perform little better than a sugar pill.

If drugs work for some people, then that is great. But I think there is a large section of SSRI takers who would do fine with exercise alone. And there are many who are not clinically depressed at all and are looking for a quick fix to their problems. This is not a call to abandon pharmaceuticals altogether, but rather a push to seek solutions that emphasis personal responsibility first, before turning to other methods.

My husband has severe clinical depression and has benefited from medication during times when, despite frequent intense weight-lifting and cardiovascular exercise (working as a stone mason full-time with heavy weight-lifting and jiu-jitsu in the evenings) the depression was dangerous and unbearable. However, we have also experienced periods where, despite effective medication, absence of exercise left a noticeable gap in mood and motivation. What a complex issue. My hats off to any others attempting to negotiate life with depression as a factor.

Adding anything good to life will improve life, even with depression, however. I think life can be almost like an equation in that way. I wanted to throw in a brief mention of nutrition as another central issue in health and wellness, mental and physical. My husband and I have made great strides in improving our diets, reducing animal products and refined food products to almost nil while dramatically increasing our intake of fresh fruits and vegetables. Such a dietary shift has been demonstrated to improve health of all kinds. Although, perhaps I am giving away the topic of your next post…Surely anyone concerned about and interested in exercise would not neglect nutrition as a crucial component.

I really enjoy your blog, Brett! and Happy Birthday again to Mrs. McKay!