| > Anti-depressants and therapy don't work for everyone, either. No, they don't. But they are more likely to work than exercise, and they're easier to try than exercise. The problem with recommending exercise is that it's not effective for most people, and can increase feelings of hopelessness and despair in people who try it but who see no effect. This makes it harder for them to seek help from a qualified professional. It also requires considerable effort - 30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week isn't something that most people with a severe depression can do. (And here the recommendation was more than that! 30 minutes a day.) Here the suggestion was not "try exercise on top of seeing a doctor", the suggestion was "try exercise". Don't forget that suicide is a leading cause of death (second leading cause of death in US males aged between 13 and 35 http://www.cdc.gov/men/lcod/ ) so there's a risk of real harm here. If people are going to give unsolicited medical advice to someone with a potentially fatal illness they should probably spend a bit of time to see if there's any evidence to support their advice, or they should make it much clearer that they're sharing their anecdotal experience in an attempt to empathise. Every single time depression is mentioned on HN someone will say "try exercise". It's a meme that needs to end because it's potentially harmful, mostly not helpful, and it can feel really dismissive to people with depression. |
Unless you have some weird heart condition, or are attached to an IV pole, or are not subject to the laws of gravity and therefore are in danger of floating off into space should you leave your apartment, exercise will probably not hurt you, and may possibly create a positive change in your circumstances, whatever they happen to be[1].
[1] I trust the majority of HN readers to figure out when disclaimers apply.