Not the go outside part but exercise helps a lot. Most people like to ignore the part where a lot of people with depression work three jobs and dont have time/money for a gym
Exercise can help a lot depending on the source of the depression. My walking fast for an hour a day only helped a little (don’t worry, I’m better now).
Also, telling a depressed person their answer is to exercise is like telling a homeless person that they just need to get a job. The not having a home prevents the getting a job. If they had the ability to find a job, they wouldn’t be homeless (except obviously the people who don’t make enough from their job to support themselves, but that’s a whole different issue that shouldn’t exist).
So even if someone does have the time, getting the depression under control may be necessary before the exercise seems like a reasonable possibility.
Dealing with a client at work who is going through this. Severely depressed, suicidal tendencies, will not exercise despite knowing it has helped him in the past. He knows what he needs to do, but we also know damn well that he’s going to go straight up to his room and play video games all day.
Motivating is extremely difficult when it comes to severe depression. You can’t just point out what they need to do. Doing so will likely just deepen their depression because they already know. Getting people to understand that not every brain works the same or responds to the same kind of reinforcements is incredibly frustrating.
Sunlight is proven to improve health indicators and have a positive impact on depressive traits.
It alone won’t cure you.
However if someone is drowning because they’re weighed down by wet clothing you may not save them by removing the weighted hoodie they’re wearing but you will have helped them.
There is no one cure for depression but almost ALL of the suggestions actually work in small incremental ways.
One of the hardest parts about escaping depression is making the deliberate decision to compel yourself to make the small incremental changes that will help remove the weighted wet clothing that is drowning you. You may not be out of the sea but your ability to not drown will be much improved.
Sunlight + Sleep + Exercise are quite literally the best tools you can enact on your own in an effort to combat depression. They are not fixes.
As someone who spends 10+hr a day working outside I can assure you that being outside and doing physical activity does very little to aid my depression.
mhm… and what if you just had a kid and moved away from helping family to a country which thinks that paid medical leave or reasonable parental leave are luxuries not worth having? have you ever tried to get more than 3h of sleep in a row while taking care of a newborn? good luck going for a run after that! if it also happens to be a winter you may need to wait until spring for that sunlight too. good that we at least have parental groups to socialize… unless you are stay at home dad that is, cause trying to talk about restarting your career after the break might not sit well in a group that mostly connects on how their childbirth went…
You’re in the “blame everything else” stage, you have to get to the part where you compel yourself to do these things despite that.
I went through depression before and I got out successfully. I know where I am and I know what I need to do to get out. I recognise that the biggest problem is self-delusion and all the cognitive biases that make me feel miserable and powerless… there is also a difference between subjective and objective reality.
I also tried a few dead ends on my journey and I can confidently tell you that the thing you wrote above is not only not helpful, but can be harmful to people that are in a bad place and cannot see through it. People that don’t know any better and spew bullshit like this (or worse, drank their own kool aid) are one of the reasons why it is so hard to get better in a world we have… so cool T-shirt bro, have a nice day!
My dude I hope you get the help you need.
I mean… it somewhat works? It won’t fix all your issues, but you will feel better, and it’s a good first part to get out of the depression. Although, I guess most people won’t be able to do fight depression without some prescribed medication.
Speaking from my experience I mostly defeated my depression just by myself, even though I still feel depressed from time to time. But it is also a part of my character to not seek help from others, because in my childhood and in later years, no one really helped me in any major way, so I just learned to force getting myself into be better shape, because at some time in my life it felt like the only rational thing to do.
Exercise doesn’t help, obviously, everyone knows that, but have you tried smiling? At least a little?
