Symptoms of Depressive illness:
- Loss of energy and attention.
- Diminished ability to enjoy life.
- Decreased, or increased, sleeping or hunger.
- Difficulty in concentrating; indecisiveness; slowed or fuzzy thinking.
- Inflated feelings of unhappiness, misery, or worry.
- Feelings of insignificance.
- Frequent thoughts about death and suicide.
If most of these symptoms last for two weeks or more, you probably have Depressive Illness. Sometimes depression alternates with "obsession" and is called Manic-Depressive Illness.
Manic Depression causes mood swings creating periods with the following symptoms:
- A high energy level with decreased need for sleep.
- Unwarranted or exaggerated belief in one's own ability.
- Extreme irritability.
- Rapid, unpredictable emotional change.
- Impulsive, thoughtless activity, with a high risk of damaging consequences
Depression and exercise
Everyone feels sad from time to time, but depression is characterised by long-lasting feelings of sadness, misery and despair. One in four women and one in six men will suffer from depression at some point in their lives (figures from British health study 1992, www.bbc.com/health). Depression is a complex sickness, which can involve a number of contributing factors, such as genes, environment, diet, lifestyle, brain chemicals, psychology and character. Research shows that the most effective treatment is a combination of antidepressant drugs and psychotherapy. Recent study suggests that standard exercise may also be a helpful way to raise a person's mood. People who suffer from anxiety also pick up when they exercise on a regular basis.
Depression and the inactive lifestyle
Researches into serious heart attacks indicate that depression, exercise and physical wellbeing are directly linked. On average, depressed individuals only exercise about half as much as people who aren't depressed. This lack of cardiovascular fitness puts a depressed person at a bigger risk of heart attack. It furthermore seems that depression and exercise manipulate each other - an inactive lifestyle increases the risk of depression, and depression increases the likelihood of an inactive lifestyle.
Exercise study
A recent research study at Duke University Medical Centre (study and figures courtesy of www.DukeUMC.edu/deprsdy/001.html) compared the special effects of exercise and drug treatment in treating depression in adult individuals. The 156 depressed men and women were separated into three groups. Over 16 weeks, one group took antidepressants, the second group undertook an aerobic exercise program, and the third group used both medication and exercise. Certain results include:
The participants in all three groups improved.
The participants taking antidepressants improved the fastest.
68.8 per cent in the medication group were no longer classified as clinically depressed after treatment.
60.4 per cent of participants in the exercise group were no longer classified as clinically depressed after treatment.
47.3 per cent in the combination group were no longer classified as clinically depressed after treatment.
The brain chemical serotonin
Serotonin is an important brain chemical (neurotransmitter) that contributes to a range of functions, including sleep and wake cycles, libido, appetite and mood. Serotonin has been linked to depression. Researchers have found that regular exercise, and the ensuing raise in physical fitness that results, alters serotonin levels in the brain and leads to enhanced mood and feelings of happiness. Some research indicates that regular exercise boosts body temperature, which may ease depression by influencing the brain chemicals. (Research study taken from www.DukeUMC.edu/deprsdy/001.html)
Other therapeutic benefits of exercise
Apart from changes in brain chemistry, the other factors that may help describe the healing result of exercise on depression include:
- The individual experiences a self-esteem increase by taking a dynamic role in their own healing.
- Some forms of exercise, such as team sports, are also social events.
- Physical activity burns up stress chemicals, like adrenaline, which promote a more tranquil state of mind.
- A pleasant session of exercise may be off-putting enough to break the vicious cycle of negative thinking.
Physical benefits
The physical benefits of regular exercise include:
- Enhanced cardiovascular condition
- Reduced risk of early death
- Reduced cholesterol level
- Reduced blood pressure
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Enhanced muscle tone
GP Referral
“Prescribed Exercise in a Safe Environment”
GP referral schemes are fast becoming an important tool in both primary and secondary health care. With advice and support from qualified health professionals, schemes are helping to reduce health inequality in communities nationwide.
G.P. referral schemes, also known as exercise referral schemes or, as Exercise by Invitation, emerged in the 1990s in answer to the need for positive, community-based interventions to convince greater exercise involvement with a view to producing quantifiable improvements in public health. They are grounded in the principle that primary health care teams can play an important role in facilitating health behaviour change. More than 70% of people see their general practitioner (GP) at least once in any given year and 95% do so within a three year period (Office of Population Consensus and Surveys, 1995). As a result the GP surgery is a setting in which large numbers of people can be reached, giving a chance for lifestyle advice and health promotion.
