LIFT YOUR MOOD NOW WITH
EXERCISE
By Claire Dorotik B.S., M.A.
It’s
Not only have the levels of depression
risen sharply since the 1950’s, but also have the number of gyms, health programs,
and exercise products. We hear that
we all should exercise more, and that it will help us feel better, but can
it really improve our moods? Further,
do all types of exercise improve mood equally well? Maybe not. Before we look at these questions, let’s first
look at how our moods are influenced by our thoughts.
Feeling down might not be as coincidental
as you think. Your mood is inherently
related to your thoughts. Feeling down
is characterized by a specific pattern of thinking. The way you think when you are down differs from the way you think when you are
not. Many researchers, including Seligman,
describe this pattern of thinking as having a “dour picture of yourself, the
world, and the future.”
It is this very pessimistic style of
thinking that immediately creates
a change in mood. Our thoughts are chemical in nature, meaning
that the thought alone will create a neurochemical response in the brain,
generating a specific mood. Recent
research has been able to demonstrate that negative thoughts and images cause
a measurable decrease in the neurochemical serotonin, responsible for feelings
of comfort, pleasure, and satiety. Chronic
pessimistic thinking creates a more permanent drop in serotonin levels, resulting
in a negative mood characterized by sadness, despair, inability to find energy
to enjoy previously enjoyed activities, anxiety and irritability.
While it is normal to experience some
negative thoughts, are you really that pessimistic? Let’s take a look. Following is a short test to help you find out.
This test is an adaptation of a test used by the Center for Epidemiological
Studies, developed by Lenore Radloff. To
take the test, circle the answer that best describes how you have felt over the past week.
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some or a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [3 to 4 days]
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some or a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some or a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [3 to 4 days]
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some or a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [3 to 4 days]
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some or a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [3 to 4 days]
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some or a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [3 to 4 days]
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some or a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [3 to 4 days]
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some or a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [3 to 4 days]
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some or a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [3 to 4 days]
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
0 Rarely or none
of the time [less than 1 day]
1 Some a little
of the time [1 to 2 days]
2 Occasionally
or a moderate amount of the time [3 to 4 days]
3 Most or all of
the time [5 to 7 days]
The test assesses the thoughts that contribute
to a low mood, and is quite easy to score. Simply add up the numbers you circled. The higher your number, the more likely it is
that your thoughts are bringing you mood down.
However, this test is not the same thing as a diagnosis of depression.
A full blown diagnosis of depression depends on many other factors,
such as the length of your symptoms. This
test will give you an accurate indication of how your thoughts are affecting
your mood right now.
If you scored from 0 to 4, you are in
the healthy range, below the mean of American adults;
Now that you have an accurate picture
of how your thoughts are affecting you, let’s get specific. If you scored a 2 or higher on questions 1,
3, 7, and 10, then your thoughts most likely are causing a low mood with anxiety.
If you scored a 2 or higher on questions 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9, then
your thoughts most likely are causing a low mood, without anxiety.
While any form of exercise
will help each one of these types of low mood, we can adjust the specific
exercise intensities, modalities and duration to suit the type that you have.
Matching the exercise to the type of mood will serve to balance your
neurochemicals more effectively, increase your feeling of success at the exercise,
and increase the chances that you will stick to the exercise.
To do this, we will need to first look
at how each form of mood affects a person.
A low mood with anxiety, for example, can be described as “being unable
to focus, things moving too fast, feeling exhausted but unable to sleep at
the same time”. While people with anxiety
may feel wired, they are actually exhausted.
This is due to the high levels of epinephrine [neurochemical, also
known as adrenaline] that cause anxiety. Another
contributing factor to anxiety is the stress related hormone cortisol.
Exercise can be a very powerful antidote
against this, and as the Mayo Clinic reports, exercise reduces levels of cortisol,
while boosting levels of the feel-good endorphins. Because we know that anxiety causes you to feel,
“wired but tired”, the object is to burn off steam, without overdoing it,
and risking an injury. To date, research
points to aerobic exercise, performed at a moderate intensity, as the most
effective form of exercise to lower levels of anxiety. A recent Duke University Medical Center Study
from October 1999, had 36 patients with anxiety disorders participate in an
8 week aerobic exercise treatment program.
Not only did all participants significantly reduce their anxiety scores,
but at a 1 year follow-up, most maintained the improvements. However, the effects may not be immediate.
In a 2000 study performed at The University of Missouri, the reductions
in anxiety were not seen until 30-60 minutes after the exercise.
This study also demonstrated that the exercise intensities over 50%
of V02 max did not significantly reduce anxiety levels.
In fact, exercise intensities over 50% of V02 max, showed increases
in anxiety levels in some study participants.
So what does all this mean? From these studies and similar others, we can
conclude that moderate intensity aerobic exercise is the most effective treatment
for anxiety. For athletes, it might
be easier to use a perceived exertion as a measure of exercise intensity.
This would mean training at a perceived exertion number of 50-60, on
a scale of 0-100. Whether a V02 percentage is used or a perceived exertion
number is used, the rule is moderate. Remember, although anxiety can make
you feel like you want to train really hard, keeping the intensity level in
the moderate range actually lowers the levels of epinephrine and cortisol
more effectively.
What if you don’t have anxiety, but just
feel down? For a low mood without anxiety,
the predominant factor is lack of energy. Unlike with anxiety, where you feel wired but
tired, with a low mood, you just feel tired.
You may have muscle aches and increased soreness. You may feel like even the smallest things are
a challenge. You may also feel that
you are unable to accomplish things, and/or not good at anything. These symptoms can be attributed to the depleted
levels of serotonin that cause a low mood. Because of these factors, matching the exercise
to the type of mood is very important. Primarily,
the exercise must be something that is easily achievable, so that you feel
successful.
To do this, the exercise intensity should
be kept in the low to moderate range, [50-70% of your maximal heart rate],
and should be something that you are familiar with. Current research shows that both aerobic and
non-aerobic forms of exercise have beneficial effects on mood. In a two year follow-up study performed at
So both aerobic and non-aerobic exercise
can lift your mood, and increase your levels of serotonin, but again, the
intensity should be kept in the moderate range, so that the exercise is easily
achievable. This is important, because
as Dr. Vickers points out, “Having confidence in our ability to make a positive
change is strongly associated with actually taking the steps to make that
change happen”.
Many studies have shown that even moderate
levels of exercise have very positive effects on the serotonin level. While all of the reasons for this are not clearly
understood, the Mayo Clinic states that, “exercise will cause an increase
in levels of certain mood enhancing neurotransmitters in the brain”. Additionally, it seems that, the longer the duration of the exercise, the
greater the affect on the serotonin level. This effect is seen particularly in anecdotal
reports of marathon runners that describe reaching a “high” after several
miles of running. Like running, the
exercise should be something that allows you shift attention away from unpleasant
or unhelpful thoughts and instead direct attention toward neutral or pleasant
thoughts and activities, while remaining achievable. The important thing to remember is that the
exercise must be something with which you can feel successful.
While feeling down and feeling anxious
are different in many ways, they have
one thing in common, and that is a decrease in the neurochemical serotonin.
Exercise can do wonders to lift mood, and more now than ever before,
research is beginning to prove it. The