In the Forum - Can Exercise Cause Depression?

Everytime I try aerobic exercises my antidepressant don’t work. Everyone says it should be the opposite.

Thank you

Yes – I’ve definitely noticed this too. After exercise (treadmill, jogging) – particularly if I haven’t eaten anything – I spiral into depression that doesn’t have any other cause. I believe it’s related to cortisol, and my brain not regulating it the same way as other lucky people who feel great after exercise. I’m dealing with this by being sure to eat a little before exercise, and by not exercising to the point of feeling “stressed” which turns on cortisol and which I think my brain doesn’t know how to turn off!

This is exactly how I feel. Whenever I start to get back into an exercise program to “feel better” I end up feeling worse. I feel good while I am exercising, but later in the day I feel very fatigued and “down.” I don’t think I am over exercising. I may also be a little stressed or depressed because of depriving myself of foods that I enjoy to lose weight. This is all so discouraging.

This happens to me as well. Several years of regular “healthy” exercise (1+ hour jogging 4-5 times a week) has not helped my overall depression and possibly made it worse. While I am exercising I don’t feel good or energized. I can start out in a fine mood and find myself getting more angry with each mile. Music or other distraction helps, but I often finish in a terrible mood. And for several hours after I exercise, I notice I feel significantly more depressed, drained, and irritable. I thought I was the only person with this problem.

I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one here. What I would like to know is whats the solution? Is there something that exercise is taking out of us that can be replaced?

When I do abdominal exercise at the gym I often experience ‘tearniness’, and a welling of sorrow/anger/pain. I have started and stopped exercise programs on a few occasions lately and have experienced each time a powerful depression which has started the day after and lasted for a week at a time. My breathing becomes erratic throughout. I am experimenting with letting go of what I’m holding on to. Maybe as the body unwinds, its load hits the nervous system and causes problems.

But there are other factors. The timing is the factor which points me in this direction.

I feel the same way after exercising and have been doing research. When your blood sugar is low you can feel “depressed” or irritable. It is very important to eat right and drink a lot of water. Some people need to eat right before, right after, and drink water while exercising.

I’ve noticed this through my life. I am currently training for a triathlon. Yes I’m eating right drinking lots of water. But after a hard day of training I feel depressed, cry and irritable. While training I usually feel okay. Don’t think I’m overtraining since I’ve been at this for 7 months. Wish I knew what to do.

I think it must be due to low blood sugar. I also thought I was the only person who experienced this, but the other day a diabetic friend said he gets very angry afterwards. I just looked this up on the CDC website and they said exercise-induced low blood sugar could occur up to a day later.

I’m guessing that even if you generally eat right, a hard day of training can still drop blood sugar too low. Not all food affects blood sugar the same way–maybe a little more fat on those days would help.

wow! I thought I was a complete freak! I went through lots of websites touting the positive aspects of exercise until I found this one. I get really sad after working out and I usually feel like crying. It’s like the more calories I burn the worse it is. I eat fruit afterwards but it doesn’t help (I’m usually craving fruit and salad after cardio exercises). Sometimes I get nauseated and have to throw up. I want to be skinny so bad….but am I hurting my mental health rather than boosting my physical health?

So- What do we do. After a really hard workout, or a big race- I feel like I am hanging over the abyss!! I mentioned it to my Doc. and she said “huh, never heard of it”. I don;t want to stop excercising, but I don;t want to feel this way either!

I feel the same way. It is difficult when everyone tells you exercise is supposed to get you better. I believe it has to do with cortisol levels also. I’m going to try and test it in the future.

Hi Everyone. I get this same “crabby” leave me alone attitude after a strong swim workout. Always starts the day after the swim and can last 2-3 days. Figure it has to be something with blood-sugar. Switching to another exercise day after … bike/weight training helps.

I get really depressed even during the training. It’s usually when I’m really drained and my coach is pushing me. Then I start getting a little teary but I don’t cry. But after its done, I feel sick and depressed.
I know it’s really weird but I take a really cold shower and then force myself to smile. Then I ask myself what the hell am I so sad about. It kinda works….

I think it is more of what form of exercise we do and when. If it is rigorous exercising for a short period of time then we tend to feel hyperactive for like maybe one to hours of exercising. We can maintain the active state by eating like an hour after exercising and drinking some cofee or tea to stay in the hyper zone.
On the other hand when we do some slow moving-reptitive exercises over like a long period of time then its is best to go home and have a meal and tea/cofee right away. Coz these type of exercises burn the fat and your body would now be in a panic state since its fat reserves are being used and so it does its best to make you lie down and hibernate-sleep. This is something I have noticed with my body.

Thank heavens I’ve found this – like everyone else, I’ve been told endlessly to exercise to combat severe depression, and have felt worse and worse with an hour of aerobic/anaerobic cycling per day, even when it’s on the towpath with a lovely sunny view of flowers and birds by the local river.

I wonder if this has anything physiologically in common with post-marathon comedown? THat’s obviously an extreme case but it might help people understand the mechanism.

It’s been a long time that I’ve tried to get into an exercise routine. I’m not an athlete but I feel capable of what I’m doing at the moment I’m doing it. Walk/run/walk/run. I love that. I feel encouraged and then I start having trouble getting out of bed and facing the day. I’m getting the feeling that I’ll have to be content with a modest 1/2 hour walk a day. Not that that’s bad but I would like to be able to do more.

I have been noticing a pattern of getting very angry after I exercize. It could be dehydration, blood sugar or perhaps cortisol. I am a type 2 diabetic and I lost a lot of weight. I feel OK when I’m exercising, but sometimes within minutes of the excercise, even a 45 minute walk, I can be so angry it’s frightening. I do eat a lot of times right before I exercise, so it seems unlikely it is blood sugar, but you never know. While other share the problem, I’d love to know what the solution would is, or if there is one. I HAVE to exercise.

Interesting, I just started back walking on July 9, 2007 and am no doing 2.5 – 4 miles a day…. I have recently felt the depression and was wondering if the walking was contributing. Maybe Hydration will help…

I’m so happy to read that this happens to others too! I did a google search for “exercise causes depression” and found this site. After running last night, I felt so depressed! I’ve eaten fruit and starches since then, but I’m still so down that I’m in tears this morning. Good to know that it’s not just me!!

I would like to add one to the count. After exercise I do feel completely drained out of energy with my brain fogged. Usually I need to vegetate on the couch for an hour before recovering consciousness. This is more likely to occur after anaerobic exercise. Although that sometimes applies to jogging too, jogging in general makes me more lively but it destroys my concentration to the point where I cannot read.

I have to agree. I feel irritable, frustrated and just hopeless after exercising sometimes. How strange is that..

I exercised today again for the first time in over a year and when I was halfway through I felt like I wanted to cry. I remember feeling like this when I had a trainer and she said I was weird. Think I’m gonna just cry and continue to work out and see what happens…lol…maybe this is my body’s way of releasing tension.

I’ve been exercising/working 3-4 times a week for the last 2 years. No problem. I’ve recently added a basketball class to this schedule and since then I have been horribly depressed. I am so glad to see I am not alone with this! I certainly wish there was more research in this phenomenon as I certainly would like to keep up my physical health but without feeling like junk for days after!

A couple of things that has helped me; i eat a small healthy snack an hour before exersize. if you eat sooner before, your body will be using all of its energy to digest the food. a small sandwhich and a piece of fruit might be good.
Also, it is important to remember that when we excercise, we are releasing a lot of past tension and emotions. We are actually cleansing our body of built up pain and anxieties from possibly years ago. This may involve crying and a greiving process, it is important to allow yourself to feel this and accept the feelings that are passing through ourselves. I have suffered from a mental illness for years, so i can identify with the depression and pain that I have heard mentioned here.
Listen to your body and soul. When you become depressed it is important to soothe yourself by doing something special…Go take a nice shower, and wash down the drain all of this tension, anxiety and depression. Imaging the water rinsing the impurities down the drain. Let it heal you.
It is important to do a little at a time, but not give up. try a 10 min. walk instead of hour. While walking, biking, playing basket ball, ask you body to tell you how it is feeling. If it is feeling good, think of why it feels good. Relax your soul as much a possible during exercise. Be thankful for where you are.
Depression is awful, especially when it is keeping us from the things we enjoy the most, do not give up….i have many times, it is a cycle, but it will subside as long as you are communicating with yourself. Hope this helps. Yoga is my new thing….you learn to be ok with where you are and who you are.

I’m thinking this problem is due to blood sugar plummeting and possibly to stress chemicals produced during exercise. People who are more sensitive to these stress chemicals such as cortisol or adrenalin could have a bad reaction to exercise. Although I still think that the physical benefits over a long period of time might help with your problems. Although this is comming from someone that cant tolerate any of the ssri’s and is on wellubtrin which works on dopamine instead of serotonin and seems to make me feel better. Exercise seems to just increase this affect and makes me feel even better. But I do experience the ups and downs more mostly because I have alot of negative emotions correlated to exercise.

I just wanted to say I agree with all of the above. Depression after work seemed to make sense since after being so “high” and energized while working out, crashing after makes sense. The part I don’t understand is feeing so very angry afterword. And, why is this the only site discussing this? We all can’t be the only people that feel this way, why isn’t there more info out there? If anyone has any other links that could help, please post. Thanks!

Thank Goodness I am not Crazy…..Never do I get that good feeling from exercise. Only mean feelings. Has anyone found more information on this?

I have the same thing. I believe it’s blood sugar. I think a lot of us are hypoglycemic and don’t know it. Food lowers blood sugar, so does exercise. A solution I saw on a diabetes site said after a half-hour of exercise you should eat something that has 15 carbohydrates in it. Then you can continue exercising after that for another half-hour.

I know I have felt terrible two days later after exercise — wiped out, angry etc, etc.

The problem is that you can’t tell a doctor about this because they will never believe you. For years I have told them I have hypoglycemia and their solution is to eat chocolate to bring up my blood sugar. The worst possible thing.

I have known at least four very depressed people (two women two men)who exercised vigorously and were not in the least helped by the exercise. I’m not saying that exercise is not effective for mild cases or as prevention, but for severe cases it seems to really depend on the individual. For the depressed perfectionist or high achiever exercise is not always the answer.

I have a problem with anxiety, hyper, or nerves when I jog or exercize constantly. For years it used to cause me to relax, but when I got older it reversed. It also caused depression after a while, particularly when you deplete all the bodies minerals after a long bout of a couple of hours of exercize. I’m not sure why, but I think the body changes as you head towards 40 and also there is the tendency mentally make the excersize like a struggle of sorts and feel the tension causing mental stress, particularly if you compete. That could be part of the reason, IE making exercise the same battle that you excersize for–building a constant hyper stress mentally instead of relaxing. The only thing I can do now to relax is vacation completely away from everything–and everybody for the most part. Part of it has to be body changes as well. The anti depressants don’t last forever in a person’s body.

I’ve always experienced this with exercise, especially as I’ve gotten older. Not just depression but severe depression and hypoglycemia to the point of shaking.

I find that much shorter periods of exercise – 10 minutes being ideal – not only doesn’t cause this effect but is excellent for making the weight come off.

I agree with others its probably related to cortisol and low blood sugar. It’s not surprising since many people start their day with coffee – the ultimate cortisol producer – and then eat refined carbohydrates which spikes the blood sugar and then likely have more caffeine in the day.

Then again, when some hunter gatherer native types visited nyc a while back as part of a hospital program and saw people jogging around in circles they laughed. You got the impression they thought that was nuts.

For years exercise gave me a pretty reliable high, and then starting at around age 45, it all went to hell. In men my age and up, cortisol levels are permanently elevated, so any additional spurt, as brought on by vigorous exercise, could concievably cause moodiness by tweaking the amygdala. I think the blood sugar theory may be valid, too, because the day after vigorous exercise, and in the depth of my depression, my appetite gets out of control. I can’t speak for anyone else, but my life stressors have nothing to do with this reaction; it’s the other way around; the depression makes my life appear dark and sad when, in reality, it is anything but. I have a good life with plenty of friends, a wonderful family, great career, and very little stress. Like everyone else, my doctor cannot get beyond the dogma he’s been indocrinated with. He simply does not believe me when I tell him that I get depressed every time I exercise vigorously. Out of curiousity, could everyone please post their age? Maybe we can uncover some interesting patterns here.

I think our subjective definitions of “depression”, etc. can be overdone. It may be that our culture so heavily emphasizes the “right” to feel good at all times – as an American entitlement, that simply feeling naturally tired as a result of exercising can be misconstrued as depression. I’m not trying to be “flippant” here (after all, I am a psychotherapist); but we may be expecting too much from our resources and activities …. and eachother.
And I don’t mind telling my age: 46 yo man.
ps… Let’s not forget the importance of useful, constructive THINKING in all of this. What are we TELLING ourselves about our feelings after exercise? Are we expecting to be as “high” as we were when much younger; without accepting the likely immediate effects of exercise on an older body? I still notice that exercise LONG TERM is very helpful in dealing with mood problems (yes, I have them, too); but may in the short term make us middle “aging” people feel immediately tired. If we then interpret this feeling negatively, we’ll perceive it as “depression”.

This is fascinating! Like many others who have responded, I thought I was the only one who felt depressed after exercise. I have walked all of my life, and walking/hiking doesn’t seem to negatively affect my mood. However, if I do any isotonic exercises that work out my chest and abdominal areas, I can slip into a “dark mood” that starts the next day and lasts for up to 48 hours. It doesn’t take a lot of exercise, just ten minutes or so can bring it on, and my exercise-induced depression has been started by everything from yoga and push-ups to isotonic exercises with a pole.

