Emob78: Well, I'm 37. The entire world is run by insane lunatics, people can't drive worth a shit, everyone's afraid of their own shadow, we're all going to be invaded by Muslims (apparently), and movies and games kinda suck now. And out of all that, the only downside that caught me is a drinking problem... well, it's a hobby, not a problem. At 37 most of my friends are either dead, in prison, or are on welfare nursing drug addictions and multiple children to raise.

I'd consider myself pretty lucky.

ScotchMonkey: Wait which Monkey, cuz I didn't do shit!

DubConqueror: That doesn't prove exercise makes you happy, it might also mean less happy people tend to exercise less. With all those happy people exercising, I imagine they get much more joy out of exercise than I do. When I did exercises, I was always relieved when I stopped doing so and had more time and energy left for the things I do care about in life.

Also, when I ended exercising, it usually was for depression (caused by an overly busy schedule) kicking in when I had to go off to fitness or later running, it was the depression that had a negative effect on exercising, not the other way around (like what they say, exercising having a positive effect on depression). Most people are now who are happy with sports, don't feel happy sporting because they sport, but because they like sporting. If you don't like sports, it doesn't do shits for you, it just feels like another obligation dragging you down.

There were things I liked about sporting, but it wasn't the sports themselves, it was the peripherals. With fitnessing, I finished off the day with a cooking group. When the time of fitness was changed to an earlier time, so I couldn't follow it up with coocking and eating together, the joy was lost. With running, the fun was being in the woods. When the coach that normally took people into the woods went on to other work and the remaining coaches stayed on the boring running track, joy in running was lost as well: the joy was being in the woods, not the running. And I can have a far more enjoyable time in the woods walking, than running through it watching my pulse on the chronometer.

tinyE: Someone with that name has been sending me crude pms but I don't think it's actually him.

hedwards: Right, it's more complicated than that. Ensuring that you get adequate exercise will guarantee that your brain has sufficient nutrients to produce melatonin and serotonin amongst other things, which in turn makes it easier to avoid depression and other mental illnesses.

However, as you point out, it isn't a panacea, if you've got a shit outlook on life, you can still be miserable. It's just that you're less likely to have mental illness or injuries driving the unhappiness.

DubConqueror: Yes, I'm om medication. Writing about how I feel sad instead of screaming out of rage and despair is only partly my owm achievement. I don't think I'd mentally survive getting off medication, I know what it does to me and it helps lift my mood and stay relatively stable a lot. I'm on prescription of an anti-depressant daily and an injection of an anti-psychoticum once in a fortnight.

On psychiarists advice I repeatedly stopped anti-depressants as they said I just needed the anti-psychotic, but severe depression would strike within at most 6 months if I quit anti-depressants. Took some time to find one witout side-effects though (such as keeping the little conqueror to stay up healthy ;-) ).

DubConqueror: Yes, I'm om medication. Writing about how I feel sad instead of screaming out of rage and despair is only partly my owm achievement. I don't think I'd mentally survive getting off medication, I know what it does to me and it helps lift my mood and stay relatively stable a lot. I'm on prescription of an anti-depressant daily and an injection of an anti-psychoticum once in a fortnight.

On psychiarists advice I repeatedly stopped anti-depressants as they said I just needed the anti-psychotic, but severe depression would strike within at most 6 months if I quit anti-depressants. Took some time to find one witout side-effects though (such as keeping the little conqueror to stay up healthy ;-) ).

hedwards: That's rather telling. Although, I fear it's time for this to get split into another topic as it's veered way off topic.

Depression itself is one of the easier diagnoses to treat, The main problem tends to be compliance and use of a scientifically backed methodology. If the depression is coming away with that kind of predictability, it means that the doctors missed something.

Medications help in the short term, but if you're being offered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or one of the other well-studied therapies, you shouldn't find that the depression is coming back that quickly or that severely. I'm guessing that whatever therapy you're being offered isn't sufficient or is aimed at the wrong problem.

With this kind of problem, they should be providing you with the means to rewire your own brain so as to prevent and improve your condition. I know for a fact that recovery is possible, I've known people with severe depression that recovered. Even cases where the person was so depressed that they literally didn't get out of bed for months at a time. And they still recovered, but it sounds like you need to find a new doctor as things are not working the way that they should be.

ShadowWalker56: For me being schizo affective is a chemical imbalance but, personally, I would like to come off the meds but I don't want to crash. Been there. Done that.

DieRuhe: Well, if by "end up" you mean the inevitable death, then sure. If I died in my sleep tonight I wouldn't care.

As for age, I'm with those who say there is no "right" or "wrong." I'm 46. I feel like 20. Or even 15 some days. Books, gaming, writing, comics, music - everything I loved when I was younger is still a major part of my life. Letting other people decide your standards is a sure way to unhappiness.

hedwards: Right, it's more complicated than that. Ensuring that you get adequate exercise will guarantee that your brain has sufficient nutrients to produce melatonin and serotonin amongst other things, which in turn makes it easier to avoid depression and other mental illnesses.

However, as you point out, it isn't a panacea, if you've got a shit outlook on life, you can still be miserable. It's just that you're less likely to have mental illness or injuries driving the unhappiness.