Support

Being depressed or suffering from some other vaguely related disorder is not generally a lot of fun. Even in 2015 people still think a mental disorder is the equivalent of insanity and all suffering from this should be shunned. This very VERY old fashioned point of view is lamentable and obviously the people who hold to it should be the ones who are shunned. But the problem is often not the ones who think you are insane, it’s the ones who think you’re just a little down.

Friends and family can be a huge support for anyone who is depressed or dysthymic or whatever. If they can be made to understand what’s going on. Because many still think that depressed people should just try a little harder. There is nothing worse than hearing ‘you should go for a walk!’ every other day. Well, not “nothing”, but you get my drift.

When you’re a little down or sad, a walk can be very heartening. Exercise has been proven to be beneficent for your mood. So yay for all those who are helped by this! Seriously, I am very happy for you. Feeling like this sucks, so anything that helps is a plus.

Unfortunately, walking or even more strenuous exercise doesn’t help everyone. Random walking just gives me time to think and since I think depressing things, I get more depressed. So, not a good thing. People often tell me that they feel so energised after their run/bike ride/trip to the gym/ski holiday/whatever. This is very nice for them. It does not work this way for me.

For starters, many sports cost a lot of money. I have no job, so money is a problem. So people say to go running, which costs nothing! Which isn’t true. An outfit, especially the shoes, costs money. Also, exercising when you don’t know what you’re doing can be very dangerous for your health.

But let’s ignore these problems and say you do run. I used to. I trained myself until I could run for 30 minutes without having to stop or even be too much out of breath. Objectively, this was quite an achievement. I was decidedly underwhelmed. I was just tired and unimpressed. I kept it up for a while, until I was sucked back into a negative spiral.