Contest Entry:
This time instead of a personal story I will share a treatment for depression. Hopefully some people will find this info helpful :)
The treatment I will talk about not only has no side effects, but actually many benefits. A treatment anyone with moderate depression should try before drugs and meds. Interestingly, this "treatment" can prevent depression before it happens so you may want to give it a try, even if you are not a sufferer!
The name of this treatment is exercise! Moderate daily exercise has actually been found again and again to be "moderately more effective than a control intervention and comparable to psychological or antidepressant drug therapies. Smaller effects were seen in more methologically rigorous studies." (quoted sentenced copied from wikipedia)
20-30 minutes of moderate exercise are more than enough to see results. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose, but so many to gain, other than your mental stability!
Since I am not a doctor my word has little weight. So here are some references to back up my statement:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_of_depression#Exercise
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004366.pub6/abstract;jsessionid=D08CB0B961D402D713BEA47199BBBAF2.f02t01
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24589012
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160210134834.htm
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170612115320.htm
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140925131345.htm
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170131075131.htm
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140916084825.htm
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131028163003.htm
What I can say from personal experience is that exercise helped me a lot with some serious anxiety issues I had some months ago. It's not the same problem but I believe it falls in the same spectrum of mental diseases.
Physical and mental exercise if done regularly can help prevent it and also aids in the rapid recovery...nice entry for the contest