Can you treat depression with yoga classes? The research says it works. I went and tried 4 days a week of yoga and felt … so much better.
Last week I announced that instead of going to counseling I was going to go to yoga to try to treat depression. I came to this plan totally on my own, without doing any research. I just remembered how in the past I felt much better by doing yoga. Actually, I remembered one specific time. It was February of 2019. My father was gravely ill and reflecting on his prognosis wasn’t helpful, nor was the thought that in the long run all our our prognosises are the same. On top of it, Leo was being unhelpful, saying stuff like, “leave me alone I’m reading” and “You’re always depressed what does it matter?” The situation was desperate for sure.
It was in the dark February of 2018 that I decided to join the local studio.
This week, I did the same thing again. Returned, as they say, to the mat. Showing up for myself on the mat in an attempt to turn my mood around.
The answer to the question, did the yoga cure work, is yes. I am not in perfect condition … I did catch myself musing on making a list of people who don’t like me this afternoon … but only for two minutes. And by contrast, there have been at least a dozen times in the last three days when I thought “hey, life is so great, I can’t believe this.”
This is actually consistent with research.
I decided to read up online on the yoga cure for depression and found that my great discovery here wasn’t exactly a discovery. People have suggested this, researched it even, before. Of course, I don’t care if it works in research studies, I really just care if it works on me. Nevertheless, I feel vindicated. I went on, searching for more information on “yoga to treat depression.”
I traveled down my google hit list of sites, and I found this next page on YouTube. This is Yoga with Adriene and she had given us a fifteen minute yoga workout called, helpfully, “Yoga for Depression.” Apparently, looking at the video, Adriene has a nice little room where she does her yoga, with a wooden floor and calming plants, and she invites us to start by lying down and doing supported rest pose … hand to heart … I notice that she is wearing a nice modest yoga suit with a t-shirt and calm cool green yoga leggings. You can see a window beyond her, which shows foliage … she expresses her love for everyone who chooses her video.
As soon as I got done drafting this post, I did the workout with her. It’s only 15 minutes, and I would call the effort level extremely light compared to Hot 60 which is my go-to yoga class. But she did get to some deep bends, some deep breathing, and I did feel relaxed and ready for bed when I was done. Overall impression: You’ve got a friend in yoga with Adriene.
Next I went to check out my regular health website go-to, WebMD. Web MD allows that yoga may help with depression. However, “yoga doesn’t replace other types of depression or anxiety treatment which could include therapy and/or medication.” Well, you know those western medicine types. I guess the WebMD people haven’t considered the argument that going to too much therapy will turn you into Woody Allen if you don’t watch out. I read on down the Google list.
Next, for those who are too sophisticated for WebMD, is Harvard Health. Their report shows that yoga is good for mental health of all types. Harvard’s report also says that yoga “can affect mood by elevating levels of a brain chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is associated with better mood and decreased anxiety.” And a review of 15 studies on alternative methods to address depression and anxiety in “older adults” (no older adults in here but us chickens) yoga and listening to music were the most effective, but yoga *lasts longer*. Not that I don’t listen to music in the car, constantly.
Here is my Methodology for Yoga to Treat Depression
So the good news is, my plan worked. The not-as-thrilling news is that my discovery is, “Well, Obvio,” as the kids say. But I still feel a sense of achievement. Perhaps I should talk about what did I do? In the last seven days, I went to 60 minutes of hot yoga on Friday night and on Sunday afternoon, as well as on Wednesday night, and to a 60 minutes intermediate Vinyasa class on Saturday night. (The instructor at this class asked me and a man who was standing nearby “what are your plans for tonight?”
The guy said, “I don’t have any.” I said, “I went to yoga, isn’t that’s enough? The man gave me a look. I wasn’t sure what the look signified. Did he mean, “Yoga is not a thing to do on Saturday night?” Listen, Dude, for me it is. For me, this is about as exciting as my life gets. I didn’t mention that I was using yoga to treat depression, either.
Part of the reason why yoga to treat depression works for me is my perception of people who do yoga. You can not do yoga if you’re ugly or decrepit. Generally. So if you’re in the yoga studio, your negative self talk (you’re falling apart. You don’t have it anymore (or on a really bad day “you never had it in the first place”.) is disproved. The mirrors will show you that your body is still working and you still can get into the poses, which proves that you’re not dying. Yet. If you were you wouldn’t be able to finish the workout.
So that’s the methodology and the research on yoga to treat depression.
