Physical Exercise Helps You Become Less Anxious

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Have you ever been lucky enough to experience “a runner’s high”? This happens when you do something especially healthy for your body, and your brain ‘rewards’ you by releasing certain chemicals called endorphins into your system. In this case, your good deed was exercising or going for a run.

If you would like explore this particular phenomenon in depth, as well as others pertaining to mood and exercise, I recommend the article “Physical Exercise Can Provide Short-term Mood Enhancement and Alleviate Long-term Depression”.  However, there are other major side effects to exercise that have yet to be studied further. How exercise influences one’s anxiety levels is an example of one of these side effects.

Stress is a prominent part of our lives, and this is apparent in the fact that anxiety disorders affect forty million adults in the United States alone. Needless to say, there are various therapeutic methods or medication available to ease the burden of these disorders. However, there might be a more natural and effective method of dealing with anxiety. Exercise, for instance, does more than just releasing dopamine and helping to combat depression. It can also be utilised as a form of stress release. Studies have proven that people who are more physically active tend to have lower rates of anxiety and depression. Furthermore, it has also been shown that a person who exercises is 25% less likely to develop an anxiety disorder.

But does this phenomenon only occur with exercising? Could there be other activities that have the same effect? For example, there have been studies that suggest that dopamine is released when engaging in pastimes such as reading or creating art. Is it possible to use these outlets as good stress relievers? Or does the physical effort, that is needed to carry such activities out, account for that aspect of this theory? Food for thought.

 

-Cassey

Edited by: Seraphina Leong

 

SOURCES

Exercise for Stress and Anxiety. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/managing-anxiety/exercise-stress-and-anxiety

Mayo Clinic. (2012). Exercise and stress: Get moving to manage stress. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/stress-management/in-depth/exercise-and-stress/art-20044469

Mayo Clinic. (2014). Depression and anxiety: Exercise eases symptoms. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/depression-and-exercise/art-20046495

Weir, K. (2011). The exercise effect. Monitor on Psychology, 42. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/12/exercise.aspx

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