It’s harder to prescribe exercise, which takes time and effort and can be difficult to start for people who are depressed.
This detail is swept under the rug in this article and will most certainly be swept under the rug in discussion about the headline.
Telling people to exercise as a prescription only works once, after a patient is made aware that exercise would make them less depressed and they fail to undertake it, the advice becomes a convenient way of saying “just try harder” with different words.
I am not questioning the science here, I am pointing out the consequences of how it is framed.
So what we need is medication that makes you want to exercise.
You have given me what I need to get the doctor to prescribe me crystal meth
Medication, structure, additional societal resources, whatever it is that is prescribed is only helpful if it actually helps not just points out why something is broke or stuck in someone’s life.
Yeah, I used to be really athletic as a teenager, but then had a fall, dislocated my knee, and had to put it back myself because I couldn’t afford medical treatment pre-Obamacare.
Now, twenty years and many injuries later, it turns out I’ve got a connective tissue disorder that makes my joints really weak. It was never addressed, so my feet keep going to first position for extra support, but thats wrecking my hips.
I don’t know how to be active without hurting myself further, and I can’t afford a pro to spot me.
I want to see more discussion about volitional and motivational deficits.
But people who have never been depressed don’t want to hear people say “people with depression literally find it more challenging, at times insurmountably so, to make themselves get up and go do.”
They think it’s just making excuses. No, there’s science behind it.
this is true, but for a while it did not mean anything to me besides to pick myself up by my bootstraps or something else inconsiderate. I think what people really mean is that caring for yourself goes a long way to not feeling completely shitty 24/7. You can go from staying in bed all day and waking up at 5pm to being magnitudes more happy (or just normal) if not a little apathetic and stressed to your worldly existence and the bustling commotion out there. Exercising is just one component that the fļẽşħ requires.
I’d imagine for many, they’re one and the same.
