I’m doing Pilates about two days per week and that’s it. Nothing cardiovascular, nothing aerobic. I walk 15-20 minutes per day. I’m about 10-20 pounds overweight, some might say a bit more than that. I don’t weigh what men in the 1940′s weighed at my height, that’s for certain. Someone my height might have weighed in the 150′s and I’m in the 170′s.

All this is to say that I’ve been on both sides of the debate, does exercise help bipolar depression? Three years ago, I lost 40 pounds quickly through biking and severe dieting. I lost an average of 2 pounds every week by pedaling and eating steamed broccoli in huge portions with a side of chicken breast, no oils. During this time, my depression remained constant. I did get relief, though it was only for an hour or two after the exercise – the afterglow.

Now that I’m not exercising, my depression has gotten worse. It has gotten worse the longer I’ve been away from the time when I was in shape. At that time, I thought it wasn’t helping, but it was: there, in the background, saving me from a worsening depression, keeping me afloat and stable. I never imagined that stopping exercising would drop the floor out from under me.

Exercise doesn’t cure one of depression and I don’t think it even makes one feel better for any appreciable length of time. What it does do is prevent you from getting even more depressed as time goes on. It’s a dark thought that most of us don’t want to face, but the evidence is out there, should you want to check into it: depression worsens with age. Exercise may be the only thing besides than meds that can stop this acceleration.