Finally, a group that understands what I’ve been going through. I am 56 and noticed that in my early 50s after jogging for 30 years, I felt fine and elated that day, but then had insomnia and felt depressed and irritated, and had a mild flu-like sickness the next day. This always vanishes when I sleep that night; however, I eventually stopped jogging. Now this seems to be happening the day after I lift weights and also the day after I bike for 30 minutes keeping my heart rate at 110-115 bpm. So far mild walking does not cause this, but I have plantar fasciitis and can’t walk for exercise right now. I eat well and hydrate well before and after exercise and take electrolytes. So I think it has something to do with aging, menopausal hormone shifts. I see an acupuncturist, but so far her treatments haven’t helped. If it is due to increased cortisol production, which is my other theory, has anyone come across anyway to prevent cortisol from rising during exercise?

Well this all sounds familiar… wonder if anyone else feels great during and after vigorous excercise, sometimes great the next day too, and then two or three days after, boom, exhausted and moody with an inability to concentrate or even see properly. Is the answer to keep exercising to get used to it, or stop, or slow down? And why the delay in feeling bad? It’s been suggested to me that it could be a long term effect of having had severe glandular fever as an adult, liver dysfunction, or mineral imbalances after sweating too much… any doctors out there? Thanks for posting everyone

I experience this very same symptom. It happens no matter what form of exercise I do, strenuous or otherwise, despite the fact that I am relatively fit. It seems that the more strenuous the exercise, the greater the mood crash. With more prolonged, less strenuous exercise, the mood crash is reduced, but more prolonged.

I go on weekly hikes of about 10 miles each. These hikes take most of the day, and almost always result in at least a day of depression afterwards. I enjoy these hikes immensely, but the day afterwards I am completely without motivation.

When I play a strenuous game of basketball, within a half an hour or so afterwards, my mood completely and totally crashes, although I recover more quickly.

The conventional wisdom is that exercise is good for depression and I don’t doubt that that is true for most people, but that has not been my experience.

I just explained this symptom to my Psychiatrist today. His response was that he has never heard of this before.

So what is going on here?

I intend to look into this further. I really think there is something physiological to this. Is it nutritional, is it hormonal? I don’t know, but I intend to find out as much as I can about this.

Personally, I also suffer from what is often called exertional headaches, although as far as I’ve noticed this only accompanies strenuous exercise, but maybe there’s some connection there.

Next stop my physician.

Best to all…

I am also releived to find this forum. I have suffered from the symptons as listed here. I feel very depressed, angry, lack concentration and motivation after exercise. It feels like I am lacking in some form of brain chemical (if that makes sense), dehydrated feeling. I usualy get it after about an hour of exercising and it lasts for a day or 2 afterwards.
I was a keen cyclist upto 3 years ago when I raced to quite a high standard. I was a bit too keen and overtrained. I have never really got over this, I get ill really easily.
I would be so happy if there was a cure for this as it is forcing me to miss the training sessions.
My doctor prescribed anti-depressants for me but they have had little or no effect.

Please can anyone help?

Thank you to everybody who has made a contribution to this posting as I’m glad to have found so many people who are going through the same as me. I have a slender build and I’m 34 years of age. I used to be really depressed, but 5 years ago I found a book called potatoes not Prozac. After reading it I dropped all the simple carbohydrates and refined sugars from my diet and became happy as Larry. I’d have a small potato at night also to keep me feeling extra peachy throughout the day (it works wonders with your body chemistry when eaten at the right in the right way).

At the time I’d go on massive cycle rides and this made me feel even better, but years on I find myself having to be extra careful about the amount of exercise I do, otherwise I end up mentally crashing, feeling extremely depressed, and weepy. It happens like clockwork and I now have to plan my life around my crashing periods after exercise. I’ve been looking for a solution for a long time and I thought I discovered one a few months back but it wasn’t permanent.

It was creatine. All my lows went away, and I could do as much exercise as I liked. But when I finished the 1st course of the supplement, I felt very, very stressed and like the hulk for weeks after and prone to crashing. Needless to say, I haven’t tried it since.

From my experience with doctors, I find that there are things they’ve never heard of and new research they aren’t always familiar with. With experiment into creatine my personal conclusion is the reason why we crash after exercise is something physical that can be resolved and when I work out how I will post up the answers I find. Wish me luck.

ok! it looks as cortisol is on the right track as from what i’ve found it’s the stress hormone produced from exerise that is making us feel this way. with what i already know about the complex carbohydrates i eat, the effect has been greatly increased. now to find ways to counteract this cortisol increase

i found a lot of info. seems you make the condition worse if you eat frequently and have a low body fat ratio as well as exercising, and there’s a lot of ways to decrease excess cortisol, but the most best and most natural way seems to be a herb called Holy basil (Ocimum sanctum) or tulsi as it’s called in india. i’m going to try it asap. and here’s a link i found that explains it a little:

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA346157

which is also where this final paragraph came from: I know that holy basil is being promoted as a treatment for reducing both stress and elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and to promote physical and emotional endurance. My feeling is that if you’re seeking to manage stress, breathing exercises and regular aerobic exercise are more important first steps. Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders. However, some practitioners tell me that they see good results with holy basil in combination with lifestyle modification and that this herb works quickly.

Andrew Weil, M.D.

I just turned forty this year. I have suffered from depression here and there, but never really gave it much thought. Over the last 15 years I’ve competed in marathons and a couple Ironmans, but betwen races I was fairly inactive. I began to notice that I never suffered from those depression episodes during those periods.

I just started training for another IM and the depression is worse than ever. It prompted me to search the Internet and that’s where I found this thread. Very good to know we aren’t alone! I plan to play with the diet and continue to train. Good luck to all and thank you!

I wept through a yoga class — and never returned.

thank you, thank you, thank you everyone! i am 39 and have lifted weights for 20+ years. i have also been told that i am depressed. and have fought like hell to tell them(doctors, nurses, psychologists,family etc.) otherwise. no, im exhausted from working out. no one has believbed me! it has been sooo fn frustrating. everyone touts working out to be so healthy. for me, it is the opposite and getting worse. i just went a month without working out because prior i did a month of hardcore weightlifting and cardio to lose size and was drained. cardio for me is the worst. it feels like all it is doing is draining me of life and energy. i finally went back to the gym last night and the whole time felt like crying and was light headed. my father who studied premed used to tell me i needed fat in my diet and i am very curious about this. i feel worse when i am on a low fat, low carb diet and much better when i eat carbs. i know everyone shuns carbs but they make me feel better. still, i stay away from them. not to mention my metabalism always feels like i am a burning constantly, like i can’t EVER get enough to eat. of course i dont listen to this cause i would be eating constantly and be incredibly stuffed with food if you know what i mean. i am incredbily unhappy. have tried antidepressants only to feel muscle weakness, drugged up, not to mention the side effects i do not want. when i don’t work out, i get soft and appear “fat” to people. i just want to yell at them and tell them, i am NOT fat, just soft. it is all muscle. no one understands! everything everyone is saying i wholeheartedly agree on. the hopelessness, can’t concentrate etc. in the month i didn’t work out recently, i did manage to go for a walk with my puppy and it did not drain me, it felt good and relaxing. i am thinking i just need to quit with the weights and just try and get a small ammount of exercise. the older i get the less often i can go to the gym. i used to be able to go everyday, now if i make it twice a week to lift i am lucky. i am sure it has something to do with the fact that i have burned off every ounce of fat on my body. please keep posting your research. maybe we can show this to our doctors. the more people that fess up the truth about what is happening, the sooner we can get help and anwsers. i recently was screened for diabetes and anemia. i doubt it will show anything is wrong. my tests always show up healthy! again, thank you. i feel better. thanks for reading my rant. good luck!

Mmm… the holy basil sounds interesting if cortisol is one of the culprits. My acupuncturist thinks it has something to do with diminishing “chi” energy, specifically kidney energy, according to the Chinese, that diminishes as we age. Presumably stress also diminishes chi. To increase chi energy, she has me taking a Seven Forests Astragalus 10+ formula. Astralagus is also an immune booster. Who know but diminished chi could also result in higher cortisol levels too. I suspect that these supplements take time to take effect so I will report back after a month or so to see if they make any difference. I would be interested in hearing too if those who try “holy basil” notice a difference.

All of the above + exercise causes me sleeplessness (that the usual dose of sleeping pills cannot combat).

With almost 50 people complaining above of exercise making them depressed or angry, I find this quote particularly unbelievable:

I just explained this symptom to my Psychiatrist today. His response was that he has never heard of this before.

I am 49, and exercise had always had negative psychological effects on me. I was almost expelled from school for refusing the gym classes, which made me angry and depressed. However, loving fine cuisine and not moving much has obviously led me to some mild overweight. So I now have to do something about it and I have been trying to walk 1 mile a day on a treadmill for the past month. Results (predictable, given my past experience): loss of sleep, angry, anxiety, going towards depression.

I am not otherwise depressed or psychologically unstable (except a few depression episodes in my 20ies).

Holy basil noted; I will give it a try.

Great to find these posts!

ok! i’ve been using holy basil in the form of tulsi tea for most of the past 2 weeks. it works but it’s been really easy to take/drink too much, so i’m trying to work out what the right amount is for me.

and to also mention..fish oil supplements (not from the liver) works also..although i prefer not to take them as with the amount of fish i already eat didn’t want to over do it on the omega 3 front.

I have a very similar reaction – exercise in excess of the norm (I cycle to work – 1/2 hour each way – no problem) leaves me literally suicidally depressed the day after. My experience has been that if I push through a couple of weeks of this, it settles down and I start to feel the benefits of the extra exercise.
I would love to have some way of mitigating this problem as it is a major barrier to building up the exercise regime that I love and that helps keep longer term depression under control.
Is holy basil available as a supplement in the UK, or should I just be making tea with the leaves if I can find them?

I’m sorry to hear you’ve been going through this. Sounds exactly what it can be like for me. You can buy holy from online.

I keep omega 3 supplements in the fridge which would help just in case but I eat fresh mackerel every couple of days, I’ve also put on road/race tyres on my mountain bike to decrease rolling resistance as another back up.

I haven’t had a mental crash after exercise since discovering this site and learning about this stress hormone cortisol. Many thanks for everyone’s input.

Sophia, I suggest looking at the website radiantrecovery which for me as well as oily fish like mackerel or salmon helped me cure long term depression.

it started to sound like you guys were revealing the magic number (40s) but i’m only 23 and have been experiencing severe depression and anxiety after working out. i just got a gym membership after starting a new job which has allowed me such a luxury. after noticing mood swings the first few times i thought there might be a correlation but all my friends told me that exercise can only make you feel better. i kept going but then i was sure: exercise was causing this. nothing new besides exercising was happening in my life. now i don’t know what to do. i want to keep exercising, but it’s causing me to call in sick from work and freak out. but i also have problems with digestion – maybe cortisol is the culprit.

Wow, I’m so glad I found this forum. I thought I was crazy and alone in these workout-related depressive episodes!

I think I found a solution for myself–and I hope it will help at least some of you. This is going to be very long-winded but I want to give you some background information.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemia. Basically, my body produces too much insulin in reaction to meals and my blood sugar plummets. I’ve had symptoms all my life and my mother has it too but I never really knew what it was until last year.

I was able to control it somewhat with better eating habits and regular healthy snacks until I started working out regularly at a gym in September. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE working out now (which at 44 is a huge surprise to me). I would feel great at the gym but soon after, or later in the day would crash. I feel a wave of exhaustion and then severe depression. I’ve had postpartum depression twice and although the symptoms were similar, when I had the depression it would pretty much last most of the day. I would have better days but never a good day, if that makes sense. Now, I was fine most of the day but would get hit hard for a shorter period of time but just as severe.

I did some web research and thought it may be blood-sugar related, as hypoglycemia can cause anxiety/depression symptoms. I also read that exercise can cause hypogycemic episodes that may not show up till later in the day. I tried to see my doctor but she left the practice (and I don’t know where she went). The new doctor I saw doesn’t seem to know anything about reactive hypoglycemia (as many doctors don’t). She tested my blood sugar but tested my fasting blood sugar (which wouldn’t show the reactive type). She wanted me to see a psychiatrist and put me on an antidepressent.

Insted I spoke with the owner of the gym (who also sets up my strength trainingg routine and has helped me tremendously in other ways)to see if he had any suggestions. Thank God he did! I don’t remember the exact explanation but basically he said that when you exercise strenuously the first thing your body craves is glucose to replace what has been used during the workout. He told me to try drinking a sports shake immediately after the workout (the protein/carbohydrate kind–I drink Muscle Milk). I couldn’t believe there could be such a simple solution. Last night was the second time in a month and a half that I had an episode (the first time I forgot to bring a shake with me). Before it was happening pretty much daily. I felt so bad again that I googled “can exercise cause depression” and found this forum. I believe my episode was due to poor eating the evening before and that day since I did have a shake after strength training.

I’m meeting with a nutritionist to see if I can further improve my eating habits and control my hypoglycemia. Although my depressive episodes are better I do still have some problems with concentration/weakness/irritability if I don’t eat properly.

Please do some research online for “reactive hypoglycemia” and speak to a doctor to see if you might have it. I also try to have peanut butter crackers before my workout and the shake immediately afterwards. Make sure to drink lots of water too. I also try to rest with my feet up for a few minutes if I start to feel exhausted.

When I do go through the episodes I try to always think “this too shall pass”. I know it’s hard to feel like it will pass–I know I don’t think rationally when I experience depression–but thankfully it does.

I wish everyone the best of luck–I wouldn’t wish depression on my worst enemy–it’s just too horrible a feeling. Good luck to everyone!

