For just about every physical affliction or metabolic disorder people experience, the first thing experts recommend is “lifestyle changes.” Foremost among those “lifestyle changes” is exercise or really, anything that increases your physical activity. It makes sense why a person might exercise to improve cardiovascular fitness or improve your breathing capacity. But now, mental health experts are recommending exercise for the treatment of anxiety and depression. For me, that’s a difficult concept to grasp because I can’t think of very many depressed people who willfully will get out of bed, or off the couch, and make themselves exercise.
That’s exactly what they’re saying, though. Aerobic exercise such as swimming, running, or cycling have been associated with improving the symptoms of depression and anxiety in large groups of people of all ages. The authors are saying that “all forms of exercise alleviate depressive symptoms to a degree comparable to with pharmacologic (drug therapy) and psychological therapies.” Exercise, in all formats and parameters, can lessen depression and anxiety symptoms across all population categories. Mental health providers should feel confident that exercise will provide the same positive results as are obtained with other treatments. In fact, group-based, supervised exercise benefitted patients better.
Adults aged 18-30 years old and postpartum women fared best with exercise therapy. Patients with severe illness were reluctant to voluntarily participate in exercise therapy preferring antidepressant medication, instead. Their results were very limited. The whole idea that you could get depressed patients to volunteer for an exercise program is unrealistic. Depression is withdrawal, isolation, sadness, and lack of motivation. To me, this concept is like slapping a depressed person in the face and telling them to “snap out of it!” It doesn’t work. But if these researchers can get patients to participate and improve, more power to them.
Reference: Cantor C. Exercise Equal to Antidepressant’s, Talk Therapy for Depression. Medscape 2026 February 12.
