[HauntingPin]

I also question the universality of it. No amount of exercise changed my depression or made life any less miserable. Anti-depressants finally helped me get past the trauma I was unable to properly process otherwise.

[antonymoose]

I don’t think depression is a universal root-cause diagnosis so I’m inclined to agree.

I’ve been diagnosed clinically several times in life with depression and the pills never did anything for me. Sometimes exercise worked, sometimes it was of little or no use.

With retrospect, all of my episodes of depression were a function of environment. As a child, growing up in a broken home situation and bad school environment, of course there is going to be depression. Life sucks. Further, no pill or weight lifting schedule is going to fix that either. Only breaking out of that situation will.

As an adult, I’ve absolutely had and broken out of a long episode of depression with exercise. Bad breakup, startup failure, then introduce chronic drinking and subsequent weight gain. Guess what, cutting back on drinking, bicycling to work 30 minutes each way, doing martial arts in the evenings, it was a great fix. It enhanced self image, added a new community of positive people, and broke a cycle of depression.

[LorenPechtel]

I definitely agree, there are two fundamental forms of "depression"--internal and a reaction to a bad external situation. Very different causes, what works for one doesn't work for the other. And I don't even like the "depression" label for bad situations--as with the previous post about willpower. We have a limited ability to cope with bad, when it's exceeded (or our efforts are misapplied resulting in the same end) we get "depression". No, we get reality! That's why things like forcing rehab does nothing about addiction--it doesn't remove what drove the person to the drugs in the first place.

[abraxas]

And I'm the counter anecdotal case of your anecdotal case.

I have a page long list of failed psychiatric regimens that included drugs alone and drugs combined with talk therapy. None of them effective.

I won't say that I'm cured of depression now or will ever be. But a strict and persistent exercise routine lessened it to the point where I can function day to day. This was never achieved with presrciption drugs or therapy (of which I have developed a dim opinion).

[2muchcoffeeman]

And you think the effects of drugs is universal?

Exercise is a side effect free treatment that works for some people so it’s worth a shot because it sometimes works.

[mrgoldenbrown]

The poster you responded to didn't claim that drugs were universally helpful. I think the main point is that there is no universal that works for everyone. For some exercise works, for some drugs, for others therapy. And "works" isn't a yes/no, one might work a little for you, one might work super great.

[PaulHoule]

I'd argue that depression kills and optimal therapy is: anti-depressants, exercise AND talking therapy and the time to start is NOW.

I wouldn't knock the effectiveness of any of them with the caveats that: (1) you can get anti-depressants from you primary care doc, the best practice is to start on something, ramp up your dose and try something different if it is not working or you don't like the sides. I really thought Vanlafaxine was a comfortable ride but it raised my blood pressure to the "go to the ER" range. Call on the phone and lean in about adjusting your meds. (2) Getting an appointment for talk therapy can take a while these days. (3) In a hard case you can get a more complex medication cocktail from a psychiatrist but the wait could be worse than the talk therapy. (4) People in the military do insane amounts of cardio because it helps dealing with insane amounts of stress. 2 hours a day of cardio helped me deal with a business development process that went on for years before ultimately failing.

[keeganpoppen]

i think they are merely saying what worked for them. it is working for me too, despite my misgivings about “just taking a pill”. YMMV.

[cheald]

Depression isn't monocausal so it'd be far too simple for it to have a single solution.

But in general, humans just work better when we're regularly putting our bodies under reasonable physical load.

[heavyset_go]

I'm a non-competitive athlete, and yes exercise can help depression, but no, it will not be sufficient for anything but your mild to average case of it.

Exercise is a crucial part of dealing with it, but it is not a panacea.

[unparagoned]

Depression is an umbrella term that covers lots of underlying biological conditions.

Exercise forms the foundation of a biologically healthy brain which is required for all conditions. For some conditions it’s all you need for others it’s not enough

[genghisjahn]

True. I ran my but off in 2025 but it was mainly holding my anxiety over finding a job at bay.

[burningChrome]

>> I'm a non-competitive athlete

Honest question, but what do you mean by this?

I've played competitive team sports my whole life and have a very competitive drive. If its not team sports, its rock climbing where I feel like I'm competing against myself or my brain trying to solve a route. If I'm hiking, I'm competing against the clock or how far I can go. If I'm lifting weights, its about how many sets I can do and what weight in order to push myself.

So even in what most people deem "non-competitive" activities I'm still competing against a clock, or my body, or my brain.

I'm just curious what you meant is all.

EDIT: Typical HN. Ask a question and get downvoted. Logging off the day - thanks.

[skywhopper]

Yeah, any of these studies that show “X works better than Y” are inevitably operating on averages. Not everyone will respond the same way. Not to mention that the very existence of the structure and human interaction required for these studies makes a huge difference in their outcomes.

[resumenext]

I hesitate to ask but what is your gender? I think there may be very gender specific effects in this comparison. I would also be very curious the type and intensity of exercise and whether you had comorbidities that impact ability to train (obesity, low testosterone, etc).

[HauntingPin]

I'm male. I've done everything from cycling to 5-10k running to heavy weightlifting. The only other thing I have is ADHD, no other comorbidities.

[Jtsummers]

> I also question the universality of it.

The article doesn't claim exercise is a universally effective treatment, so whose statements are you questioning?

[marcosdumay]

There's no universality on anything linked to mental health.