I wish all of you the best

Oops, sorry about the typos and repeats in the last two lines!

It’s great to finally find all of this. I’ve been dealing with depression for a few years. I feel great if I stop working out for a couple of days. Like some of the earlier posts stated, my doctor said he’s never heard of feeling bad from working out. Has anyone used the Holy Basil? If so, what have you found the best way to take it to be?

Wow! Exercise is not enough to prevent depression, you need foods that have Omega 3 Fatty acids like in Fish, Walnuts, Fortified Soymilk with DHA, or any supplements with DHA Omega 3.

You also need enough Folate acid!! This is found in Spinach, Wheat Germ, Wheat Bread, Peas, Collard Greens, Broccoli.

Stay away from Junk food everyday, it’s okay to eat the stuff once a month, but eating it everyday and exercising can interfere with blood sugar.

Well, this is all I can think of for now, but just don’t give up you guys, you got to find ways to combat depression.

you can get holy basil in the form of tulsi tea from asian: indian shops, but i’ve been taking a daily fish oil supplement as its more easily available and very effective and i now never crash or get depressed after exercise no matter how much i do per day every day.

i think it’s to do with the omega 3 fatty acids “ala, epa and dha,” but i don’t have any scientific training and i haven’t read up how it works yet due to time constraints. sorry

With the spike in adrenaline that usually comes with excersize in combination with the crash in blood sugar that can sometimes follow excersize it makes sense to feel a little depressed after a good work out. As long as the depression evens out after a bit. But if you don’t feel that it is then you may want to speak to your physician about it.

Yep! I’m so glad this is being discussed. I had been exercising and watching my diet and BOOM the depression hit. So, I didn’t want to do anything… which was actually depressing cause I felt I was giving up on my diet. Finally, I was feeling well again, high spirits, excited about working out and losing weight. Well, I joined a gym and started back yesterday. Now today, depressed again. I’m thinking hormones may play a role in this. I know I’m not a doc or psychiatrist; but this is my guess.

lissa – try a fish oil capsule a day, and trust me. you’ll never get depressed after exercise ever again no matter how much you do. take care.

I’m so glad I found this discussion. I’m 32 years old and started to work out again having had a few years “lazy”-time. After the second spinning and body-pump lesson I was totally depressed and anxious for 3 days. I got really worried, because I don’t have anything else stressing going on in my life. I could not understand what was happening. I’ve felt depressive before, but it was because of loosing a friend in a car accident so it was quite obvious.
After I felt better again I went back to the gym and same thing happened, three days of “hell”. I will most definitely try out some of the tips you have shared. Thank you all!

Stephen, I’m not Lissa but I take one fish oil capsule a day and I still have the depression from exercise problem.

i’m really sorry to her that vicki..i though it would have the same effect for everybody..

are you still eating properly around your exercise. my previous radiant recovery link could assist and perhaps explain why it works for me.

maybe you could even try having one capsule in the morning and one in the evening also, but when i did this i had so much energy i began getting used to only getting 5 hrs sleep and not feeling tired like I normally would.

i’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Stephen, It would make sense that fish oil caps would help because I do think it’s related to blood sugar and fat. Healthy fats. Maybe I will try two capsules a day and see if that helps.

i tried looking at your link glen but it didn’t work for some reason youtube gave: the url contained a malformed video id.

i googled the subject adrenal burnout which i found highly interesting. a lot of what i found made perfect sense, and some others gave me a lot of food for thought.

so, adrenal burnout is what is actually causing the raise of the stress hormone cortisol, my own adrenal burn out is caused by too much exercise but not down to “poor nutrient dead food+ poor air quality+ car fumes+ living in a modern developed country” as i’ve one of the healthiest diets and lifestyles i know of: plenty of sleep, fresh air, good quality proteins, complex carbs, fresh vegetables and pulses, no alcohol, no nicotine, junk food, no additives, no refined sugar.

i almost certain now that my high cortisol levels and emotional crashes after exercise can be controlled with, to an extent holy basil/tulsi tea or much more effectively omega 3 fish oil/fatty acids,

here’s the radiant recovery link from the author of the book potatoes not prozac which is the book that pulled me out of a depressed period in my life and started me along the path of better eating. http://www.radiantrecovery.com/

the world is yours when you can control how you feel and think through what you eat and how you exercise

I’m so glad to get to this site. I’ve been baffled. I play badminton on Monday and Friday morning for about an hour and a half. About a half hour after finishing I get impatient, angry and then later depressed for the day. I love the game and have great fun at it. I am diabetic on insulin and find that my blood sugar goes up a little only after badminton tho once when it was unusually high it reduced sharply. I take salmon daily and 4 fish oil capsules. I eat well too. It can’t be blood sugar for me. I’m going to try water before and after. I suspect that it is adrenalin / cortisol since we have a highly competitive relatively fast game (I’m 68). When I played at a more leisurely pace I didnt get this. What to do? Is there anyway I could keep the cortisol levels from going down dramticallY? Has anyone got any more research on this.

I have the same problem. I feel great during and after a good workout, however if I don’t eat right after, I crash and burn with rage and depression. I try to eat a healthy mix of protein and carbs and feel fine for a while, but I am always on the verge of blowing a fuse and have a really hard time sleeping most of the days I workout.
I can say it seems to be worse when I forget to take my B12 which I find is very good for leveling out my moods.
The worst is that, that feeling makes me turn to alcohol and junk food for some reason. Like I just can’t eat enough when I get into one of those moods.
So I end up consuming far more calories than I would had I not had a work out.

What a godsend! I’ve been explaining to friends and family my frustration with this same issue. Exercise makes me either very depressed (ex: an hour walk) or highly agitated and angry (ex: hour of rollerblading). My husbands exercise experience is the opposite and he thinks I’m not exercising enough. My doctor said he has never heard of this issue and prescribed me Welbutrin, which I refused to take. My friends think I’m nuts. I’m 42 and post-menapausal due to chemotherapy 10 years ago. It’s even more frustrating because I would like to exercise everyday and add weight training. I am going to try the tulsi tea and fish oil omega 3 and see if that helps. Goog luck everyone.

Whom ever brought up the “holy basil” Thank you! I have been taking it for 4 days now and it’s working! I mean this is the first time in years that I have exercised and not felt bad the next day. I’ve tried every herb and just about every antidepressent out there and none of them worked. I am so thrilled about this. That awful feeling in the pit of my stomach is gone. I hope it lasts. I feel like it’s going to. If you all haven’t tried it yet, I highly suggest it. I found it in a capsule form at the vitamine cottage.

Ok..thank GOD I am not the only one suffering here! I have been exercising 5-6 days a week this entire year. And EVERYTIME I start to hit it hard in the gym..I get IRRITABLE..Angry…I get mad quite easily. AND…my libido goes OUT THE DOOR. I could care LESS about sex! But the mood swings are just AWEFUL. I know they are a strain on my family and my life..and the ONLY thing I can do to correct it..is to stop WORKING out. And I DO NOT want to do that! Has anyone been using the Holy basil long? Do you notice a difference in the mood swings, anger, getting upset easily?? I am 35 years old, have kids..the youngest is 5, and I work part time..my life is NOT stressful..I really have no worries..but I get upset and angry and I feel like i am on a CONSTANT PMS binge. It wont go away! HELP!!!!!

Just want to add further evidence that feeling terrible after exercise is not isolated to only a few. I developed this reaction of feeling terrible the next day after a strenous run a couple years ago. I’m a 38 y.o guy and want to keep an active lifestyle, but feeling this way the day after is starting to detract from quality of life not enhancing it. Will try the holy basil. One thing is apparent, doctors may know what they know, but they do not know everything. Sad that otherwise healthy people would be prescribed intolerable medications by psychiatrists to treat symptoms and not root causes.

I think I know what is casuing depression/hypoglycemia when or after exercising. Or at least what’s contributing to it. It’s coffee and caffeine. The caffeine spikes cortisol levels and insulin levels. So when you go to exercise, you are starting off with already high levels of cortisol which the exercise increases. The caffeine also cause insulin levels to rise and stay elevated. So its a double disaster.

I quit all caffeine (hardest thing I ever did – makes quitting nicotine look like childs play) and noticed a few months later that I could walk twice as far as I could before and not elicit this reaction. Another thing is – I lost 20lbs over the first few months with the only change being the elimination of caffeine – no exercise or dieting or anything. Though i did notice that I was naturally eating less – no hunger binges.

I’ve decided now to not exercise deliberately from this point on just to keep active and focus more on relaxing.

One thing I will repeat though is that quitting caffeine is very hard. The first week you’ll have headaches, backaches, fatigue and that will pass. But then there is a low level fatigue and depression that continues for about 6 weeks more. It can be very trying. Then its cool, you sleep good, you look better, you have even energy, and in my case, you lose weight without trying.

I think its the stress hormones and elevated insulin levels generated by coffee and caffeine that are the root cause of this.

I’m afraid that fish oil didn’t work for me, even though I was taking it three times a day at one point. I’m really curious to hear whether other people here also have problems with sleep quality. A study from the University of Chicago found that men in middle age lose all ability to fall into the deepest stage of sleep, which they attributed to permanently elevated cortisol and declining growth hormone. My sleep has been awful for years, and to combat it, I’ve taken virtually every sleep/depression/anxiety medication on the market, to no avail. I also meditate regularly and am very careful with my diet. The only thing that makes sense, then, for me, is hormones. Anybody else with sleep issues? I’m 50, by the way, but I’ve had this trouble since my mid thirties.

I think another thing about exercise is that it is completely unnatural. No animal in nature will for 20 minutes continually do one activity like running or moving in one pattern. Activity is done is stops and starts and rests (as a bird will glide).

Probably the whole idea of exercise is the problem. One common demominator that people of great longevity share is that they do not exercise. They are active but don’t do structured exercise. I think it is a mistake to think exercise and activity are the same. They are not. One is natural with plenty of start and stops happening in the context of getting work done. Exercise is mindless repetion for 20-30 minutes and gets nothing done. Well, it will make you hungry on a good day.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS EXERCISE CAUSING DEPRESSION UNLESS YOU HAVE SOME DISORDER. I am a healthy 22 yr. old female and the only times that I haven’t felt good is when I do not work out regularly, immediately after working out(fatigue), if I worked out too much (nausea), or if I’m not eating all the right foods. Exercise can cause tears, among many other emotions- it’s called endorphins (read about what they do- then you might understand better).
Unless there is some strange reaction your bodies are having to the chemicals released, such as not eating right, being toxic (try detoxifying), or some autoimmune disease, you should, over time feel better than you would if you didn’t exercise. Of course immediately afterwards you’ll feel tired and sometimes just gross, but overall you should feel better, thats what endorphins do. Either you people are reading way too much into your body or you have some serious health problem and should consult an expert(not just a regular physician either). This is not at all healthy.

After two years of no exercise I picked up running again 2 weeks ago and gradually upped it to 2 x 10k runs a week (9 min miles) + 2 x 5k runs + 2 x 45 mins swims. I have also been cutting down about 500 calories per day (I’m trying to lose about 4 lbs total). Since the start of my exercise regime I noticed the onset of severe dark moods about 1-2 hours after exercise, lasting into the next day. I also started waking up after about 6 hours of sleep feeling drained but not being able to go back to sleep. Instead of improving, the dark moods seem to be getting worse the more I get into my new routine. During exercise and about half an afterwards I feel elated and full of energy, but the dark moods afterwards make me want to slit my wrists. i’ve never felt this way apart from 10 years ago when I suffered from depression. The feeling is very familiar but I have no reason at all to be depressed. On the contrary, I am getting married in 5 weeks, and all aspects of my life seem to be in order for a change. Help

I’m glad I’ve found this blog, this is really insightful. I’d ignore the Catalina Buse comment though. Some people are just rude and find it easier to criticize something the can’t comprehend.

sadly yes, some people are rude and ignorant, assuming anyone who is different from them is lying (and others are scammers trying to sell people stuff)

Personally, I feel fine after slow, steady exercise like hiking, swimming, or cycling, but strenuous activity, especially activity that requires quick reactions (like sports) plunges me into an AWFUL depression afterwards. Not just “I’m tired”, but “the world is ending and I am unspeakably horrible”.

It’s so weird!! Between the heinous mood-swings/depression and belching on the elliptical I didn’t even want to say anything to my doctor (or anyone else!) because I figured she’d think I’m a hypochondriac. I know I drink to much coffee but I didn’t consider that it could be directly responsible for this nonsense! I’m glad it’s something so completely within my control. If I can drag my ass to the gym 5 days a week- and quit smoking ciggies- I think I’m ready to tackle the challenge of caffeine addiction. Shudder! Wish me luck

I tend to experience a little bit of this too. Overall, some things that appear to help are doing less strenous exercise, eating before and after, and taking time to relax at the end of the day. I’m not sure how effective this would be, but perhaps trying to do something like Progressive Muscle Relaxation or Yoga an hour or two after exercise could be helpful. I think it helps to start with a small, easy amount and intensity of exercise and work up without exposing yourself to anything you feel you really can’t handle.

I went for a three hour kayak ride, actually a beer run, and then ran about 4 miles after i sobered up from the 3 beers i drank. afterwards i felt like hell, depressed and worrisome, but i take medications for manic depression, those of the variety that are also anti-epileptic. After my workout, I felt really bad, figured food would make me feel better so I ate a medium portion of oatmeal hoping the starch would help stimulate serotonin production as well as provide a steady source of glucose. Didn’t work, i still feel bad a few hours later, of course I drink like a pot of coffee a day sometimes, and that doesn’t help. I am sipping on some chamomile tea right now, that makes me a bit sleapy, but I still feel anxious. There should be more research done on this subject. I feel so bad.

