October 21, 2003
Health Aging
Walking can help reduce depression
This is one of those weeks when I don’t know what to write about. In more than two years of crafting this column, that’s never really happened to me. I’m usually touched by a
thoughtful comment or intrigued by a piece of information I’ve unearthed, and I research the issue a little and create a column. It emerges almost naturally. Sometimes I’ve thought,
"I could do this for the rest of my life. All I need is a hot cup of tea, the dog lying comfortably beside me and good lamplight."
This week is different. I think it could be about feeling blue. My tea is not staying warm tonight, the dog seems to have disappeared and my lamp is flickering. Depression — better put,
depressive illness — is afoot.
I am blessed because I’m not personally involved. I’m frequently referred to as a "terminally optimistic" person, and that label, strangely, fits me.
But I do understand depressive illness. For many years of my professional life I directed large-scale mental health programs where I was immersed in mental health policy-making and psychiatric
hospital treatment planning.
For me, mental illness and depressive illness were central to every working day. It feels like another place and another time, but I was there. That was then, this is now.
And "now" looks like this. This week I learned that my lovely young niece, with her brand new graduate degree and her "perfect" job, had been hospitalized with depressive
illness. I learned my East Coast sister-in-law is struggling valiantly with the same illness.
I also came to know that my longtime colleague, John, has conquered his depressive illness and is in "a good place." Another friend, Chloe, after years of institutionalization, is too.
In a given one-year period, 10 percent of the population is identified as having depressive illness. Symptoms include persistent sadness, an anxious or empty mood, feelings of hopelessness and
pessimism, decreased energy, fatigue, restlessness, irritability.
The symptoms manifest themselves differently. If a depressed spirit exists and three or more of these symptoms continue over a two-week period, intervention is needed. And that intervention often
starts with an outreaching friend, a listening ear.
Interventions work. Hear this: Depressive illness is episodic and treatable. The treatment approaches include new and incredible medications, psychotherapy, cognitive therapy. It all begins with
a comprehensive assessment by a good clinician. There are solutions. And there is something else.
Last week I attended a presentation by a local psychiatrist addressing the topic of depressive illness in later life. He was informed and eloquent as he spoke about new treatments. And at the end
he offered advice that will stay with me always: "Whatever I may I tell my patients, I tell them this. Every day for the rest of your life, you must walk 35 minutes. Every day, for the rest
of your life."
No matter where you find your mood or your mental spirit, this is good counsel. And once again it has happened. I am touched by a thoughtful, some might even say life-changing, comment.
Sharon Johnson is an assistant professor in family and community development at OSU Extension and a member of the Senior Advisory Council. Reach her at s.johnson@orst.edu.
