Can you walk off depression?
Walking isn’t a cure-all, but it might keep us whole
There is something about the weight of depression. It’s a unique force, psychologically akin to gravity. Depression can hit hard, sandbagging like grief. It settles into the entire body, pressing us into inertia, into a space where movement feels impossible. A room becomes an entire world. A chair becomes an extension of our weighty, immobile body. A walk outside? Impossible.
And yet getting myself to walk, even to step outside, is almost the only thing that has ever helped when I feel depression blanketing itself around my being. It doesn’t make the depression go away and it doesn’t cure it. But it does stop it from what I think of as “gelling” in my body. It keeps the depression from taking hold for long periods of time. If I can get myself to walk, then I can get myself to drink water, to watch a show, maybe even to smile if not to laugh.
A number of studies have affirmed walking’s ability to alleviate the symptoms of depression. An Australian study involving nearly 2,000 women found that 200 minutes of walking per week (just half an hour a day) noticeably eased the symptoms of depression:
“In 2001, all of them had reported at least 10 depressive symptoms, indicating mild to moderate depression.
But over time, their physical health…
