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STRESS/ANXIETY AND BENEFITS OF EXERCISE

Published: 3rd May 2016 21:46

STRESS/ANXIETY AND BENEFITS OF EXERCISE

Did you know that exercise has been found to be helpful in the prevention of anxiety/stress and depression. When we are feeling anxious quite often the last thing we want to do is exercise, but once motivated exercise can make a big difference in our lives by reducing anxiety and stress levels, improving memory, helping with sleep patterns, boosting overall mood and can help lower the risk of many chronic diseases.

Scientists think that physical activity helps maintain wellbeing in a number of ways.

• It can help people with mild depression. Evidence shows that it can also help protect people against anxiety.
• Physical activity is thought to cause chemical changes in the brain, which can have a positive effect on our mood.
• Physical activity can improve our sense of wellbeing as it brings about a sense of greater self-esteem and self control.

Exercise can help mild/moderate depression by promoting changes in the brain that can promote feelings of calm and well being by releasing endorphins. It can also have a positive effect on anxiety by relieving the effects of tension and stress and can act as an antidepressant but without the side effects.

The effects of stress have the ability to build over time almost without us realising. Major changes in our lives e.g. moving house, getting married/divorced, coping with a new job can cause the stress to build and without a stress reliever can lead to illness.

Of course not all stress is bad, in fact a small amount of stress is good and necessary as it helps to protect us from danger (fight or flight response) and can help us to improve our performance. It is only when we allow stress to build that it can become a problem. Exercise is a great way to relieve the effects of pent up stress.

Stress can be experienced in 3 different ways.

• Physiologically/physically
• Behaviourally
• Cognitively/emotionally (our thoughts).

Physiological/physical

When we are faced with a threat our bodies go into a fight and flight response. This response prepares us to either run away or stay and fight. This reaction can be traced back into our evolutionary past where we may have been threatened by a wild animal. The body would be to be prepared for vigorous action either to run, or to stay and fight. The reaction itself consists of the brain sending a message to pump the hormone adrenalin into the bloodstream and large skeletal muscles of the arms and legs. This in turn causes the heart to beat faster. Because the heart is working harder it needs extra fuel, so we breathe in more oxygen. Hence the body is being prepared for Fight or Flight and is part of the Sympathetic Nervous System.

Once the threat has passed, then the Parasympathetic Nervous System can come into play. The Parasympathetic Nervous System does the opposite to the Sympathetic Nervous System and slows down the systems in the body that speed up when we get anxious so that the body can concentrate on its desire to rest and digest. Therefore while the stress response can be lifesaving in emergency situations where you need to act quickly, it can wear your body down if constantly activated by the stresses of everyday life by not enabling the Parasympathetic Nervous System to come into play. This can lead to chronic illness if allowed to go on for a length of time.

Behaviourally

This means the way you behave when faced with a situation you fear.

These behaviours may show themselves in different ways e.g.

•  Loss of efficiency, leading to worry, anxiety and extra stress.
• Focusing on peripheral activities (less important tasks) rather than facing a problem.
• Reduced activity and productivity.
• Increased consumption of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine etc.
• Mood swings.
• Over/under -eating.
• Sleep problems.
• Fatigue.
• Cognitively

This is the way we think. It includes ideas and beliefs about ourselves and how we may deal with a situation we fear. If we find ourselves in what we perceive to be a fearful situation then we may find that we experience a range of symptoms that we find worrying. This in turn can lead to a vicious circle of physical symptoms leading to worrying thoughts about those symptoms leading to higher stress levels. We may not always be aware of frightening thoughts as they occur very quickly. Therefore it is important to try to identify these thoughts and recognise the effect they are having and the role they play in maintaining anxiety.

So why do anxiety symptoms begin?

There are usually a combination of causes. You may have one single major problem or a number of smaller problems that can add up to a large amount of stress. Also the way we handle stress is individual. Some people are more sensitive emotionally and their bodies response to stress might be triggered more quickly and then take longer to calm down. Hence the survival reaction may be triggered by situations that are more subtle and that we may not even be aware of causing our bodies to be in a perpetual state of stress.

 

So to get back to motivation and how to relieve our stress levels.

Did you know that The UK Chief Medical Officers' Guidelines 2011 state that physical activity benefits adults and older adults by reducing:

• Depression by up to 30%.
• Dementia by up to 30%.

AND

• That exercise is a natural and effective anti-anxiety treatment as it relieves tension and stress, boosts physical and mental energy and enhances well-being through the release of endorphins.
• Relaxation is another great way to relieve the symptoms of stress. If we can learn to turn on the bodily symptoms of relaxation, we can turn off the symptoms of stress. They are two sides of the same coin: therefore you can't experience feelings of relaxation and stress at the same time.
• Studies show that exercise can help lower the risk of many chronic diseases.

Getting motivated to exercise especially when we are feeling anxious or depressed can be very hard and can lead to us feeling trapped in a catch-22 situation. We know that exercise will make us feel better but feeling low in mood can make us feel robbed of energy and motivation.

So what can we do?

• Start small and have achievable goals. Your local gym will have trained people that can help you to achieve this.
• Look at working-out at a time when you know your energy levels are higher.
• Make exercise a social activity. Your local gym will run classes where you can meet other people thereby gaining benefits on many levels.

Your local sports centre (DENGIE HUNDRED) also runs Body Balance classes where you will learn relaxation.

HelpGuide.Org

NHS Livewell/fitness

U.K. Chief Medical Offers' Guidelines 2011

 

 

 

 

 

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