Depression

Seniors Walking Helps Fight Depression

As we get older we can feel isolated and alone. Everybody has the 'blues' sometimes, but depression is a different thing. You can find difficulty in sleeping, or doing your job, you can feel anxious or maybe can't concentrate. Anyone with these symptoms could have depression. This is a common condition, one in seven people have a period of depression serious enough to need treatment some time in their lives. You must do something about it. Just trying to carry on in the hope that it will go away should not be your only option.

But what to do about it? First of all see your doctor, he may prescribe anti depressants or counseling. He could well also suggest exercise, for it has been found that exercise helps a lot. You feel better, you look better, you get out and about and your self esteem rises. A fitness walking program and gentle cardiovascular program can have great benefits.

The British Journal of Sports Medicine tells us that as little as twenty minutes exercise a week can improve our mental health. Any type of exercise can do it from a fitness walking program to cardiovascular exercises or even gardening and housework. I would hope that we are able to take more than twenty minutes exercise a week. It does appear that the more exercise we take the less depressive illness we have. But, of course this must depend on age and general level of fitness to begin with. Always start slow with any exercise regime.

When you start exercising you must do four things:

Decide which exercise you like doing.

Be Positive - exercise will help your depression, so you are going to do it.

Set reasonable goals - if you only feel like exercising for ten minutes, exercise for ten minutes. Don't set yourself half an hour, give up at twenty minutes and feel a failure.

Rejoice - celebrate when you have finished. You have achieved something, congratulate yourself.

If you decide that a fitness walking program is the way to go I would advise walking in the country. Take one or two friends if possible. There is always something to look at and enjoy and you will, for a while at least, forget the troubles which are causing your depression.

City walking is different, it can itself be a stressful activity. Crowds, traffic, shop assistants, can all cause stress and often do. But a change of scene, a day out in an unfamiliar town will make you feel more alert and, by overcoming the inevitable problems, more confident.Exercise will not cure your depression. You will have to look at the cause and address that to begin a cure. But it will help you on the road to a brighter future.