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Exercise can be ‘frontline treatment’ for mild depression, researchers say
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2026
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Regular exercise makes you feel better, look better, and be able to do more things. The fact that half the thread is talking about how they're too depressed to try exercising is really telling that they probably haven't tried exercising.
Right, they are too depressed to try exercising, so they have not tried exercising. That is practically a tautology, so I am not sure what your point is.
I have been in a persistent depressive state for over 20 years, and the thing is that they're physically capable of doing it. You basically have to convince yourself that you don't have a choice but to at least go for a walk or something.
I'm not saying it's easy, but the only one stopping you is you. I occasionally get off track on my workouts and I have to force myself to get back into it. It's not easy, but it's absolutely achievable.
And you don't have to start big. Go walk to the end of your driveway or the office of your apartment complex or something. Do anything, even if it's only for 5 minutes. Then start adding a minute each day. Eventually you'll start looking forward to doing it.
And the great part about telling yourself, "I'm just going to do this for 5 minutes," is that very often after 5 minutes you really don't want to stop (also helps with ADHD and chores)
One thing that helped me a lot is my therapist repeating that I drive my brain, not the other way around. That, and 'don't believe everything you think'.
My brain is telling me I don't have the energy to workout, but I know it's full of shit.
So it sounds like, by definition, you were not too depressed to try exercising because you did it. Go you?
Also, a lot of people simply do not get anything out of exercising, unfortunately; it never stops being uncomfortable tedium that brings no improvement in their mood.
Right, there's no one size fits all solution. But the idea that you're too depressed to do anything is a self fulfilling prophecy. You're fully capable; your brain is just telling you that you're not.
It does take practice to acknowledge and internalize that your brain is lying to you and to set those thoughts aside (which is what Mindfulness is). It's not like I woke up one day and said, "My depression is cured so I'll go exercise."
It took therapy and months of false starts to get to the point where I could force myself to do it on a regular basis. But the only person stopping me was me.
Yes, but I think that my point still stands that if one is too depressed to exercise, then exercise is not the solution to the depression. You yourself have just said that you had to use other techniques first to get to the point where you were able to exercise.
Also, very importantly, I really think you need to reject the thinking of "the only one stopping you is you", both in yourself and in the advise you give to others, because makes it seem like the problem is a lack of willpower, and I think that telling people that they just need to try harder to fight their brain will just cause them to dig in. Furthermore, since you have been practicing mindfulness, you know that there is no "self" at the core but just a collection of mental processes, and that thinking of there being a "self" at the core actually causes harm by creating a false narrative about the way that the mind works which makes it harder to guide it in a better direction. Telling people that there is a "you" that is the one stopping things from happening reinforces this misconception. The better thing to do is just to speak from your own personal experience of watching your mind and seeing how many of the things that were holding you back were just appearances, and once you came to appreciate that, their hold on you was loosened.
Finally, a lot of people have (very roughly speaking) brain chemistry issues, and all the therapy and mindfulness in the world can only help so much with that.
My general advice would be to be very wary of projecting your personal experiences onto others, even when you are sincerely trying to help (which I believe that you are!)
I’m not sure that “too depressed to exercise” is a medically recognized state short of being bedridden and comatose, so unless one is unable to get out of the bed to go to the bathroom saying “i’m too depressed to exercise” is just words being used to justify not going for a walk
You are denying the existence of clinical depression?
I was walking every day for months on end. It did nothing for my mood. Not just casual walking, I was speed walking. My hear rate was pretty high while walking. It did nothing for me, so i lost all motivation
You likely need to do something more strenuous than walking.
Yes, you might need something more strenuous. If speed walking was getting your heart rate to the target zone, then it's possible you weren't in good enough shape to see the mental health benefits.
Or... maybe not everyone's brain works the same way?
If exercise doesn’t work for you then you can now deduce with more confidence that your depression is not mild.
Exercise works for me, my depression is mild. I require a lot of running, no amount of power walking pulls me out of a funk, i need 3 or 4 days of doing 20-40 minute runs to get to the good place. If it’s not helping or you can’t then you definitely need medical and social support to get out of the hole. This article, and thus the discussion was not intended to belittle anyone who finds exercise does not help them.
I, personally, found the article encouraging because it reminds me that i need to be better about my exercise routines to stay in better mental health. This article is trying to talk to my circumstance, hence the words “mild depression”
However, people making the claim that they are too depressed to exercise are being belittled. For example, to quote another comment:
It's funny how people can be so different.
I personally love the feeling of exercising, so unless I am experiencing severe anhedonia—which has happened in the past when I was on a lower dosage of antidepressant—then it always bursts my mood while I am doing it, which provides significant motivation. However, exercise does nothing for my wife except to make her feel sweaty and unpleasant, so she feels no motivation to do it, and even though I understand this intellectually I still have trouble "getting" it.
(Both buttons meme)