Scott Douglas has become a best-selling author despite struggling with mild depression for more than 20 years, and running helped him do it. He told Leo Spall more people should benefit from the ‘treatment’.
Dysthymia is the medical name for the mild, persistent depression Scott Douglas was diagnosed with in 1995.
He was someone disappointed with life, who seldom found meaning in events and relationships and had to work hard to summon the mental and physical energy to complete everyday tasks.
Douglas had been enduring such a disposition for years before that, too, and the fact that he had already become a runner suggests things could have been even worse.
“Running was the first thing that combined day-to-day pleasure with the feeling of working toward something meaningful,” wrote the co-author of New York Times-bestseller Meb For Mortals in his latest book, Running Is My Therapy.
“It took me a while to be able to appreciate and articulate just how profoundly running improved my life by improving my mental health … For many years I went about my business, running a lot because it was the highlight of most of my days and because I sensed it uniquely girded me.”
Lacing up and getting out the door remains Douglas’ daily mood mover today and while he competed in his younger years, the 54-year-old views running primarily as a tool to make him feel better these days.
"We’re not making the claim that running solves or cures everything but there could be people whose symptoms would more or less be alleviated just by becoming an active, fit, healthy person."
He's said that running has helped him with friendships, marriage and career, and improved the odds “of being something other than miserable most of the time”.
Academics have for some time been trying to establish incontrovertibly why running and other endurance sports have such a positive effect on people’s wellbeing.
As Douglas detailed in depth in Running Is My Therapy, they have built up a strong body of evidence along the way of the internal chemical reactions regular moderate exercise stimulate.
Such scientific testing has resulted in some countries giving doctors official guidelines advising the use of exercise as a first-line treatment for mild depression.
However, Douglas is frustrated that is not the case for the U.S., and in the UK recent draft guidelines from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) on depression had to be reworked after uproar from the medical community about its first attempt.
Although not the primary cause of the anger, among the things added second time around by NICE earlier this year was point 1.5.3: “Consider a physical activity programme specifically designed for people with depression as an initial treatment for people with less severe depression.”
Douglas (below) told runnersmentor.com: “I’m biased but the evidence is pretty strong that it [regular running] should be presented as a first-line treatment – one of the first things that is tried.
“Of course, it has the side benefits of improving your heart and keeping you at a good weight rather than bloating and sexual dysfunction and things like that [which may be the side-effects of some prescribed drugs].
“My understanding is the UK is a bit more advanced than the U.S. in that there are some official guidelines to use it as a first-line treatment.
“Canada, the Netherlands have elements of this in their guidelines, on a par with more traditional treatments.
“In Australia and New Zealand a lack of exercise, being sedentary, is considered a risk factor for anxiety and, especially depression. There, if you happen to see an enlightened enough practitioner you might be told to go and begin an exercise programme, and if you’re still depressed ‘come back and we’ll talk about the next level of treatment’.
“We’re not making the claim that running solves or cures everything but there could be people whose symptoms would more or less be alleviated just by becoming an active, fit, healthy person.”
The health benefits of running are great and wide-ranging. Douglas’ book said they include better memory, attentional focus, pain tolerance and brain processing speed.
Other claimed advantages of regular moderate running include greater creativity, improved mood and reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, all thanks to the changes it promotes in the brain.
This exercise regime is said to work in a similar way to anti-depressants but Douglas wasn’t arguing for it to replace pharmaceutical treatments.
“I take an anti-depressant and have, at times, gone to see a counsellor but it doesn’t have to be an either-or choice,” he told this site.
“We learn through running what is possible and what each of us individually is capable of, and we apply that to the rest of our lives.
“Studies show that the regular practise of being an endurance athlete shows you how to put up with stuff that’s not going to kill you but is not the most pleasant in the world. You have experience which tells you can get through this and it will be over at some point.
“Running has taught me so much about how to navigate difficult situations and to endure things that aren’t going well. That has been huge personally and professionally.
“I’ve been running for more than two thirds of my life and I think it would be pretty bleak, boring and drab without it.”
Comments