Like many of you I am comforted to see that I am not the only one that has this problem. I have been dealing with it for over 15 years. I first became aware of it when I started training for triathlons at the age of 35. I noticed that after an intense session I would feel absolutely awful the next day, lethargic, unmotivated with a lot of black thoughts about life and death. The day after I would bounce back and feel fine. The effect was clear, reproducible and clearly correlated to exercise. It appears to be related to anaerobic exercise rather than aerobic exercise – a session in the gym lifting weights for half an hour would make me feel much worse than a 2 hour bike ride at a comfortable training pace.
This has continued although to a lesser degree since then. I still cycle a lot but no longer competitively, and I make sure that I don’t push myself really hard, eat well and get lots of rest after excercising, however the effect is still clearly there.
I have mentioned the problem to several doctors over the years and have been tested for iron levels, diabetes and a few other things with no apparent abnormalities. I also found that SSRI antidepressants did not seem to fix the problem, I had a bout of depression after a personal loss about 10 years ago which where I took Zoloft for a year, but this did not seem to improve the exercise induced depression.
I suspect that the problem is related to dopamine levels, but what the mechanism for exercise depleting these would be I have no idea.
And to Catalina Buse, I just want to say that when I was 22 I also thought I knew everything too. Many years later I know a lot more, but I’m also much more aware of how much I don’t know. This is much of what the wisdom of age is about, learning that your own personal experience is not the sum total of the world’s knowledge.

And going back to the original question, I don’t think excercise causes depression for normal people. My guess is that what we are dealing with is a abnormality in brain chemistry that leaves one or more neurotransmitters depleted after excercise in a small percentage of peple.

Hey, Tens, you’ve got to help me through this caffeine thing. I gave up caffeine for about two weeks, and I was shocked by how rotten I felt—fatigued, unmotivated, depressed, and in fact, the first three days off of caffeine, my depression was more intense than ever. I thought I would die. Unfortunately, none of my health problems resolved or were mitigated, so I went back to caffeine. Have you read Caffeine Blues? Is there any real data showing that it can take as long as 6 weeks to get back to normal? Thanks for your help.

One more quick comment: Jack Lalanne, at 94, works out two hours EVERY DAY. We’re talking intense weight training, followed by an hour of swimming. Think he gets depressed? We need to talk to this guy, people. He’s not a doctor but he obviously knows his stuff.

I didn’t feel better till about 2 months off caffeine. I think if you are still feeling rotten after that long then maybe see your doctor. Caffeine is not required by humans… it’s a toxin meant to ward off predators. It’s an excellent thing to take (especially coffee) if your long term goal is to get fat and ugly. But you can certainly have things wrong with you that have nothing to do with caffeine.

Jack la lanne does work out quite a bit and does amazing things. He’s VERY anti-caffeine btw.

I think everybody is different. I know I feel much better just keeping active and staying away from stimulants. Its like dieting without dieting and it actually be effective.

Actually, according to this, lanne has never used caffeine in his life and stays away from dairy. In fact, his diet seems to play a large role in his fitness:

http://onthetable.net/lalanne.html

One thing I’ve noticed among friends who exercise regularly who haven’t stated whether they experience depression or not (they dont appear to) is that they seem to be very moody … at times angry or elated for no apparent reason…. I’ve seen this a lot and chalked it up to personality disorders…. but maybe its the exercise affecting them in a different way.

I had the same problem in the beginning of this year. I went through several tests and everything was normal (heart, lungs, blood, etc.) However when I went through a test where they measured my heartrate and breathing while jogging and cycling they found out that my breathing is too shallow= I don’t breathe deep enough. The reason for this was that my back was locked from two places. This caused a slight reduction of lung movement. I went through 6 sessions of physiotherapy and my back is now back to normal. Strangely this also had an impact on my trainings and now I don’t feel bad during or after excercise. The physioterapist told me that having middleback problems also has an effect on the sympathic nerve system (im not sure if its called that in english)that regulates heartbeat etc. and also has an effect on how good or bad we feel. During the tests they also found that my blood sugar levels goes a bit too low during exercise. So eating the right sorts of carbohydrates before, during and after is important. I’m not saying this is the case for everyone, but I thought it could be helpful to share my story. Have a nice summer!

I have to add that I DO have other health problems, namely chronic insomnia that has gone on for eighteen years. Unfortunately, it runs in my family. Contrary to longstanding dogma, though, my depression doesn’t cause the insomnia. It’s the other way around and, in fact,emerging data is revealing that this is more often the case for most people who are depressed. Chicken or egg? Insomnia first, in most cases, depression second. An Australian study showed that 80% of depressed patients who were treated for their insomnia, lost their depression. Anybody else have problems with either insomnia or depression? Anxiety? This might be an interesting avenue to explore.

I have problems with insomnia. Eliminating caffeine helps. A few thing I would try is:

Try to eat regular meals. At least 3 meals a day at regular times. Some think the insomnia is caused by stress hormones released due to hypoglycemia due to disordered eating schedules and skipping meals. The blood sugar gets too low for you and causes irritability.

Play around with your diet. It could be something you are eating. Some people are bothered by foods which gives them problems with all kinds of things including sleeping. Common offeneders are onions, garlic, tomatoes, things that cause GERD.

If it is a blood sugar issue you want to get rid of caffeine just to eliminate it’s potentiating effect in this direction.

Are you exercising? Stop for a while. Just keep active. Climb stairs when you can instead of taking elevators. Walk to the store etc. Dont sit at the computer too long. Exercise, like coffee and skipping meals, increasing stress hormones. These don’t mix with good quality sleep.

Here is an interesting article about exercise:

http://nymag.com/news/sports/38001/

If I push myself a little too far, I wind up tossing and turning and aching all night, and then I wake up early, as if I normally get up at 4:30 am. That’s not normal. I think it has to do with low cortisol levels and maybe low blood sugar levels, low, low, low. Every health expert seems to say to “exercise” for an hour each day. Are you kidding? I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m going to stop challenging myself. It’s not worth feeling sick and physically depressed over. Stretching and moving around is good, taking a little walk when the weather is nice. My grandparents didn’t run marathons and they lived to old ages!

Here’s the problem.When you’ve had a sedintary lifestyle for a long time,toxins build up in every cell in your body,especially fat cells. When you start exercising and losing weight those cells start releasing those accumulated toxins and your body can’t excrete them fast enough.So they float around in your system until the elimination catches up. You get achy,confused and fatigued but it’s all natural. Keep your colon clean and drink lots of water to get it through your kidney to flush them.Your body is going through a healing crisis and that’s a good thing as long as youcan deal with the side effects.Your body also enjoys homeostatis which menas it’s likes things the way it is. It fights change and you have to fight back. you have to “trick” your body into thinking it’s younger and healthy again.Avoid fast food at all costs,it’s loaded with unhealthy fat that sticks to your arteries and clogs your liver.

Insomnia is often caused by and unhealthy and clogged up colon with even parasites in there. Get a black walnut hulls,wormwood and clove complex.This will nuke to colon varmits.Get some fiber pills,psysillium husks and take a bout 5 two times a day with lots of water. After the vermin die off in your colon this will help it stay flushed out.Eat a lite fat free diet for a week and no meat.Tuna on rye or whole wheat for a week won’t kill you. Make your mind up to stick to it no matter what.Walk in fresh air in the morning as long as you have time for.Overnight your body does a huge toxin dump in your organs and lymph nodes..Walking helps flush these out.

I think I actually have an answer to this. According to the book “The Anxiety Disease”, during the 1940’s they found that some patients with severe anxiety/depression often had intolerance to over-exercising. One of the main by-products of muscle activity is lactate. Lactate levels in the blood of depressed/anxious patients was found to be elevated. It seems that for some reason the people either overproduced lactate and were unable to handle it chemically, or their bodies were abnormally sensitive to it. In 1966, one doctor found that giving an intravenous infusion of sodirm lactate to patients brought on spells and panic. Now get this, doctors later found that after giving patients alprazolam (anti-anxiety medication) then asking them to exercise – no anxiety/depression occured. I know all this because I get depressed and anxious after excercise also. Get the book “The Anxiety Disease” by Dr. David Sheehan.

I just found this blog and decided it might be a good idea to share my exercise experience with you guys. Pretty much over the past 4 years every time I started a work out program I get depressed for 2-3 days afterward, the harder I work out

Thank god I just found this blog and decided it might be a good idea to share my exercise experience with you guys. Pretty much over the past 4 years every time I started a work out program I get sad and depressed for 2-3 days afterward, the harder I work out the more I get depressed. The interesting thing is that once I quit working out for three days I am normal and no longer feel like this. For example, I haven’t worked out in 4 months and I have been fine, I started working out last week and now I am depressed and sad, the only thing that keeps me going is knowing that in 2 days this episode will be over. I have tried the carbs and protein after workouts it doesn’t help. Omega 3 doesn’t help either. The only thing that helps is to not exercise. final conclusion, screw exercise. I personally have concluded that depression and sadness is a price to high to pay for being in good shape, unless I understand why this is happening and how to solve it I am not working out any more. Maybe exercise is not so good for you after all, it increases stress and cortisol. Most people will tell you that you feel good after exercise because of endorphins, however, doctors that I have talked to informed me that endorphins are the bodies natural pain killer and actually do not cross the blood brain barrier. Has anyone contemplated this, that maybe doing a strenuous activity repetitively for 30 minutes is actually not good for you?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

As an engineer I realized many years ago that my mood was linked to exercise. Whenever I exercised the following conditions would creep up within 2-3 hours and last for about 3 days:

-sweating
-nurvousness
-anxiety
-irritability & anger
-stiff joints & muscle pain
-lack of sleep
-depression

Continual exercise would only exasperate the conditions above with what I would describe as an almost compounding effect. In my case even fairly light exercise would lead to drastic changes in behavior.

Several years ago I tried to get an explanation but was constantly shouted down by the zealots professing how wonderful exercise and diet is. I took several tests to no avail. No amount of food, drink, or other healthy lifestyle changes have ever made any impact on reducing my symptoms. Simply put exercise in any form is pure poison to my system.

I should probably mention that I was tested at one point for hypoglycemia but unfortunately that did not turn out to be the culprit. My wife’s pleading finally got me to give up attempting exercise as the behavioral changes were just too drastic in nature and were going to get me fired at work. Fortunately I’m in good health with weight in check.

Final thought… I do realize that exercise is good in most people. My wife for instance gets all of the benefits of exercise plus a behavioral boost… like a “runner’s high”. In my case however exercise sends me like clockwork “through the roof” into a violent near non-functional state. As an engineer I wish I had a solution but unfortunately I’ve yet to find a cause.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

As an engineer I realized many years ago that my mood was linked to exercise. Whenever I exercised the following conditions would creep up within 2-3 hours and last for about 3 days:

-sweating
-nurvousness
-anxiety
-irritability & anger
-stiff joints & muscle pain
-lack of sleep
-depression

Continual exercise would only exasperate the conditions above with what I would describe as an almost compounding effect. In my case even fairly light exercise would lead to drastic changes in behavior.

Several years ago I tried to get an explanation but was constantly shouted down by the zealots professing how wonderful exercise and diet is. I took several tests to no avail. No amount of food, drink, or other healthy lifestyle changes have ever made any impact on reducing my symptoms. Simply put exercise in any form is pure poison to my system.

I should probably mention that I was tested at one point for hypoglycemia but unfortunately that did not turn out to be the culprit. My wife’s pleading finally got me to give up attempting exercise as the behavioral changes were just too drastic in nature and were going to get me fired at work. Fortunately I’m in good health with weight in check.

Final thought… I do realize that exercise is good in most people. My wife for instance gets all of the benefits of exercise plus a behavioral boost… like a “runner’s high”. In my case however exercise sends me like clockwork “through the roof” into a violent near non-functional state. As an engineer I wish I had a solution but unfortunately I’ve yet to find a cause.

Guys It is such a relief to hear you all have the same problem as me. I am 34 years old and I am dealing with depression since ten years ago.

Before that I was doing exercise regularly and feeling prefectly ok

After a preiod of depression and using anti-depressands, I realized that whenever I am in a depressed mood, I cannot exercise. I have explained this to several neurologists and physicians and none of them really belive me. They think that I am inculating this to myself. Now I see that I am not alone. Why so many people have this problem and physicians don’t bother to study this issue ?

Is there anybody here who does NOT have Anxiety problem and just depression ?

i currently get the same thing.
one of my theories is that the Hipothalimus in some people is overactive causing a response to exersice that is over sensitive to cortisol production.
this can be due to either stress induced maladption of the hipothalimus or from an oversensitive hipothalimus.

closing the HPA feedback loop through medication (lexapro) helped me in the past
but would only be a solution for some. i also went on a low GI diet. got rid of sugar from my diet. and halved the amount of stress that i was under.

this respons to exercise seems to effect 2 different subgroups, one being people experiencing or (vulnerable to) effective disorders. the other being people who only experince depressive/anxious response after excercise.

the most likely specialsit to identify a solution would not be a GP. more likely an endocrinoligist.
on the website ” stop the thyroid madnes” they list “debiltaing response after excercise” may worth a look for some.

i found in the past dealing with my deprssion and anxiety was enough, but took some time.

interstingly under high stress when i exercised i would feel calm to begin with but would develop panick attacks and insomnia. as my stress improved it went to feeling depressed for a while , as things improved more i found it was more being irratable, and then went away alltogether i ended up racing endurance events when i recovered, so mine seems to be related to where i am at with a reactive depression. so the end of my rant is i would try
-lowering stress threshold ( the addition of increase in excersice produced cortisol to circulting cortisol levels may be enough to trigger a breakthrough episode of anxiety or depression)
-investigating thyroid health
-blood sugar management
-trying the suggested holy basil
-getting help with any depression anxiety
-talk to an endocronologist
-setting up a damn fine sleep hygene practice
-dont give up

cheers

Wow! I am so relieved to have found this. When I was younger, I was very active and got all the positive effects of exercise. I am now 35. But that has changed. I feel great during exercising and immediately after. But within a few hours, I am depleted and depressed. Being physically tired is expected, but not depressed, gloomy and angry. The worse part for me is that exercise starts to cause insomnia (even when I work out first thing in the morning). Like someone above mentioned, I end up waking up within 3-4 hours of going to sleep and can’t get back to sleep (but am exhausted). With a few nights of this accumulating, I end up plunging into a terrible depression and become very irritable as well. I don’t suffer from anxiety or depression normally.

