Feeling the Burn with Trisha

Trisha Goddard, who could kick the sorry arse of Jeremy Kyle any day, mind, is known to have suffered from depression.  She says that exercise has been of great benefit to her in her recovery.  This is something that is well known, people with depression hear about it all the time.  Exercise makes the body release endorphins, which are the body's very own version of smack.  This helps to regulate the mood, and subsequently the neurotransmitters in the brain that cause the depression.

This is all well and good, but what if you can't actually get out of bed in the first place?  Exercise definitely has it's place in the treatment of depression, but do not overestimate it.  I'm sure most people with depression have been to the GP at some point and have been seen by someone that looks about 15, fresh out of medical school.  Mention antidepressants and they recoil in horror.  Once they regain their composure they usually say something like 'Have you tried yoga?'.  I am usually a hysterical teary mess when visiting the GP in the bad times, but how I wish I wasn't and I could gather my faculties together to scream something like "I'VE SPENT A WEEK TRYING NOT TO PUT MY HEAD IN THE OVEN AND YOU SUGGEST YOGA!!......" (The dots at the end represent a string of expletives and downright insults).

I must say though, throughout The Winter of Discontent, I joined a gym.  I mainly joined because it was at the end of my road.  Normal people need motivation to get their arses to the gym, depressed people need even more.  Personally, I am pretty much unable to go to any gym that is more than five minutes away.  But, I had always been aware of the benefits of exercise for depressed people (I'd read an article by Trisha), and I was willing to try ANYTHING to get me out of my own head for a bit.  So, I boldly went where I'd never been before, to the gym.  I have to tell you, it works.  It's not a miracle cure, but it definitely helps.  You can release a bit of aggression doing exercise, one friend of mine always exercises in a crisis, she says it is the only thing that keeps her sane.  It is her medicine.  There were times during the winter that if I hadn't been running on the treadmill, I would have been screaming.

It is good for me to collect an arsenal of weapons to use against the black dog when he is misbehaving, and exercise is definitely a powerful one.  Unlike most dogs, this one does not want you to take him for a walk, he would rather you stayed in bed.  By doing exercise sometimes, you can bring him to heel a little bit.