The Importance of Exercise for Mental Health

Very rarely do people take into account how their physical health and mental health are connected.  I talk with every patient that seeks my help about setting not just goals for their mental health improvement but goals for their physical health as well. Both our physical and emotional well-being is important for our overall health.  Therefore, it is important to evaluate improvement options as a whole person solution. 

I am never surprised when I hear that someone has gotten into bad sleeping patterns, unhealthy eating patterns, or tapered off on their exercise regimen.  I have written previously about how poor sleep disrupts emotional regulation abilities and how poor nutrition can cause an emotional roller coaster.  However, the importance of exercise is often overlooked in mental health discussions.  We have a tendency to think of exercise in terms of weight loss or cardiovascular health.  However, regular exercise has enormous benefits for our mental health as well.

First, taking time out regularly to exercise is good practice in devoting the time to prioritize your needs before all of the other demands in your life.  Even if it is only twenty to thirty minutes a few times a week, it is a wonderful commitment you are making to your own well-being.  Often for those who struggle with mental health issues, making time for their own well-being is not a habit they have formed, so exercise offers a good reason to form this important habit.

Second, exercise releases endorphins, which help raise your overall sense of happiness and helps combat depressive hopelessness and the overwhelming sensation that comes with anxiety.  The physical activity forces you to be present in the moment giving you practice in keeping yourself focused.  This can be tremendously helpful when combatting mental health issues.  Physical movement helps your body function at its optimal levels, thus enhancing your attention and memory.   Plus, if you stick with it past the initial shock to your body, your energy level will increase.

Finally, exercise opens up new ways to create a sense of mastery.  When you take up a new activity, over time you will see the improvements of practicing that activity such as changes in your body, improved strength, increased endurance, higher energy level, or just strictly the ability to do something better. It makes you feel good about yourself and improves self-esteem. 

Give it a try.  I promise you are worth the 20-30 minutes of your day that it will take to see improvements!

Timers as Tools

In my practice I am constantly looking for small changes that can be immediately impactful in my clients’ lives.  While we all know that lasting change happens in small increments over longer periods of time, it is important in maintaining motivation for the work that needs to be done for there to be recognizable and measurable progress in one’s therapeutic goals.  Timers are a small, easily acquired tool that can have a big impact on several negative behavior patterns.  In this technological age it is increasingly easy to work with timers.  In  most cases, they can be set on phones and computers within seconds.

Experts have long extolled the virtues of using timers to assist individuals who struggle with attention and focus.  Setting a timer when doing longer tasks can be a great tool to help draw your wandering mind back to the present task at hand.  The notification of a timer breaks into wandering thoughts and gives you a signal that it is time to refocus.  A timer may also be used as a reminder to take a movement break if necessary.  Often movement is a great tool to help individuals refocus as well.  How often the timer should go off is dependent on the severity of the distractibility of the individual.  A highly distractible individual may need the timer to go off frequently, while a more focused individual might need only occasional reminders to break and refocus.  The hope is that over time the timer can be phased out as the brain adapts and learns to refocus itself through repetition.

I have also found that timers can be a great way to increase motivation in individuals who struggle with procrastination.  It is much simpler to motivate yourself to complete a task you have been avoiding if you can assure yourself of limits and rewards.  I recommend setting a timer at the beginning of the task.  That way you can tell yourself that after a certain amount of time you will stop working on the task and give yourself a break.  That break may involve a snack, checking the news on line, a TV show or any reward that you would like to offer yourself for getting started on your project.  Breaking a larger project into smaller pieces like this can make the whole project feel more manageable. 

Finally, I find the timer to be an invaluable tool when parenting.  Setting a timer can help aid in difficult transitions from one activity to another, especially with small children who are being asked to stop doing something that they are enjoying.  For instance, you may set a timer while they are building with blocks and say that when they timer goes off it will be time for them to put the blocks away and get in the bath.  While this won’t remove all of the grumbling, it often removes the power struggle because the timer is the notification instead of the parents.  In the same way, a timer can remove the power struggles that break down parental child relationships when children can’t complete tasks on time.  For example. There need not be fighting about getting breakfast eaten before school.  It is simply done before the timer goes off or there is a consequence.  This removes the turmoil and helps start the day off in a calmer, more predictable fashion.  The use of timers in this manner can also be used to help kids have more awareness of the passage of time, which in the long run can make them more time conscious individuals. 

