Comment by DanBC | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DanBC | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Here we have a person expressing psychologic pain. And then another person, with no medical training and no psychologic training dismisses any possible cause of that pain and says "go for a jog". It's not a helpful way to give that advice. And it might not be useful advice.

> The evidence for physical activity being good for just about every ailment under the sun is about as incontrovertible

How do you explain the meta-analyses that show weak results for exercise?

http://www.cochrane.org/CD004366/DEPRESSN_exercise-for-depre...

> However, it is not clear if research actually shows that exercise is an effective treatment for depression.

> Exercise is moderately more effective than no therapy for reducing symptoms of depression.

> Exercise is no more effective than antidepressants for reducing symptoms of depression, although this conclusion is based on a small number of studies.

> Exercise is no more effective than psychological therapies for reducing symptoms of depression, although this conclusion is based on small number of studies.

> The reviewers also note that when only high-quality studies were included, the difference between exercise and no therapy is less conclusive.

> The evidence about whether exercise for depression improves quality of life is inconclusive.

dismisses any possible cause of that pain and says "go for a jog" Well, thank you. Apparently recommending to incorporate jogging is dismissing any possible other cause. Furthermore, I say that I still haven't beaten depression, even after doing sport, which implies that even I do not consider the lack of sport to be the only cause.

What is there to explain?

From your post it looks like exercise can have positive effects on depression. I haven't read anywhere here that it's the only solution. But it's sometimes as effective as other known treatments (according to your own link) and it's cheap and easy to implement.

Anti-depressants and therapy don't work for everyone, either.

There are people in this thread crying for help. They are looking for advice. Yes, going to see a doctor should be at the top of your list. But let's not pretend the medical system is perfect, or that we all live in San Francisico with a ton of progressively thinking doctors. There's still a stigma with mental health, even in the medical field.

> Anti-depressants and therapy don't work for everyone, either.

No, they don't. But they are more likely to work than exercise, and they're easier to try than exercise. The problem with recommending exercise is that it's not effective for most people, and can increase feelings of hopelessness and despair in people who try it but who see no effect. This makes it harder for them to seek help from a qualified professional. It also requires considerable effort - 30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week isn't something that most people with a severe depression can do. (And here the recommendation was more than that! 30 minutes a day.)

Here the suggestion was not "try exercise on top of seeing a doctor", the suggestion was "try exercise".

Don't forget that suicide is a leading cause of death (second leading cause of death in US males aged between 13 and 35 http://www.cdc.gov/men/lcod/ ) so there's a risk of real harm here.

If people are going to give unsolicited medical advice to someone with a potentially fatal illness they should probably spend a bit of time to see if there's any evidence to support their advice, or they should make it much clearer that they're sharing their anecdotal experience in an attempt to empathise.

Every single time depression is mentioned on HN someone will say "try exercise".

It's a meme that needs to end because it's potentially harmful, mostly not helpful, and it can feel really dismissive to people with depression.

A reasonable person will not hear the suggestion "try exercise" and infer that since "drink water" was not mentioned, that they ought to stop drinking water.

Unless you have some weird heart condition, or are attached to an IV pole, or are not subject to the laws of gravity and therefore are in danger of floating off into space should you leave your apartment, exercise will probably not hurt you, and may possibly create a positive change in your circumstances, whatever they happen to be[1].

[1] I trust the majority of HN readers to figure out when disclaimers apply.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com