Mental Health Challenges That Exercise Can Help With
If you are facing a mental health challenge, don’t give up hope. There are ways to recover and improve your mental health. Mental health challenges often require a multi-pronged approach to fully address. This approach may involve counseling, medication, dieting, etc. Exercise can be a very valuable addition to your treatment plan if you have one of the following challenges.
Stress
Stress in and of itself is not a bad thing. Stress is your body’s natural response to increased pressure. However, there can be a point where you have accumulated too much stress and this can lead to negative and debilitating reactions to stress both mentally and physically. Exercise is an important way of dealing with stress. Exercise strengthens your body which will empower it to deal with stress more effectively. Exercise also allows your body to simulate stress and practice dealing with it in an effective manner. Adding exercise to your routine may seem like a stressful idea. However, a little can go a long way. So, don’t start off with heavy exercise. Just do something light each day.
Depression
Depression may manifest itself in many different ways, but exercise has been found to help with nearly all forms of it. Exercise releases endorphins into your brain. According to TMS Clinics of Canada, you can start seeing a positive impact on your mental health with as little as 30 minutes of exercise. By regularly incorporating this into your daily routine, you can see a massive improvement. Depression is often accompanied by low self-esteem. Exercise can help improve that because increased fitness generally comes with increased confidence in your body image and increased abilities. Both of these attributes can increase your self-esteem as you see yourself making visible progress.
Anxiety
Anxiety disorders can cause you to feel overly worried and scared when facing opposition and can often be accompanied by physical symptoms. Anxiety can make it much more difficult for you to face and resolve the problems in your life. Many studies have been conducted that show that exercise can be a valuable therapy for addressing anxiety disorders, according to the ADAA. The positive effects can often last for hours after the exercise ends.
If you are dealing with any of these mental health challenges, consult with your doctor about adding exercise to your treatment plan. They can help advise you on how much exercise you should be doing and what type of exercise you should perform. Results will vary between individuals, so be sure to keep an open dialog with your doctor as you search for the right fit for you.
Check out this article for a 25 minute morning workout routine!