While these are a few of the very effective ways timers can be utilized, the possibilities are endless.  If you were to present me with a nagging problem that you have been facing in your life, I am sure that I could identify a way the timer could be useful in kicking off its solution.  So start thinking outside the box and use a timer to jump start your change. 

Choosing Therapeutic Activities

In my practice, I am always connecting with other professionals who offer services that my clients may also need.  In a recent conversation with one of these professionals, a wonderful occupational therapist that I often refer appropriate cases to, she happened to bring up a question she often hears from parents: are there activities I should be doing with my child that will enhance the therapeutic process?  In this world of overscheduled children, it is often difficult for parents to narrow down the activities with which they should get their children involved.  This leads to a desire to “kill two birds with one stone” and focus energy on activities that will be enjoyable but may also work on issues that the child is facing.  This discussion with the occupational therapist caused me to take a deeper look into what other activities could be used to help kids work on the issues that bring them to my office.

For my colleague, her answers are straightforward.  Any activities that involve fine or gross motor skills and offer sensory input are great.  If you have a child with fine motor issues, enroll them in piano, guitar, art class or rock climbing, for example.  All of these activities require the use of pressure and muscles within your hands and strengthen those things.  For balance issues, yoga, gymnastics, karate or dance might be a good recommendation.  But what can I offer as suggestions to parents whose kids have ADHD, social anxiety or poor self-esteem? I began to look at what skills I was trying to build and what activity would help build those same skills.

So if your child has social anxiety or low self-esteem, you would be looking for an activity that builds confidence and allows them to build comfort with being part of groups and builds leadership skills.  Girl or Boy Scouts seem like a great way to achieve these things.  Volunteering is also great for this.  Look for opportunities for your child to become a part of the community at large.  Work at a soup kitchen or food drive. 

If your child has ADHD, you will likely be looking for activities that promote working memory and executive functioning skills.  In order to accommodate their need for stimulation and activity, you might steer your child toward active things that are more solitary in nature such as running or swimming.  As an added bonus, you could involve them in things that are active but involve strategy such as fencing or rock climbing.  Activities that require thinking ahead or anticipating an opponent’s next move will help them train their brain to slow down and organize information.  Chess is a fantastic game for these kids.

Instead of just signing our kids up for whatever activities in which they express an interest, given the limitations on everyone’s time these days, I think it is smart to think about how an activity might help them learn the life skills they need in a fun and natural way.  Instead of having to fight with them to practice skill building activities that seem like work, they can be building the same skills in a way that they enjoy.  While this doesn’t replace the need for therapeutic intervention, it certainly could lessen the time that is required and build skills that could grow with your child throughout their lives.   Using these methods can help you incorporate these interventions into your child’s activities in a more time efficient and enjoyable manner. 

To Medicate Or Not To Medicate?

In the course of my time treating individuals with mental health issues, I have often been asked whether or not I believe in the benefits of psychotropic medication.  The answer is not a simple one.  Mental health treatment is a mutifaceted endeavor.  I have certainly been part of treatment teams for individuals who need medication in order to live healthy lives. 

Let's first examine medication for the treatment of anxiety or depressive disorders.  There are many factors in a person's life that can contribute to them feeling anxious or depressed.  Eating habits, sleep habits and exercise are factors that are often overlooked.  Poor coping mechanisms, a propensity for negativity, self-destructive behavior patterns and poor social support are also major contributing factors.  None of these factors will be addressed through the use of psychotropic medications.  However, often genetics and biology also play a part in the development of these issues.  If your brain chemistry is a contributing factor in your anxiety or depression it is unlikely that you will be able to combat these problems without the help of medications.

If we are talking about issues such as ADHD, the determination becomes murkier.  A lot of people with this issue are able to be successful in altering undesirable behaviors through the use of structure and behavior planning.  Medication is often warranted in cases where other options have been exhausted.   Sometimes, non-medicated interventions are unsuccessful in helping the individual to overcome behaviors or impulses that lead to unhappiness and a lack of self-confidence in their lives.

My ultimate answer is always that it is important that you weigh all of your options.  Having a good team of helping professionals guiding you to make decisions will often lead to your happiest and healthiest outcomes.  Sometimes medication can be a temporary solution until new coping mechanisms and behavior patterns or healthier lifestyle choices can be learned.  The world is full of many different professionals who proclaim to want to help individuals sort through these issues.  Ask questions and find the one who you feel understands your concerns and can answer your questions fully and appropriately.