When is it ok not to exercise?

sometimes if that's all
 you can manage
that's ok!

I have an interesting relationship with exercise.  I've always been quite an active person.  I don't drive so I walk a lot when the weather's decent. I currently go to the gym fairly regularly and do a mixture of cardio and weights but I've previously done ice-skating lessons and I have roller blades and I occasionally go for a run.  I can get very restless if I don't exercise and one of the reasons I'm not more of a reader is that I don't generally like sitting still! In episodes of depression, however, I find it difficult, exhausting and unpleasant and I struggle to do what might be considered a healthy amount of exercise.

On my nutrition course I learned about the devastating impact of sedentary lifestyles on our health.  I have seen it being described as on a par with smoking in terms of the damage it does. I currently work as a receptionist so spend a large proportion of my working day sitting on my bum and I think it has definitely taken its toll on my physical and mental health.  But whilst it's my job there's not an awful lot I can do other than getting up and moving occasionally and ensuring I have the correct posture and a lot of people are in a similar situation.  It's apparently impossible to counteract the negative effect of being sedentary by doing a few sessions at the gym, but nonetheless, it's still a good idea to find ways of being active where possible.

Exercise and mood

if somebody feels like
this, telling them
to exercise isn't
helpful

Although exercise can certainly help people with their mood, I often tire of people referring to exercise as an antidepressant, because that is misleading and incorrect.  As I said in one of my previous blogs, it shames people who have reached a point where they are unable to exercise and those who have physical disabilities that make exercise very difficult or impossible.  Some people with mild to moderate or maybe even occasionally severe depression might find exercise to be beneficial to their mood and an aid to recovery but it should not be assumed that this is the case for everyone.  A major depressive episode can feel like being hit by a tornado and sometimes the best thing to do is find shelter (metaphorically!).

I personally don't always find exercise to immediately boost my mood or give me a 'buzz' (unless I'm hypomanic!) but when for example, I had ice-skating lessons, learning a new skill and getting better at it at a steady pace was great for my self-esteem and that in turn can boost ones mood.

Are there instances when exercise can be doing more harm than good?

There are times when we're well but we can just feel a bit apathetic towards exercise because of bad weather, temporary bad moods or work issues but with a bit of a kick up the bum we can make ourselves exercise and reap the benefits.  Earlier this year the weather was absolutely miserable, I didn't want to leave my warm comfortable house to venture outside and I can't really exercise much at home due to lack of space.  But I knew I needed to lose some of the weight I put on over last year and burn off the excess calories from the comfort foods I didn't want to exclude! I managed to push myself to go to the gym 2-3 times per week and now I'm slowly achieving a healthier body composition and losing a few pounds.

just admit you don't like running
 and find something else!

On the other hand, there are many different reasons why we might be exhausted and our body just needs to recover.  Severe depression, anaemia, Chronic fatigue (ME), fibromyalgia, arthritis and Multiple Sclerosis are just a few examples of  chronic conditions that can cause exhaustion and/or pain and seriously hinder our ability to exercise.  Common colds, flu viruses and bugs can also seriously zap our energy.

me before one of my
3 runs of the year!

In some cases gentle exercises may be possible and it's definitely worth giving it a try if you're able to.  Other times it's better to preserve what little energy you have and allow your body to heal by taking some rest.  I've made my feelings about those 'what's your excuse' posts quite clear!  It is so important that we look after our physical and mental health and sometimes that means taking it easy. In other cases with a bit of a push or with gentle encouragement we can enhance our health, wellbeing and quality of life by incorporating exercise into our lifestyle.

The Privilege of Sanity and the Cost of High Sensitivity

I wrote the blog about sanity being over-rated :http://samanthathesanevegan.blogspot.co.
uk/2015/08/im-not-sane-but-sanity-is-over-rated.html to help try to reduce the stigma of mental illness whilst at the same time not trying to romanticise it.  It's an area where you really have to tread carefully. Many people attribute their creativity to their mental health issue.  Others feel that the experience of having a mental health issue can be a good teacher and allow them to help others. 

now that's my kind of inspiration! RIP

The reality is, however, that mental illnesses can make life difficult and can add further obstacles to achieving what we want to in life.  I'm just the kind of person who tries to look for the silver lining, this is why I try to embrace my lack of sanity and also why I love Alice in Wonderland! I feel that sometimes sane (or 'neurotypical' to be PC!) people fail to acknowledge the extent to which mental illnesses can impact on a person's life and trivialise their feelings, accusing them of being lazy or not trying hard enough.

