Imagine barely being able to leave the house, experiencing prolonged depressive episodes with daily, sometimes hourly, panic attacks, and not being able to see the point in continuing. Many things helped you survive, like talking through it in therapy, which was like opening a pressure valve in your brain and allowing you to function just enough to get by. Medication had mixed results because you felt less panicky but also less excitement, joy and other essential emotions.
Crying to friends gave temporary catharsis, but it wasn’t until you discovered Muay Thai, a form of kickboxing, that it felt as if day-to-day life might provide something other than hopelessness. Many of our collective crises — depression, anxiety, unhealthiness, and loneliness — are made worse by the same thing: our tendency toward a sedentary, shut-in lifestyle. We live in a society that makes it extremely difficult to find the time and space to be active. An abundance of research shows that exercise is good for depression, and yet most of the time when I hear people talk about the mental-health crisis — on TikTok, on X, and in real life — it is rarely mentioned.
It’s much more common to hear people talk about finding the right diagnosis, the right medication, and the right kind of therapy than it is to see people encouraging their loved ones to get outside. Many of us know exercise is good for us. All that’s left is getting up. The evidence is overwhelming that physical activity is good for both our bodies and our brains. A meta-review of studies that included 128,000 participants found that exercise of any kind significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. There are several theories as to why this is: exercise could increase the availability of neurotransmitters like dopamine in the brain, or it could help the brain form new neural pathways that are helpful in escaping cycles of depression.
Either way, moving is good for our brains, and the physical consequences of not moving enough are well-documented: heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, and a host of other disorders are linked to low physical activity. It is also bad for our mental health: A 2014 meta-analysis of more than 100,000 people found that increased sedentary time was positively correlated with rates of depression. A study from the beginning of COVID-19 found that it was harder for people to stop being depressed if they spent too much time sitting.
Instead of getting enough exercise, we’re stuck lounging around on our phones. We’ve replaced real-world bodily stimulation with mental stimulation from our screens. Meanwhile, our brains are rotting. In one study, nearly half of Americans ages 18 to 29 reported experiencing depression or anxiety in 2023. And over the past few decades, mental illness for teens and children has been on the rise.
You’ll still sometimes get depressed and struggle with mental health. But now, you might feel as if you have a reliable way to help yourself out of it. You’ll get to the point where exercise is more important than more mind-oriented forms of therapy. It’s not a magic cure, but it’s a fundamental baseline. If you’re not moving, nothing will help your sad state.