A naturopath I saw suggested exercising (running) at a lower intensity (I use a HRM) and see how it goes. Does the intensity of the workout make a difference to others?

I’m so glad to have found this, and so distraught by the lack of information on this out there. The most fascinating thing I’ve read so far by a previous poster is the idea that extended, intense aerobic exercise is not natural … we’re more made for small bursts all day long. Interesting.

I tried Lexapro. I gained 34 pounds and completely lost my sex drive, and my blood sugar skyrocketed. And it did nothing for my depression. It consistently takes me 48 hours to recover from the blues and fatigue and poor sleep caused by vigorous exercise. As long as I don’t exercise, I’m okay. I agree with you all when you suggest giving up exercise and simply remaining active. I’ve found that a 30-minute walk is tolerable, but nothing more than that. I think going to see an endocrinologist is a great idea. Obviously something is awry here, and it’s not in our heads.

I’ve been trying to get answers for this problem for the past 15 years, from my early twenties when i noticed that I get all angry and moody after exercise. the only thing I got was some thing called post traumatic stress injury which had the same symptoms that I was searching at that stage, it was one study about the soldiers who came back from the Gulf War 1 and their “weird” reactions to the usual treatment of post traumatic stress syndrom which would be exercise, sleep and carb diet, they got worse so this new term was inveted and it suggested that the soldiers experienced an injury to their nerve system and that something else should be done to help them, I never saw anything else published on the net about this, but maybe somebody knows about this? I do not suffer from anxiety nor depression but I had a very bad time when my parents got divoced when I was 5, that was in 1975 and at that stage there was no help for children when their whole world come down crashing down due to such an event, i did not realize that it could have such an effect on me untill I read that publication in 1995, it helped to know where i got the symptoms from but to this day I’ve yet to find a “cure”. I will try the tea and I’ve also heard that it is better to exercise in the morning, I’ll try that too.

I had written once before about 50 comments ago. I thought I’d send an update. I used to have major issues with crashing/depression in the afternoons after working out in the morning. I had just started at the gym about a year ago and it took me a many months and doctor visits to get it under control. The most important change for me was having a muscle milk immediately after working out. It replaces some of the nutrients/glycogen that has been taken from your body during the workout. Also, I started on a low dose of Lexapro. I don’t believe this was a normal depression–I’ve had two fairly major ones in the past. I do think I am prone to them and have an anxiety problem and when I would start to crash I would start obsessing and make everything that much worse–and let me tell you the crashes were severe.

I am feeling so much better. I know that when I start to feel any crash coming on I immediately have a juice box (which I keep around for such times–which occur very rarely now)and within 15 minutes or so I’m feeling better.

I love strength training so much I am now actually studying to be a personal trainer. I believe that you can work exercise into your life but you have to find what works for you. If you can’t do regular cardio, try doing circuit training (one exercise after the other) with light weights at first. This will give you a cardio workout as well as develop your muscle endurance. If you can’t do this without episodes try some simple stretches and light walks. Anything that gets your body moving. It doesn’t have to be formal exercise and can be broken up into 3 or 4 ten minute bouts a day.

As I am learning exercise is so important and can help you in your daily life and as you age and can actually reduce your risk factor for many diseases especially cardiovascular.

It is important to eat healthily before and after working out. You should actually make sure to have enough carbs within 30 minutes after working out and again every two hours through the end of the day. Just make sure that they are healthy carbs and not just simple sugars. Also, have a lean protein along with the carbs. Peanut butter crackers, apples with peanut butter, etc. are good ideas. And be sure to drink plenty of water.

If anyone is interested I can give you more information. I am studying more about nutrition and how the body uses glucose/glycogen to fuel many of your workouts. If you don’t replenish the stores you will have problems. Your brain can only use glucose as energy (not fats/proteins) so if you are not replenishing your stores it will affect your moods, etc.

I hope this helps someone in some way. If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try to answer them.

I just wanted you to know that I have gotten through this and hope that you all will as well.

Take care.

I feel the same way, it seems to make nooooooooooooooooooo sense. All the negative thoughts flood in right afterwards. Any negative thoughts I had repressed earlier throughout the day come flowing in. It may have to do with supplementation. I take lots of vitamins and protein shakes and whatnot but nothing crazy, more vitamins than anything. What does help is something I noticed earlier in this thread, that if you take a step back and say “look at all the great things in my life!” You’ll feel better, you’ll realize that the good really does outweigh the bad. People who truly care about their health (like the people on this forum) generally are very self critical, sometimes too much. Just take a step back, some deep breaths and realize what is good and sometimes you get a huge boost afterwards.

I’ve had the same problem for many years – in my case it went all the way into bedridden chronic fatigue, for which I have been prescribed sleeping pills, anti-depressants and HRT – none of whch made any difference.

Through huge effort it is now ‘merely’ this problem of exercise making me feel dreadful, brain-dead, irritable, flat for several days after, despite the exercise itself being exhilarating (and not at all exhausting).

I was diagnosed (through cortisol saliva tests) as having low cortisol output. As I understand it, cortisol is responsible for blood-sugar regulation amongst other things. So, I see my energy problems as like having a faulty recharger, far too slow to replace used energy and leaving me in danger of hypoglycemia for days.

I too had the unexplained anger and irritation, sometimes for days at a time. I think it was my body producing adrenaline or epinephrine in an attempt to substitute for the cortisol to bring my blood sugar back up. It worked, but with a side-effect of wholly targetless feelings of fight-or-flight.

The issue of negative feelings, stress etc is a tricky one. Undoubtedly they cause problems when extreme or chronic. However, it must be understood that wayward hormones can induce negative feelings that have absolutely no root. I spent hour upon hour therapising myself for negative feelings, and not able to find any real ones (beyond ‘life is impossible, woe is me’, which just appeared out of nowhere) – or simply finding that I was responding to situations with stress that I would normally barely have noticed. And I am talking about dropping pencils here, as well as conflict situations.

I’d have to say I would get extremely irritated (genuinely this time) with people who persisted in thinking I was some kind of Victim, when I knew how very hard I had worked on caring for my body, my nutrition, my emotional health – with so little result.

I’m glad (as far as it goes) to hear that men are experiencing this too – perhaps now the doctors will stop dismissing it as menopause…

This is great! For the first time I looked up exercise caused depression. I have been training in karate for a long time. I do have a low level of depression that started before my training. On days following training, I feel a little out of it and depressed. I start to question if my job is really what I want to be doing, etc. I have these thoughts on too many days. Early on I recognized the link and know that more sleep helps. Reading a lot of the postings here, I have to parrot what everyone else is saying. I am glad I am not the only one. I will definitely try a sports drink that has carbs and protein following my training. I do not know much about cortisol but I will look into that as well. Thanks for all the comments. Good luck to all who are just starting to tackle this problem.

I thought I was having a nervous breakdown. Twice in the last week while exericising I felt a terrible sense of sorrow and teariness for no reason. When I left the gym yesterday, I started crying and could not stop. I’m relieved to know its not uncommon and that I some options to check out. Anyone have any websites with more info on this?

There is quite a good article at: http://style.uk.msn.com/getfit/sportandexercise/article.aspx?cp-documentid=10033578

Personally I would be wary of ‘punishing’ yourself in the gym – particularly if you’ve been going less regularly. Sudden, intense exercise is quite hard on your body I think.

Wow James, thanks for the article. Do you know when this was published?

The author wrote about the brain using only glucose as energy. This is almost verbatim to what I wrote(see comment 106).

Also, she references Muscle Milk which I mention as well.
(she mentions that excess protein can be stored as fat–in actuality any excess calories (more than your body burns for energy) can be converted to fat including those from carbohydrates).

Just curious!

Joanne

I wonder if you can confuse being tired and sore with depression. I think when you first start out exercising at set times and sticking to it; it can get a little overwhelming and exhausting. But eventually, your body catches up to you and that’s when the good endorphins start to work and you are happier.

Use a heart rate monitor. When I exercise for 30 minutes in the range of 130 beats per minute, I feel amazing after my exercise. However, if I do intervals and end up getting bpm up to 155 or higher several times during the workout, then I am completely exhausted and depressed for a couple days afterward. I’ve found that moderation is the key to getting my endorphins. Sometimes when I’m exercising, I’m tempted to push harder, but I ALWAYS regret it. Hope this helps.

Well thank God I’m not crazy! I’m really trying to lose weight and I’ve gone from nearly zero exercise to nearly an hour every morning of intense running up hill. I feel fine when I’m doing it and felt fine the first couple of days but 2 weeks in I just feel confused and depressed. Everything is irritating me and I’m so demotivated. I’ve also found that I’ve become more accident prone and I often can’t sleep properly. I’m so happy it’s not just me. I’ll make sure I drink more water and eat more as suggested. Maybe vitamin tablets will also help.

Thanks

For the past 10 years exercise has aggravated my depression. Over that time I’ve asked 3 psychiatrist and 3 family doctors about this and none of them had ever heard of anything like this. I still don’t have an answer, however, I did print this forum and took it to my current psychiatrist yesterday. He had previously sent me for a glucose test (results were normal), however, now after reading this forum he believes that my norepinephrine level is not recovering fast enough after exercise. I’ll see him in a few weeks to see what he proposes as a possible solution.

Here are some more details:

I am a 45 year old male in generally good health. I have been on SSRIs since the late 80s when I first was diagnosed with depression, OCD and an anxiety disorder.

I was fine on the SSRIs and could exercise, get the endorphin high and would feel fine although they did cause me to gain some weight.

About 10 years ago I started to scuba dive. After one dive (well within time and depth limits, ie no bends) I woke up that night shaking, feeling like sea water was running though my veins and feeling very anxious. I went to Emergency and after a quick look I was sent home and told to get some rest. My heart rate was very high for about 2 days afterwards. I did not miss any work and slowly felt better but have not been the same since.

Ever since that incident I have not been able to drink alcohol or do any strenuous exercise without my head falling apart afterwards. I don’t have a better description of what I mean by ‘falling apart’, however, it could be described as a major depressive episode. At the same time I get cravings for hamburgers, omelets and french fries. I usually recover in a day or two.

The adverse effect seems to be related primarily to the level of excersion rather than the exercise duration. I don’t even bother to trying to run but I can walk and do mild physical work (eg light gardening) for about 2 hours without feeling too badly. I replaced a fence post last year which required about half an hour of heavy digging – that really hit me hard.

So, those are briefly the facts about me and my experience.

That is all for now. I’ll leave another comment after I see my psychiatrist and see what he proposes for testing his idea about the norepinephrine.

I’ve seen about a half dozen therapists over the years, and we “talked” my depression to death, without any kind of improvement. I also took every kind of antidepressant known to man, also with zero results. During this time, I was a regular exerciser, and I just didn’t want to recognize that my workouts were causing my distress. It flew in the face of everything the experts were saying. But after charting it out, the pattern was undeniable: workout, get depressed. Interestingly, though, whenever I get a solid night’s sleep, all my “troubles” miraculously vanish, and I feel on top of the world. So sometimes I do a little sleep restriction regimen to make my sleep deeper. There’s some great data out there showing that this can do great things for not only sleep but mood. Although I’ve found it can backfire at times, when it works, it works stunningly well, and I’m the very picture of mental health. Talk therapy will not help me. A good night’s sleep, on the other hand, does wonders.

Sleep? What’s that? I generally have a choice between an all-night hypoglycemic sweat-fest, or a ‘can’t get to sleep it’s like someone injected me with caffeine’ one.

Hi guys,

I am new to this forum exercise.about.com and hope that somebody can
give me an advice on the forex – I am looking for an introduction
for noobs. I have already some knowledge about shares. (Hope this is the fitting category.)

Any help is so much appreciated. Most important question: can a noob make money on the forex exchange market?

Thanks,
Jim

Wow, I’m not alone!

This is so amazing to find. People always look at me like I’m mad when I tell them I don’t exercise because I suffer from post exercise depression. This started when I was very young – I used to always cry after swimming and didn’t know why. I just felt so awful. Unfortunately my 12 year old son seams to have the same symptoms as I do. He feels sick and cries and wants to curl up and hide away from the rest of the world because he feels so bad after he’s done some particularly hard exercise.

I’m glad I found this blog. Well over 100 comments over two years should say it all.

I am a 40 year old man, formally obese (since I started drinking beer at 18), now I am fairly lean. I had been on a fairly intense exercise routine (mostly spinning) for about 16 months and had no problems at all. Then all of a sudden I became very lean and my weight loss was out of control. This is the point in my life when everything changed.

It’s a long story, but in a nutshell I spent this last summer with little cardio, much more strength training, and much more nutrition (3500 calories/day). The deperession had been with me all summer long.