So in what ways can having a mental illness impact on a person's life?

This is something I've really felt compelled to write about.  Practically everyone I encounter in my life: family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, (with the exception of a few friends who have experienced depression themselves) comments on the fact that I have a low status job for my level of intelligence.  Somebody (who I don't know that well) recently actually asked me if I was 'mad' and said that I had gotten too lazy and comfortable. 

When I talk about the difficulties I have with job hunting and interviews as a person with low self-confidence and recurrent depression I'm met with 'Oh but everyone hates job hunting' and 'Just act confident'. People cannot differentiate between the normal mild anxiety people feel when going for interviews and that of somebody with an actual mental disorder.  It is an actual fact that having a serious mental illness dramatically lowers one's chances of getting a job.  

As this article states 'Only about 20% of people with severe mental health problems are employed, compared to 65% of people with physical health problems and 75% for the whole adult population. Even for people with more common types of mental illness, such as depression, only about half are competitively employed.'
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/nov/14/mentalhealth2

'Oh, but what about this 'inspirational' celebrity who had depression or bipolar disorder and was still successful?'

Ugh, 'Inspiration Porn'

brilliantly put

There might be 'inspirational' stories of people with mental illnesses who still achieved great things and this might make some people think that all people with a mental illness have just as much opportunity as others, they just need determination or to 'change their attitude'.  It's akin to saying, for example, that the existence of successful black female jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald or Nina Simone in the 1950s in America proves that black women were not a marginalised group and had the same opportunities as everyone else.  Race, gender and mental illness are of course separate and different issues but they are all factors that can impact on a person's life opportunities.  It needs to be acknowledged that those without a mental illness have an advantage over those who do.  There is nothing I loathe more than those 'What's your excuse?' or 'The only disability in life is a bad attitude' posts!

Sensitivity - Blessing or curse?

overwhelm is a horrible feeling

I've written before about being a HSP (highly sensitive person) in my blog: http://samanthathesanevegan.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/depression-part-2-food-mood-and.html. There are 15-20% of the population who are believed to have a higher than average level of sensitivity and empathy (and I definitely fall into this category!) Whilst psychopaths are often highly successful in terms of climbing up the career ladder and earning large sums of money, highly sensitive people are more easily overwhelmed and tend to have lower self-confidence.  It's been found that about 1 in 5 CEOs are psychopaths.  Many people in positions of power such as politicians fit the typical profile of a psychopath whereas the tendency to feel overwhelmed in highly sensitive people may sometimes result in lower status (and lower paid!) jobs for highly sensitive people.  There are some world figures and politicians who fit the profile of a HSP (Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Jo Cox (a British MP)) who managed to accomplish wonderful things and fight for justice (tragic that so many of them seem to end up being murdered!) Others might feel debilitated by their sensitivity and suffer from quite serious depression that prevents them from being able to function normally in life, let alone further their career. There is such a thing as 'Compassion Fatigue', a sort of exhaustion/burnout that some people experience from caring too much.  Self-care and taking some time for oneself where possible is key in these cases. 

Redefining Success

What does success look like for you? It is a shame that society seems to define success in life as a sort of 'grocery list' of achievements or milestones and Heath Ledger has really hit the nail on the head in this quote. If I thought of success in those terms like I used to, I would make myself miserable.  Do I have any of the things society might expect a woman in her early thirties to have? Nope!  But am I currently happy and do I experience pleasure and joy in my daily life? Yes!  That to me is success.  

I really wish that on social occasions, rather than asking what you do for a living or whether you've met that special someone yet or gotten pregnant etc, people would seek to find out how your life is going and genuinely want to offer support and care if the answer was not so great.  This would definitely take away a lot of pressure and the feeling of dread many people get when socialising at a lower point in their life.

Having a mental illness and being highly sensitive is part of me and something I've come to terms with, I don't want to sound like I see myself as a victim. I recognise that I have a number of great privileges in life and I am grateful: being born into a first-world country, being able-bodied, absence of any physical health problems, being a native English speaker, having 2 parents and a stable upbringing with good moral guidance. I just wish for a bit more understanding of the challenges people with mental illnesses and/or high sensitivity face and a shift away from the 'grocery list' view of success!