In society, more and more people suffer from depression and anxiety disorders. Studies have linked doing exercise with an reduced amount of depression and anxiety in certain people.
Anxiety
After investigating the effects that exercise had on anxiety, there were two groups that were formed:
Acute (short term)
&
Chronic (long term)
Acute: Studies show that acute affects of exercise actually reduce anxiety. They produce temporary but immediate effects.
Chronic: It is generally agreed that long-term effects of doing exercise are that trait anxiety is reduced (Morgan & Goldston, 1987).
Depression
When we don’t do physical exercise, we could experience higher levels of depression, as not doing physical exercise has been related to higher levels of depression.
If exercise if a form of reducing our depression, then what about if you were depressed about money and couldn’t afford to use a gym or transport to reach a gym. It depends what you are depressed about for exercise to be able to reduce that. For example, if you were depressed about your weight, then doing exercise would deffinately reduce the depression as you would feel good about yourself and your weight for doing the exercise.
Consistent support has been found that exercise is an effective form of treatment for depression.
The movement for interest in exercise as therapy probably comes from several sources. Dishman (1986) created the following trends as explanations:
Move toward prevention rather than treatment (self-help).
The growing awareness of the importance of lifestyle in human longevity.
The realisation that traditional therapies have limitations.
The high cost of treating psychological associated illnesses, which makes exercise a lost-cost alternative.
