For so long we’ve been used to treating health conditions by putting them in neat little packages. It’s as though we’ve assumed that having a particular reason for ill health can be so discretely extracted from the whole of a person in order for us to treat it and thus restore someone to full health. If only it were that easy. It might then, at least in part, be because of this narrow view of healthcare that complex conditions are often those that we treat with only modest results. For mental health, with conditions like depression, anxiety or PTSD, treating these conditions as matters only of the mind or our emotions can certainly be to the detriment of those affected.
If we were to appreciate for a moment that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), for example, is not just a mental health condition but rather an all of body condition, we might imagine that we need all-of-body treatments to address it. Anyone with PTSD can attest that it is not just their mood that is affected. Nausea, muscle rigidity and increased rates of physical pain are just some of the many physical symptoms that mostly remain out of discussion. The same could be said of those with anxiety conditions. Whilst, psychotherapies continue to improve and are essential in successfully treating these individuals, whilst psychiatric medications evolve and have increasing effectiveness, it might surprise you to know that something that is taken so very much for granted has proven to have astounding effectiveness when used as a treatment – exercise.
It may be at this point that you decide to tune out. ‘Exercise’ is routinely considered amongst the things we know to be ‘virtuous’, like vegetables or meditation, but something we usually don’t much feel like doing. Something considered to be easy enough to do if we wanted to, but generally something we don’t actually want to do. Oddly enough though, when the right strategy is delivered in the right dose, exercise as a therapy for mental health conditions can have levels of effectiveness equal with drug therapies in managing the negative effects of conditions like depression and anxiety. Not only this, though, exercise as a therapy for mental health conditions is actually able to contribute the achieving a positive effect on mood disorders. In other words, not only can exercise, like antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication, limit the depths of depression or the heights of anxiety, it can contribute to a normalisation of mood that can mean an actual increased sense of wellbeing, achievement and progression to overall improved mental health. When used as part of holistic and behavioural treatment intervention, it can empower the individual to find meaningful ways to grow their resilience and be a partner in their own treatment.