Passing your personal opinions as facts doesn't make for an honest discussion. The query to back up your claims with some sort of sources is very reasonable.
I’m not sure it’s just an opinion, there is a plethora of research showing the effects of exercise on depression.
There are certainly people that are clinically depressed that are also physically active (some friends of mine are in that group). OP states as much.
But I agree with OP, if we’re not going to talk about the low hanging fruit of exercise, diet, and sleep, we’re not going to get anywhere with combating depression.
> there is a plethora of research showing the effects of exercise on depression.
Yes, there is. It all shows that exercise is moderately better than nothing as a treatment for depression, unless you only include good quality trials in which case the effectiveness drops off.
Totally, it seems to be somewhere around about as effective as other treatments for depression.
Personally I choose exercise over medication, and haven’t had any significant depressive episodes since I started swimming, running, and practicing yoga four or five times per week. As a bonus my body feels great and my mind is more clear now too. I just wish I could have made younger me wake up to it (even though I knew what the answer was).
There are certainly people that aren’t able bodied and can’t choose exercise, or are clinically depressed beyond what exercise would be effective for, but for many people a solution seems to be exercise.
I completely agree that these are important things to discuss. I just wish OP had left out the 'majority of cases' statement, because it doesn't really add much to his (valuable) point and hits a nerve with many people.
Stimulants: This one I may be wrong about. My general thinking is if it disturbs your sleep and poor sleep habits cause depression, you should stay away from the stims.
Alcohol: This one I may be flat out wrong on. Moderate alcohol consumption seems to have an anti-depressant effect. Heavy alcohol consumption is associated with depression and suicide.
Most of what I said, especially about diet, exercise, and sleep are not controversial.
They aren't controversial but effect sizes on mood are small. You do not fix depression with small mood changes.
A lot of this research is further confounded by the simple fact that depressed people exercise less as well as eat less healthy. Epidemiology does not show causation here, only interventional studies do with tiny effects.
Example is the studies that show having friends makes one less depressed. Obviously people who are depressed regularly have fewer friends because they're avoided.
> Most of what I said, especially about diet, exercise, and sleep are not controversial.
But it is controversial. This is the most frustrating thing with ultracrepidarians - you can use a search engine so you think you know better than people who devote their lives to studying this stuff.
If good diet and exercise was effective to prevent depression we'd see lower rates of mental ill health in athletes, but that's not what we see. We see similar rates.
There are certainly people that are clinically depressed that are also physically active (some friends of mine are in that group). OP states as much.
But I agree with OP, if we’re not going to talk about the low hanging fruit of exercise, diet, and sleep, we’re not going to get anywhere with combating depression.
Edit: here’s just one of many studies (there are literally hundreds of them) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC474733/