About a month ago I had a Dr. visit and the blood pressure was high, all other blood work was normal. At this point I started more cardio, although not as intense as before, and significantly less strength training. This resulted in much better stress management, lower blood pressure, and much less frequent depression symptoms.

Yesterday I went to the gym with the intention of doing some intense strength training, and then I was having a little fun on a new cardio machine, so it got a little intense also. I spent about 2-3 hours at the gym really working hard. Then I spent the evening on the couch with intense depressive feelings. This just sucks…..

I ate a lot of carbs/protein/fat before and after the workout, so I’m not sure the nutrition itself is such the problem as is the speed of nutrition replenishment.

I can’t give up the gym, there are too many obvious benefits, but I think I need to find the right intensity/duration/rest day combo to make the depression go away. This is going to be difficult as my weight loss made me very weak and I really want to be strong.

My end goal is to be able to ride my bike 60 miles/day for 5-7 days so I can go on some adventure trips while I am still young and able. Not going to the gym is not an option. I must find a way to alter my routine.

I find it interesting that a lot of people in this forum are describing themselves as lean, semi-athletic, adventure types. This may be an important common thread.

Might want to think about having your blood sugar tested. You’d be surprised.

I am so happy to see that there are people having the same problem. I have been experimenting and it seems that the exercise leads to depression and a bad sleeping pattern, then to anxiety, and finally panic attacks. When I am working out I find that I can not push myself to the limit anymore even if I feel great because afterward I will get feelings of slight depression. I really feel sorry for elite athletes with this condition it is no fun at all.

I’m really glad I found these posts. I’m another who was basically told he was nuts by a variety of doctors. I used to be fairly active and I’ve always have a positive blood lust for exercise. About 10 years ago (age 35 now) I started to feel “bad” the day after exertion and difficulty sleeping. This turned into a couple of days of depression, anxiety, confusion and brain fog. As I suspect the people on this list know well, it was pretty terrible, especially since I was programed to exercise to get rid of those sensations. Well, after several dozen intermittent attempts it was clear: I felt significantly better mentally after now exerting myself physically. It has now gotten to the point that I avoid exercise all-together. I know longer run, lift, cross-country ski, do pushups, etc. A sad existence. I’m basically relegated to arm rotations and 20 yard jogs in the park. I’m careful not to break a sweat. After fairly exhaustive research and questions, I’ve had a couple of pros tell me that it’s either liver related (which I suspect) or thyroid. This was interesting to hear, because 1) my mom had Hashimoto’s, and 2) I’ve just recently and by chance found out that sometimes have a slightly higher elevated level of two enzymes in my liver; indeed, my symptoms are much worse if I’ve been drinking alcohol in close proximity to the exercise event. Apparently some people’s livers are overtaxed by exercise and cannot as quickly/efficiently provide the chemicals to form the positive neurotransmiters (GABA, dopamine, etc). While all the nutrient-dosing theories may link to this, I am convinced that there has to be some physical basis why most others do not have this problem. A cup of tea with a heaping tablespoon of honey mitigates the symptoms if I drink it after. In any case, I just wanted to say thx to everyone that has posted, and don’t give up.

I am so happy to have found this discussion…. I have this exact same problem, except I am younger than most people who have posted…

Here’s the important parts of my issue:

Age – 22, Female

-I have always been 10-20 pounds overweight for my height, but never obese

-I have been lethargic all of my life… not really lazy, but I just have a very slow metabolism (100/60 blood pressure, heart rate 60-70 resting). (got a thyroid blood test last year, but they said everything was normal)

-I have never had this problem until this year, after I graduated college and got a lab job… I used to do moderate excersize in high school and never had a problem (marching band… it’s not like soccer, but it’s a work out in itself).

-I am not stressed at all, compared to college, I am now carefree.

-I have not drunk any soda for 3 years, and have a relatively healthy, however probably not balanced, diet. Probably don’t drink enough water… don’t eat breakfast because lack of appetite, and if I do eat it makes me starvingly hungry by 10:30

- I DO drink coffee… 3-6 cups a week.

So in June, I decided to join Curves, for women (30 mintue circuit training developed for women who want to loose weight). It’s now January, and long story short, I had to stop working out (last time was September) because it changed my mood SO horribly afterwards, it absolutely ruined my day. I tried to start up again and again, but I just couldn’t do it more than two weeks in a row, simply because it made me angry and exhausted the rest of the day and days afterwards. Monday, I’d start off the day great, feel good, then work out after work, and it would ruin my entire week.

After reading everything here, I am going to try a few things:
-slow, not so intense workouts (walking, low intensity strength training, tennis with friends) with frequent breaks
-taking vitamins every morning: Multivitamin, as well as Calcium, Vitamin D, and Iron supplements. (read up on Vitamin D… deficiency causes a lot of seemingly unrelated symptoms)
-Eating immediately after my workout
-Drinking more water (this is going to be hard… I hate water…)
I am going to stick with my diet… like I said, it isn’t too bad, but I will watch what I am eating… not so many empty carbs or sugars. I have cravings a lot, mostly for either something salty or something sweet, and I won’t stop eating until I get it… so I have to stick with my cravings. Maybe the vitamins will lessen the cravings… who knows.

Thank you, everyone, so much. This has given me hope, and a lot to think about, but mostly motivation, because it’s not just me.

Wow! Great site. I too wonder why doctor/investigators haven’t taken this topic more seriously.
Over the past three weeks, as I’ve increased my exercise regimen I’ve also tried a switch from Cymbalta to Paxil. Wrong choice! Paxil has given me bad dreams, fatigue, and worst yet, ungratifying orgasms. I’m back to Cymbalta as I write this comment at 3:11 in the morning. The only tradeoff I expect is that my anxiety might return, which is the orginal reason my doctor wanted me to try Paxil.
Personally, I’m not sure if I really have a social anxiety problem. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t like being in crowds because, for the most part, I don’t like people. I’ve had a hard time squaring this with my newfound profession, surgical technician, which requires caring for people. But I’ve learned that ” not liking people in crowds is one thing”, caring about and even being able to love an individual who is sick is another thing. Secondly, the “crowd” of co-workers one encounters in the OR is, in the aggregate, a high IQ crowd. This makes them much more tolerable.
The final solution for me is to find the right women. I hope this doesn’t sound petty or obtuse to this crowd. Having sex in the context of love and intimacy with a women I’m truely attracted to will vaporize my social phobia’s and make me soar. The problem is my high standards for physical attractiveness. Just as so many people think this topic (exercise-induced depression)is for a bunch of crazies, so most people think that those who pursue physical attractiveness first, followed by “what’s inside” is the sign of someone with a characterter flaw, personality disorder, or simply someone who is shallow. But I digress.
Getting back to the topic, I think there is something to the comments people have made about cortisol levels and proper functioning of the pituary/hypothalmus glands. For the guys out there, I wonder what happens to testosterone levels after exercise and if this could explain post-exercise depression syndrome. Of course, that doesn’t help the girls, or does it? Women produce testosterone too.

I would be willing to bet my left foot that most of these people wouldn’t feel any sort of depression if they followed a healthy diet. They should be eating 45-60minutes before working out and again within an hour after working out. A king size Snickers bar doesn’t count as a meal either.

Well Skuzzy,

To make such a blanket statement while offering up a body part is so kind of you.

Most of these people are trying to lead a healthy and active lifestyle and you are inferring that they eat junk all day.

I’ve battled this problem, eat no simple sugars(haven’t had a snickers bar in a year and a half), exercise regularly, eat well-balanced meals and small healthy snacks to maintain my blood sugars, eat before and after working out (but not the time frame you mention–that’s not quite right), am now a certified personal trainer and on occasion still have crashes when I put too much stress on my body.

You should eat a healthy meal (high carb/protein but not simple sugars) before working out but it should be within 2-4 hours of working out–if you eat a regular meal within 1 hour out you are most likely going to have gastric distress. If you have to eat closer to the workout, it should be something such as a meal replacement shake or something easily digestable.

You should also eat a carb/protein snack within 30 minutes after working out–to maximize glycogen replacement–not one hour.

I hope you never have to face such issues–I also wonder why you ended up on this forum?

Ha ha, yes, some people just don’t get it. Let’s save our energy for those that do.

I’ve just been to the doctor for yet another hospital appt, after HRT made no difference, and any exercise still knocks me out for days.

I showed him these comments and had to emphasise heavily that this is not an average, passive population, but a set of highly motivated people. That in itself should make it something worth studying. I’m looking for some curiosity from the endocrinologists, not just a repeated “you don’t have Addisons so you’re okay”, or an implied “you’re probably over-emotional” [have they MET me?!].

Is it time we banded together and forced the issue?

Penelope did your doctor tell you anything? I really think more research money should go into brain research and discovering how to treat human behavior problems. Problems such as this are terrible.

I am going to try the holy basil. I tried the omega fats before and they did nothing. I actually felt a little weird when I tried them. I will report back with my findings.

1) I’d like to correct a mistype in my post a few back: it should, of course, read: “I felt significantly better mentally after NOT exerting myself physically.”

2) Skuzzy is an ideal example of the ignorance that has contributed to where I am now. I do not limit this to laypeople, which, for all’s sake, I hope that she is. A lack of insight and/or a lack of inclination to delve below the surface of these symptoms are a very worrying problem in this ara.

3) I tried various omega-3’s but they all actually made me feel worse. Sometimes much more so. The salmon oil especially, cod liver oil less so, while flax was bearable.

Everyone is talking about a problem not about a solution.Is there any medicine or other way to get cured pleaseeeeeeee ???????

This is me to a T, can’t believe that there are other people out there like me, as it goes against all the advice about how good exercise is for you.

I am 31 and for the last 10 years have suffered with anxiety and depression to varying levels, taking medication on a couple of occasions (Zoloft and Prozac). I am currently taking prozac and have been since September, which does help, but have also really cut down on the amount of exercise i do (three times a week an hours walk) and wonder whether the fact that i feel better is more connected to the correlation between exercise and feeling terrible.

Last year i started jogging and didn’t realise at the time, but think this is possible why my anxiety got increasingly worse and i ended up on medication. The doctor put this down to looking after too small children and getting tired out, but i don’t believe it is just this. Even my doctor told me that exercise was a good thing to do and helped with anxiety, when my husband and Mum have been telling me the opposite applies to me for years. Last Thursday i did a fast hour power walk that i havent done in ages and i suffered Friday, Saturday, Sunday as a result. Brain fog, lack of concentration, tiredness etc which leads to anxiety this got me thinking there must be a definate link between when i do exercise and how i feel.

My weight is fine for my age, if anything i seem to be able to eat well without gaining weight.

My family has a history of thyroid problems, but i have been tested and mine is fine. I am sure i suffer with reactive hypoglycaemia, i once had a boyfriend who was diabetic and my blood sugar was often very low, however i am not diabetic.

During my two pregnancies i have felt the best ever, which i also think is a little strange, maybe this is due to chemicals in the body that change etc

I love exercising nd find it very frustrating that i don’t seem to be able to do it without the after effects, starting a couple of hours later and lasting up to three days.

I am going to try the tea and sports shake to see if they make any difference. I also love yoga and touch wood have no problems after this.

It is a horrible thing to feel anxious and depressed for no reason when everything is good in your life, i started with this when i first started exercising on a regular basis, which only involved walking an hour a day, hardly excess!

Please keep me posted of any new revelations on this subject.

Lisa

Thank you all for your insite, I now know I’m not crazy, I love working out, and it is good while going, but boy can it really bum out your day, and those around you afterwards. I will be sure to try some of the above mentioned ideas and see if helps me any, would like to have a good day from start to finish, now that would be a real treat..LOL!

Thank you so much!!

So glad I found this site! I really thought I was alone with feeling rotten after excerise. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone!

As soon as the after-excerise exhaustion lifts (usually about 5 minutes) I become as depressed as hell and it doesn’t seem to shift until the nexy day. Whereas if I don’t work out I’m fine!

It’s horrible that other people suffer from this, but I’m so glad that I’m not alone. xxx

I am a twenty-year old female.

In my youth I used to lead a very unhealthy lifestyle. Fast foods, junk, and not enough of a balanced diet.

Luckily I smartened up and started to take better care of myself at 18, and I’ve slimmed down to a healthy, trim weight with nothing more than a better diet. I’m always on the move with college and my job, but I hadn’t decided to take up any form of extra activity until recently. I started some strength training workouts without much focus on cardio.

My fourth workout I decided to give the treadmill a longer go and I pushed myself harder than the rest, to the point where I threw up and had a fatigued night because of such. Quite distracted by the nausea I hadn’t focused on any depressive thoughts.

Today I decided to better prepare myself with proper nutrition before and after my work out, only for the onset of an unexplainable sadness and irritability a couple hours after. It’s lasted until this very post, although I’m now encouraged that I can change it.

I’m going to slow down my intense pace, look into buying muscle milk, start taking a proper daily multivitamin and fish oil supplement and hope for the best! I don’t want to feel like this again.

Thank you for all your posts, I read almost every one.

