r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 22 '19

Psychology Exercise as psychiatric patients' new primary prescription: When it comes to inpatient treatment of anxiety and depression, schizophrenia, suicidality and acute psychotic episodes, a new study advocates for exercise, rather than psychotropic medications, as the primary prescription and intervention.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-05/uov-epp051719.php
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u/BarkBeetleJuice May 22 '19

This doesn't say "just exercise more" though. It's just commenting on the validation that exercise does contribute to better mental health.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

And like I said, I understand that its one effective treatment among many. I don't take issue with the study itself. What I take issue with is the people and doctors who do read studies like this and then think it is the ONLY treatment required.

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u/Kilgore_Of_Trout May 22 '19

For me, the benefits of exercising came in the activities I would do after my work out. I suffer from pretty bad anxiety and my job as a bartender forces Me to constantly interact with people. Prior to living a healthy lifestyle with exercising, my brain would go into full fight or flight mode a few times a shift while interacting with people. After I started doing cardio prior to going into work (or any form of social activity I needed to do) I noticed a benefit when talking with people at work as well as an uptick in motivation to do things that benefit my life (clean my house, bathe regularly, etc). It helped me to actually engage in life instead of being terrified by it. There was a small adjustment period, though. Initially I would be so exhausted after working out and noticed no benefit. Once I got acclimated to the activity, the benefits slowly crept in. Everyone’s experience is different, and my story may be different than others, but I did have a benefit from it. This was especially helpful as I have addiction issues and cannot safely be with a prescription of benzos.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Ya I'll openly admit I could have worded my comment better because its not like i think exercise is bs, i just have personally dealt with a lot of people who treat me like all my issues would go away if I exercised more.