There are now a very large number of referral schemes operating throughout Britain. Whilst there are ranges of ways in which the schemes function, normally they involve association between community health trusts and local leisure services. GPs, practice nurses and other health care professionals can refer patients to the scheme who they believe would profit from adopting a more energetic lifestyle and who meet at least one of a set of participation criteria, usually including moderate hypertension, mild depression, smoking, overweight/obesity, osteoporosis and arthritis.
The importance is normally on referring individuals at low risk of morbidity/mortality rather than those in higher risk categories such as cardiac rehabilitation patients. Participants experience a basic medical examination and give up to date consent and are then referred to a leisure centre where they receive a fitness review, an exercise prescription and a series of exercise sessions, often at a reduced cost and sometimes with the option for additional sessions on conclusion of the initial series.
Despite their rising reputation, there is substantial debate concerning the efficiency of the programmes in prompting long term physical activity and in enhancing health related fitness. There is also concern over the best way to execute schemes and their suitability among the medical profession especially with regard to the training of referral scheme.
The main benefits of these referral schemes may somewhat outweigh the negativity that they have courted recently. Some of the patients referred for fitness improvements have a history of mental illness, and as discussed earlier, exercise is by far a better alternative to `self-medication`, those that turn to drugs and the such like take a further turn to the point whereupon they can no longer be helped in any way.
One of the main reasons for exercise prescription amongst the mentally ill is to quench their appetite for activity, hyperactivity, especially prevalent amongst children with the illness, can be channelled constructively into activities that the child enjoys. Certain mental illnesses, such as autism, can be aided with a goal-orientated exercise program, with an autistic child in particular, the grasp of reality and feeling of self is greatly diminished. If the goals set are achievable, the child will gain a sense of achievement, subsequently forming a bond with reality.
Treatment of patients with a mental illness often includes a social aspect; the referral schemes are often group based, within a controlled environment, and with the correct supervision can hone individual’s inter-personal skills, thus aiding rehabilitation.
Overall the link between the two is substantial; the two almost co-exist, with one possibly leading to the other and vice-versa. Since the majority of the body’s functions are either controlled or carried out by the brain, it is no exaggeration to suggest that the saying ` healthy mind, healthy body `, does not apply.
Perhaps one of the most famous people in sporting history is also the victim of a disease that has only really gained any publicity since it emerged that the man in question, Muhammad Ali, was diagnosed with the illness.
During a ring career that spanned almost 20 years, Ali was never once knocked out, but the repeated trauma that blows to the head cause must naturally have a say in any future brain-related issues that may occur. Some still don’t subscribe to the theory that the punishment that Ali sustained in the ring caused his illness, regardless of this fact, when a man as famous as Ali speaks, people will listen.
Parkinson’s disease had a certain stigma attached to it, the humiliation that some suffer, the indignation of almost being in a vegetative state one day then feeling fine the next causes a rollercoaster of emotions and feeling, that some may feel embarrassed to have the illness. One of the most memorable pictures of recent times came from the Atlanta Olympics of 1996, whereupon Ali was asked to light the Olympic torch as part of the ceremony. What happened then has become as much of a focal point as many campaigns and awareness projects as any speech. The once great Ali, who in his era ruled the boxing world with a swagger that belied his upbringing, and the bigamy that surrounded the success of non-white sportsmen and women (again, he was a pioneer for the equality and consideration for all non-white athletes), was a shadow of that image that he so confidently cast before. The hands of Ali shook so vehemently that the normally simple task of lighting the torch became a struggle tougher than most he had in the ring. Suddenly it seemed okay that this man had Parkinson’s, that he was fighting this illness the only way he could, perhaps in a throwback to his ring days, and that was to fight it himself.
Ali has made the disease not bearable, but with less of a stigma to it, the setting up of the Ali foundation (a sample of which showing the structure and aims of the foundation can be found attached) has done much, especially of course in America to raise the awareness of the disease, the precautions that people may have to take in order for themselves to treat, aid or altogether try and prevent the disease from happening. Using Ali as a talismanic figurehead exploits the media coverage that he receives to the advantage of the foundation, as well as any treatment that Ali receives able to help the medical professionals to understand the illness more, unfortunately any media coverage of Ali will more often than not, focus on not what he was, but what he has become, that is a frail man painting a far different picture to one of the man in his youth.