I am a Registered Dietitian who is pretty addicted to exercise. I do at least 60 minutes aerobic activity every day and weight lifting three times a week. I have also struggled with clinical depression for many years and always found exercise to be an absolute necessity for my mental health. When I stumbled on this site, however, I did start thinking that for the past few months I really hadn’t had that post-exercise high so I tried to pinpoint when I lost it. I’m pretty sure it coincided with the purchase of a new heart rate monitor that showed me I was only getting my pulse to about 75% of my maximum heart rate. Being pretty competitive and wanting to get the most bang for my exercise buck, I started pushing to get my heart rate up to 85% (sometimes greater). Bad move. After I read these comments, I decided to make myself keep it at 80% or less. Turns out my good feelings are back. (There have been no changes in my anti-depressant meds.) That’s not to say it will work for everybody since all our biochemistry varies a bit but I would suggest getting a reliable heart monitor with chest strap so you can see your average rate and compare how you feel with your pulse at 60%,70%,80%, etc. Oh, and in my professional experience, people who are meticulous about exercise usually educate themselves on proper diet as well – high fiber, complex carbohydrates, monounsaturated fats – but, just in case, make sure the person giving you diet advice has the proper credentials. It is illegal in most states for someone who is not a registered dietitian (RD) to call themselves a nutritionist but it still happens. Becoming an RD requires a pretty rigorous undergraduate program with much chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, etc. and post-graduate study which involves an internship. Many hospitals have outpatient dietitians with whom anyone can make an appointment and there are dietitians in private practice which you can find in the yellow pages. Check with your health insurance to see if nutrition counseling is covered. Sorry, didn’t mean this to turn in to an advertisement for the American Dietetic Association. I was grateful for the posts because I hadn’t even recognized I wasn’t getting the same benefits from exercise until I read them and I’m back to enjoying my endorphins!

This has been a lifetime question for me. My symptoms are heavy on the mood mostly the next day after an intense exercise routine. Through trial and error, I have found that caloric intake and everything else here is very important in recovery, but does not eliminate the brain fog. Quite the opposite for a while, but the body recovers properly at least. My theory to explain the effects on the mood is based on the depletion of the glutamine amino acid caused by the exercise and stress in general. This amino acid is also very important as “brain food”, regulating a number of things, including mood. I think that you are prone to feeling the negative impact on the thinking process after exercise if you start with low levels of glutamine in your body, maybe caused by daily stress and depression or genetic factors. Try some L-glutamine supplements and monitor the effects on your mood and your general post-exercise state. Good luck!

Is there annything the blessed internet can’t find? Like everyone else, most people think I’m either lazy or delluded. Used to be fairly athletic, but now after working out I have anxiety, depression (most symptoms) and brain paralysis, as I call it. Concentration and memory shot for 1-3 days. When I am relatively inactive I feel good. I was a child stutterer and during my symptom phase my stutter comes back, likely anxiety related. Tried a few anti-depresants, uppers, downers, but with only very small improvement. Docs now think it may be adrenal fatigue or some other organ-neuro chemical thing. But, no one knows. Wish I had one of those Dr. Bones body sensors Tried supplements/vitamins galore, but same thing. I’ve given up on sports bec of the effects on work and personal life. Will continue looking and report any findings. Cheers.

I was chalking it up to burning fat (hopefully) and experiencing the hormones stored in fat. I seem to remember this coming up back (years ago) when aerobics first started. I find I really crave acidic food during this period, too. The other morning it was just o.j. and cherry tomatoes! It does eventually go away during the day for me. I also feel great during the exercise.

I tried the holy basil but it did nothing. However the holy basil caused my eczema to flair up. This is when I found out that using corticosteroids such a triamcinolone can only compound the problems of exercise induced depression and anxiety. These steroids in themselves may cause anxiety, confusion, and depression in addition to other side effects.

I was just reading Pate’s post up above and I also took the same liver enzyme test with the same results. I am starting to wonder if there is a connection like this with others in this discussion?

After searching the internet I found a condition called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that seems to mimic the symptoms that many of us are experiencing. The article discusses the impact of exercise and some information suggests limiting physical activity. Here is the link.
http://www.medicinenet.com/chronic_fatigue_syndrome/page4.htm#treatment

Thank you James for all of the information!

I’ve also included a link regarding hypoglycemia. Many of the symptoms are mood related! Hypoglycemia can show up hours after exercise.

http://www.hypoglycemia.org/hypo.asp

I’ve tracked my symptoms and find that I usually get the worst crashes after taxing my glycolitic energy system. If you are not familiar, this is the energy system that relies exclusively on glucose, the body’s usable form of carbohydrates which during exercise can come from either blood glucose or glycogen (stored carbs within muscle). The only form of food that can be used for this energy system are carbs–not protein or fat. This system is used during sustained high intensity effort lasting from 1-2 minutes.

As I’m typing this it is making total sense to me. As I’ve mentioned before, parts of the brain rely exclusively on glucose. This makes sense as to why many of the symptoms are mood related.

I actually had a pretty severe crash while training with the owner of my gym (who was the one that recommended the sports shakes that helped me immensily). He saw first hand that I couldn’t speak as coherently, started to get really emotional and physically couldn’t continue my strength routine. This was after beginning my routine (after warm up) with stair running, speed agility ladder and some lateral ice skaters over a box. We then moved on to strength moves and that’s when I started breaking down. I immediately had a Gatorade (which I normally don’t) and within 5-10 minutes started feeling a bit better. I did however crash that night and had residual effects into the next couple of days (depressed mood).

This makes sense too when Terry mentioned having symptoms when she increased her intensity into a higher heart rate zone. She is moving from the aerobic energy system (used during longer term, less intense exercise) into the glycolytic energy system.

I feel like I’m having some kind of breakthrough here but I’ll have to do further research.

The symptoms can come after longer, less intense exercise as well since your glycogen stores will be depleted eventually but higher intensity will deplete these stores much more rapidly.

It might help if people list what type of exercise and duration of exercise when they experience the symptoms.

As I mentioned, through eating properly before and after my workouts I have severely reduced my symptoms. After writing this I’m going to limit the time spent during the higher intensity phases.

As I mentioned, I am now a personal trainer and I LOVE my strength training. This does not seem to affect me if I eat properly (which I am thrilled about).

Sorry for the long-winded posts but I really hope that I can help someone to find a solution.

Joanne

By the way, last year I did go to an endocrinologist who was very sympathetic. The routine tests didn’t show anything unusual(tested my cortisol,fasting blood sugar, etc). Hypoglycemia is hard to diagnose however, unless you are tested while experiencing the symptoms. At the time that I saw her, she gave me a prescription to have that done but the labs were always closed when I did have sypmtoms (it was usually later in the day after exercising).

I had gestational diabetes and had been diagnosed (by a PA) with reactive hypoglycemia. My mother was diagnosed as well years ago when she fainted in church. My son has blood sugar issues with mood (unrelated to exercise) and like me has cut out deserts and simple sugars (hard to do for us sugar-holics) for over a year now. His moods have improved dramatically. He used to go into such a mood when his blood sugar dropped he was like a different person. Within 15 minutes of eating he was better.

We also both have ADD and I’ve had postpartum depression and overall anxiety disorder and am very affected by my menstrual cycle (wow I sound like a basket-case but I’m really a fairly productive, normal (whatever that means)person).

I wonder if it’s somehow all related?

Joanne

Hi all, I’m with you all on this. Cortisol is in one sense the culprit but it is only a reaction to excessive physiological stress of which hypoglycemia is indeed one cause but there are others-
Any deficiency – Borderline Iron status could be pushed into deficiency by heamolytic anemia due to running running( footfalls destroy red blood cells)- Iron has a major effect on serotonin uptake (tea drinkers beware).
Speaking of serotonin, the direct breakdown of serotonin and it’s precursors due to free radical damage (released by exercise induced damage) -apple juice is the quickest and most universally available means of rapidly correcting your antioxidant status but wholesale massive green veg intake would be better.
Calcification of the adrenals which can lead paradoxically to low cortisol under stress when increased cortisol is required ( cortisol is neccessary google addison’s disease), this is most likely due to poor vitamin k status and is gradually reversible with large dose vitamin k. – found in large quantities in the brassica family of vegetables.

Cortisol – both vitamin C and zinc reduce cortisol levels (the effect is mediated through their antioxidant potential (zinc is required to synthesize glutathione, the body’s primary antioxidant). Carbohydrates also reduce cortisol load.

Serotonin – trytophan and/or 5-htp are fairly easy to get your mits on, they are both precursors to serotonin although 5-htp is probalby more effective – contraindicated with SSRI use as together they can cause serotonergic syndrome.

Iron – If your a big tea drinker like me or you eat anything else with tannins in it try vitamin c to increase iron absorption with meals. iron supplements can constipate and again are contraindicated in people with haemochromatosis (an invisible genetic iron storage disorder.)

Regarding the question of age, some of this may be related to malabsoption as the intestines become less efficient with age – the amino acid l-glutamin can be absorbed and used directly by the intestinal villi for repair.

Other things to look into could be areas of local inflamation aggravated by mechanical stress. Inflamation like this can cause mild systemic cortisol elevation in which case glucosamine sulphate and or chondroition may help.

Regarding hypoglycemia you might look into high chromium foods or supplements – this is a gray area as far as i’m concerned although stress increases urinary chromium loss and it is directly implicated in blood sugar control.

For me personally Apple juice (nearly 2 litres a day) has gradually improved my situation.
- a synopsis of my investigation so far.

Be well

After reading more about chronic fatigue syndrome, I am fairly certain this is what I have. All the symptoms seem to be right on. This would explain why using some medications in the past worked but did not cure the symptoms.

Feb 04, 2009
I came across this blog website yesterday. If I did not know better I would have thought that I had written some of those blogs, because they mimic my life situation so much. To make a long story short I too get depressed after exercise. I am 55 years old, in good health, blood pressure is good, not diabetes and my asthma is well controlled. I have had this issue for I would guess about 10 years or so, maybe longer. For me exercise, can simply mean a very busy weekend, going places, doing things, having fun. I used to think it was because I had to go back to work on Monday that I was depressed for 2-3 days after. Come Wednesday, I would be feeling better so I believed I was looking forward to the following weekend. If I exercised or exerted myself during the week though, I would have the same problems. During these times I would eat chocolate and carbs, not want to talk to anyone, lathargic and feeling melancholy. I will have to agree that walking (not too much for me)does not seem to trigger an episode for me.

Many people have mentioned Cortisol as a factor. Cortisol is produced by the Adrenal gland. Curiously I used to take prednisone for a long time for asthma. It was a difficult time getting off this medication and I believe it left its side effects, but I am still grateful to be off it. I have found that Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5) over the years, since then, has helped with my energy level and mood. I usually take about 1,000 to 3,000 mg a day, sometimes more or less. I take other vitamins as well. I don’t think this vitamin (Pantothenic Acid) helps significantly with the issue of lethargy and depression following exertion.
Personally, I think one day medical science will understand more about how powerful the adrenal gland is and how much it influences us physically (and mentally.) I also know that other glands influence it’s function too.
In the meantime I am grateful for all your comments and think everyone is smart enough to know this means something.

Joan,

I read about prednisone and found that so of the side effects could be *

problems with your vision;
*

swelling, rapid weight gain, feeling short of breath;
*

severe depression, unusual thoughts or behavior, seizure (convulsions);
*

bloody or tarry stools, coughing up blood;
*

pancreatitis (severe pain in your upper stomach spreading to your back, nausea and vomiting, fast heart rate);
*

low potassium (confusion, uneven heart rate, extreme thirst, increased urination, leg discomfort, muscle weakness or limp feeling); or
*

dangerously high blood pressure (severe headache, blurred vision, buzzing in your ears, anxiety, confusion, chest pain, shortness of breath, uneven heartbeats, seizure).

I was using a corticsteroid and know for sure that I exhibited these side effect.

Hi I’m a male 49 and I have been feeling the same as mostly everyone on here with the after effects of exercise or any strenuous work for as long as I can remember. I have a few questions, do any of you have any reactions to calcium? I have in the past taken Tums for example and have had issues afterward of teary eyes and felt stressed? Has anyone built up their stamina with this condition to a point where you can stay healthier without over doing it? Can you think of other things that sets these feels off besides exercise? Thanks

This is absolutely fascinating. I have seen bits here and there on the forums when people ask this question but it really seems to be an issue. I would love to see more information on it. I feel for everyone that this affects. Feelings of depression are terrible. Good luck to you all.

I can not say that I had any adverse reactions to calcium. I am also exploring Adrenal Fatigue as well as a possible culprit.

Surprisingly, I have found that taking b vitamin complex and omega-3 capsules have helped with my energy levels and mental clarity. Lets see what happens when I start exercising again tomorrow.

I don’t actually have the depression but got exhausted from my exercise routine and couldn’t understand it (so I found this forum). Then I started sipping water all the time through the day. I actually drink lots of water but I would have a whole glass at once. When I made sure I had a steady supply of hydration, the exhaustion gradually went away! Maybe this is something else to try? Hope it helps.

Well I have been taking the vitamin b vitamins and omega 3’s and have noticed steady positive changes in my sleeping and after exercise state of mind. Could still be in placebo mode. I am going to up my physical exertion to see what happens. I will keep the updates coming.

Does anybody out there also have trouble with sleep? I’ve found a very strong correlation between poor sleep and exercise-induced depression. If I’ve slept deeply the night before, vigorous exercise will not trigger into depression. People with allergies and post nasal drip may have poor sleep and be unaware of subtle, intermittent airway spasms that stir them from sleep, sometimes dozens of times per night. It’s one more factor to consider.

The reverse can also be true. Vigorous exercise often deeply disturbs my sleep, especially if I’ve worked out heavily two days in a row.

Mark,

I will have trouble sleeping if I work out to much, nevertheless I have noticed that I am getting better sleep since starting the B vitamins and omega 3’s. I am ratcheting up my intensity today to include some mma and combat fit classes. I will report on my progress.

