Mental Health Illness and Role of Exercise

SYED HASSAN ZAMAN
4 min readSep 17, 2020

You most probably know the different benefits of the exercises but did you ever imagine that the exercise ameliorates your mental health also? Exercises decrease your stress, distress, negativity, and depression.

Depression, anxiety, and stress

Globally the rising strains and tensions of poor economic conditions and lack of education stirring up the mental health problem more than ever in the history of humankind. We will first go through mental health disorders and then some possible ways to tackle this pervasive disease.

Mental Health Disorders

Irrespective of what individuals might think about mental health problems, it is still surging in the United States and around the World at an unprecedented pace.

Mental health issues can be mild and they can also be life-altering depending upon the intensity of the situation. Mental health issues can affect the emotional, social, and psychological well being of the person.

A common type of mental health issue includes mood disorder, anxiety disorder, personality disorder, and an eating disorder.

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There is variation in the symptoms of mental health issues but the common and prevalent symptoms of mental health problems include feelings of hopelessness, prolonged sadness, suicidal thoughts, social withdrawal, changes in sleeping and eating habits, and substance abuse.

It was estimated in 2018 in the USA, that 26% of those aged 18 to 25 years and 23% of those aged 26 to 49 years suffered some form of mental illness in the past years.

The treatments of mental health illness with Physical Exercise

Having an idea of the severity of the issue, we must know have to find some panacea to cope with this surge in the mental health disaster. To start with we will look, both exercise impacts and medical treatment impact to ward off the health illness of your brain.

A trap of mind in form of stress and depression

1. Physical Exercise and Depression

It was researching that daily exercise can significantly reduce the depression as effectively as antidepressant medication but without side-effects, of course.

A Study done by T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that if a person runs for 15 minutes a day or walks for an hour. This simple exercise can reduce the risk of major depression by 26%.

  1. Physical Exercise and Anxiety

Stress is an integral part of life but the anxiety disorder which affects 40 million adults in the US is concerning. The benefits of exercise can be extended to removing anxiety for improving health and happiness.

It was studied by the psychologists that 10 minutes walk can as much as good as 45 minutes’ walkout. Some studies also show that exercise can be palliative and can decrease anxiety in seconds.

  1. Physical Exercise and Stress

In daily life and chores stress is inevitable. Seven out of ten adults in the United States are victims of some form of stress and anxiety daily.

When American Psychological Association surveyed people in 2008, more participants reported physical and emotional symptoms because of stress than they did in 2007, and nearly half of them were reporting that their stress has increased as compared to last year.

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You can’t handle stress completely but what you can is to manage stress and be safe from its side-effects. A recent ADAA survey on stress and anxiety found that regular exercise is the easiest way to cope with the stress and to make things more normal and possible.

If applying the above conditions will not remove your stress, distress, anxiety, and depression then you have to act according to the following instructions.

Common Treatment methods

In case physical exercise is not relieving you from the mental health issues then the problem is intractable for you. You must have to consult to come practitioner and have to get some remedy for the disease.

Depending upon your situation and condition of mental health problems some common mental health treatment may include Psychotherapy, Behavioral Therapy, counseling, medication, hospitalization, or support group.

It was also noticed that Psychedelic drugs can also be used to cope up with the mental health illness.

A survey of 2018 showed that 32% of those who reported a major depressive episode state that they had serious thoughts of suicide, while 41.5% said they did not receive any mental health treatment because it is unaffordable for them, while ridiculously 27.7% said that they did not know where to go for such treatments.

You must have to care for your health and this awareness is the main thing you need to work on. After all the dire statistics show a lack of information that leads to disastrous repercussions.

So do exercise and if by doing exercise there is no relief then do consult with a medical expert to cure yourself.

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