A comment to Joan (posting # 147)and to all who’s post workout “depression” that may be from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) If you feel it may be caused from low blood sugar the best thing to do is see an endocrinologist for a 6-hour glucose tolerance test. NOT a fasting test. Fasting tests are inconclusive. The only way I was actually diagnosed with low blood sugar was through the 6-hour GTT. My sugar had dropped to 42 at my worst point during the test. I was very sick and weak at that point. I do have post workout “depression” and/or weakness/tiredness/crabbiness not to mention major hunger. The best thing to do is listen to your body and if you need to eat – then eat! If you don’t fuel your body with the proper nutrition (protein/good fats/carbs (–YES CARBS!!) it will take longer to recover and the longer you’ll feel down. More thoughts later. Good Luck..

Me: very fit (top 0.1%), well-balanced diet.
What aggravates depressive symptoms: not exercising. I want, and I’ve discovered, need to exercise to maintain overall happiness. If I go 2 to 3 day without exercise, I’ll be a bundle of tension and nerves. It often only takes a day without exercise to make me feel very down. I exercise almost every day and I love it.

The paradox here is that I sometimes get tension headaches and depressive symptoms right after exercising. It can happen within minutes or after half an hour or so. Overall, the benefits of exercise, generally feeling good, outweigh getting these episodes. I am very aware of how to treat my body, nutritionally, timing-wise, etc. If I have an intense cardio session, in particular, I often have a downer. Most frequently it’s been after fast-twitch sports like soccer, or a fast swim workout. I don’t know what it is that’s causing it. What I’ve found is that it helps to do the following things:
- stay on top of your responsibilities; i.e., the mental aspect. Reasoning: exercise whether you like it or not, is a predictable escape. After you’re done, there may be a subsconscious aspect that is triggered when your mind says “Shit, I’m back in the real world again”. I’ve learned to make it a priority to always stay on top of my bills, for example, keep my house clean and tidy up as I go. Keep your house in order!
- I’m very sensitive to sleep debt. I have to have the 8-hour minimum
- I avoid working out at night like the plague. It doesn’t make sense.
- I stick to morning/mid-day workouts as much as possible. Nothing after 6-6:30 pm on the whole.
- Eat well (balanced). Don’t overeat.
- Have a healthy social life or at least make more than a minimal effort if you have a packed work/exercise part of your life.
- Don’t drink too much alcohol.
- Stay hydrated.
- Don’t watch too much tv. Read more at night during the week or talk to friends/family.
- Stay positive throughout the day.
- I think there is a holistic (subsconscious, for some) mental aspect that has to be acknowledged.

One thing I’ve found funny is that miso soup often makes me feel great if I’m having a downer/tension headache.

I know what causes it with me. I’m very sensitive to shifts in serotonin and dopamine. (I take less than 1/100 the standard SSRI dose.) So, I run, and there’s a dopamine spike. This causes a rebound in serotonin and a subsequent drop in dopamine (those who know anti-psychotic medications will know the balance that serotonin and dopamine are in), and this makes me depressed.

I can make the depression remit immediately by taking some amantdine (a dopamine agonist).

I’d be interested to know if anyone else felt a remittance with the use of a dopamine agonist like amantadine or requip.

Also, if you get depressed *immediately* after exercise, try upping serotonin to keep it higher in the face of the dopamine spike after finishing exercise.

Fwiw, with me it’s very clearly not blood sugar. I know what hypoglycemia is like and this is hardcore depression 2 hours after exercising.

Also, to address another question that was asked, one of the major symptoms of depression is irritability.

I support the blood sugar theory. I exercise moderately most days – usually walking. My favourite form of exercise is swimming, but I have to be very careful because if I swim too long or too frequently I become depressed/anxious and get flu-like symptoms. I googled this today because I’m feeling it again, but I’m not exercising more than usual. My partner’s away so I’m eating less – too lazy to cook. For me it seems to be about energy intake/maintenance.

I experience exactly the same thing. Most of us seem to have preexisting depression/anxiety. So I would imagine it is a case of exercise imposing stress on the body and we are badly equipped to deal with stress.

I imagine the best cure is to start slow and work up to a manageable level. High intensity exercise is probably only for those with the genetics for it.

After all….back in prehistoric times we only broke a sweat when we were being chased by wooly mammoths. Luckily in the 21st century we don’t have that problem….so why would we want to stress our bodies in that way?

I think low intensity….exercise, a mild jog, yoga, swimming….is the best way to go.

That or progressive exercise working up slowly towards moderate intensity

Like countless others, I am so glad I found this site. I was just talking to my boyfriend about this issue, and really thought I was going nuts. I have never been a depressed person, and started working out religiously after the holidays. I am now experiencing pretty serious depression, and moderate amounts of anger (also not part of my regular personality). I take Omega oils regularly, it is obviously not helping. I am going to try Holy Basil, and will eat right after working out. I do have a very good daily diet, but do need to drink more water. I am keeping my fingers, and toes crossed for everyone.

There are probably several sub-groups within this thread. My reaction occurs 24-48 hours after exercise. It has to be different exercise, i.e. anything I do routinely is ok but if I try a different exercise using different muscles the depression sets in. The symptoms are depression, lethargy, mental fog, anger, and a touch of paranoia (cause of bad arguments). Had it all my life. Amazing to read the accounts above because I also tried all sorts of remedies and drew a blank with the medical profession. My solution is paroxetine. Found it myself and convinced sceptical doctors to prescribe it because it saved me a lot of grief. I guess it is possible that the paroxetine is masking the effects rather than curing the problem but I am just grateful for a way of avoiding the terrible consequences of living an active life. I am adding this comment in case it helps others with this variety of exercise induced depression / mental impairment.

I am 23, have had 2-3 episodes of depression in the past couple of years. Doing away without meds but have reqular sleep problems. I lifted some weights yesterday and then after a couple of hours felt like killing myself. Have been stuffing my self up with protein, carbs and sweet, not good though but just incase it can give a quick boost so I could study. Feeling really tired.

[Sorry for length, but I think it may hit some pts]

I’ve read these with great interest. Mostly same symptoms. I’m wondering if anyone has checked further into a testosterone/hormonal link. While I have the post-exercise depression and anxiety, I also have a very difficult time reading and writing; the more intense the workout, the harder to do for next couple of days. My handwriting is also noticeably sloppier, if I type, I make more typos, and my ideas are bland. Also, I have a more difficult time forming words orally and apparently my speech is less crisp. No joke, sometimes people ask if I was out late the night before. When I tell them I played basketball, they wink and laugh. Not so funny for me, but I don’t blame them. I’ve come to describe it as low brain energy, but honestly it feels like I’ve ingested some kind of poison.

I have to respectfully disagree with one of the posts above about forcing consistency with exercise. I’ve tried it and got so out of it that I couldn’t get myself to leave bed for two days. I used to be a decent and informed athlete and I know what it’s like to not have this problem and what good things consistent exercise can do. This is not it. Oddly enough, I actually get weaker and lose muscle tone the more days I do it and the following days are hellish; bad sleep, angry, depressed, etc. Feel like I’m all thumbs, physically and mentally. I’ve also tried the antidepressants but no improvement, and sometimes it’s worse.

I’ve read that this “issue” can be related to testosterone imbalance, which is causes or is caused by a problem between the left and right brain hemisphere’s, which, in turn, can cause depression, mood imbalance and concentration problems. Not sure, but could explain my problems in reading and motor function.

Here’s my layman’s theory, for whatever it’s worth: it appears that the level of testosterone, or whatever “problem chemical,” maybe cortisol or dopamine or serotonin or GABA or a combination thereof, properly rises after exercise, but then crashes the day after and then slowly regenerates to equilibrium level for the next couple of days. What this suggests to me is that whatever organ(s) are responsible for equilibrating that balance are not functioning properly. It could be liver, adrenals, thyroid, or ?. Now, many of the things I’ve read here and tried can and do help the regeneration process, such as carbs, vitamins and other supplements. But, while definitely worthwhile to an extent, I’d put them in the band-aid solution category. I’m very curious about the source problem. I’d compare it to a car having a small oil leak, and, indeed, pouring more oil into it will help, but it does not solve the cause. Like having an ulcer and just taking lots of antacids.

This to me is the most frustrating part, because, from all the sources I’ve checked into, the few that exist , none seem to know what the cause is. I’ve actually been told by a physician, “well, just don’t overdo it then.” I practically went livid. My life is (in my opinion) sig impaired by this. If we were a more numerous patient base, or a squeakier wheel in one form or another, more effort would likely be put toward figuring this out. This is also true with other “misc” med problems, so that’s life and all we can do is hope for a solution. Sorry for the long post, but I’ve also suffered with this for the last several years and have had little outlet to discuss. “Glad I’m not alone” sounds cliche, but is apt here. Good luck and I will also report any further self experiments.

I am the same as most of you, I exercise, I want to cry, before, during and after. I have done the lots, little and none and experience the same thing except the none which makes me feel better because I don’t have as much to do. When I do exercise there are anger issues so I get that too.

What I don’t understand is you ask the so called “health care educators and professional” about this and they get angry with you. I have tried on numerous occasions to get answers to these questions and I keep getting, shut up and do it, go look for the answers yourself. Which obviously we all have and have found nothing except for the propoganda paid for by those with similar “positive” views of exercise and nutrition, then they only show one side of the story, they never tell you the adverse reactions or how many people didn’t get to partake in the study because they had symptoms like ours.

With medications, drugs, alcohol there are numerous studies about the good and and bad side effects of these. But with exercise and nutrition there are only studies about the benefits to those who have similar views, never anything about the negative reactions. (my own little paranoia/delusional way of thinking)

I have two more things that may be totally irrelvant but definitely relate to exercise with me personally; I’m curious if anyone else has these:

1) If I’ve been exercising, I feel really bad after a warm shower. The longer and the warmer the worse. It can actually get so bad that I have to lay down for a bit. Can feel extremely extremely weak physically and mentally.

2) I know this sounds nuts but green tea. I actually love the taste and feel good right after drinking it, but after a few hours and the next day I feel bad. The more I drink the worse. And, if I have been exercising, the feelings are multiplied. The only thing I’ve been able to find out is that it has a lot of flouride and that may affect some people via thyroid. May fit some symptom set.

I agree with Anthony P’s long post. I really want to know the cause of these symptoms. I know for me I recently had to begin taking more corticosteroids for my eczema and that caused a relapse in depression, anxiety, and fatigue. So my guess is that it has something to do with the adrenal, thyroid system. Also when I drink green tea the symptoms are allot worse. This affliction by far sets one back in many ways.

I was mainly good for many months until recently when I started doing speed/agility work and some reactive training. I drank toddler juice boxes during my workout (they have added water) to try to fend off crashes–in addition to eating properly before and after working out. I didn’t have the severe crashes I used to have but did have small depressive crashes that would clear up after a small glass of juice. I normally don’t do any simple sugars including juices. I still think it has something to do with my blood sugars. I think I will try to push for a 6 hour glucose tolerance test though even if it shows hypoglycemia I don’t know what I would do much differently than what I do now.

All I know is that this really stinks and I feel for everyone out there.

On my end I am going back to my old strength routine even though I really like the other workouts while I am doing them.

I wouldn’t do that to my clients (if they were having issues) so I have to stop doing it to myself.

Take care everyone.

I too suffer from post workout depression, the onset is usually between 2-3 hours afterwards and can last to up to 4 days.

I have been doing as much research on this as is possible considering the limited information on this on the web, and have narrowed the cause down to two theories…

1. Some sort of glucose problem, the symptoms of hypoglycemia seem to match perfectly with what happens after I exercise.

2. Cortisol. When we exercise our testosterone levels rise and as result our cortisol levels rise to match this, in turn reducing our testosterone after about an hour of working out. Cortisol as I’m sure you know is a lesser form of stress hormone necessary for our fight or flight response. when cortisol is released we can feel anxious among other things.

I have decided to take this problem by the horns and try a few things…

- Eat some complex carbohydrates before my workout and then immediately afterwards.
- Try holy basil.
- I have bought a cortisol blocker so I’ll see how that works.
- Drink more water.

I’ll report back on my findings and hopefully they will be positive. If they do work I’m sure you will agree that they are a fairly small price to pay to stop your week from being ruined by the very thing people tell us will improve it.

For good measure I thought I’d say, thank god I found this thread I thought I was the only one! Good luck to all of you in battling this rather obscure problem.

My case is similar to Anthony P’s:
Ten years ago, I used to be a good runner and I know how to slowly build up endurance. But if I exercise only moderately, I now feel terrible for 1-3 days: my mind is foggy, my speaking is sluggish, I feel depressed and anti-social. I feel great directly after exercising, but the depression reliably sets in the morning after. I can also trigger the same reaction by going to a sauna without exercising.
In the last years my cortisol, testosterone and thyroid hormones were regularly tested and were found normal. I even had two glucose tolerance tests which also were normal.
I don’t know what really causes this depression and I have not found a way to prevent it yet.
Has anybody considered histamine as a possible factor? There is exercise induced asthma. Perhaps histamine can trigger depression, too.

I’m glad I found this. I recently started back working out. I use to work out hard core when I was in highschool. Then I stopped for four years, now I’m 22 and started working out slowly but frequently and I was like “why have I been feeling empty or sad after I work out.” The feeling doesn’t last long but I know it is there. Then eventually it goes away. I don’t have any advice on what to do but just letting others know that I’m happy that I’m not alone cuz then I would think something is seriously wrong with me when it’s not.

Here is my recent update. I have continued moving forward with my intense mma workout routine. The omega 3’s have been good for the depression and anxiety I get from the exercise but the allergic reaction was to much. I am switching to black currant oil. Nevertheless, the b 12 has been a god send. It really limits the bad feelings. I am now looking for a supplement that contains strong b vitamins, and antioxidants,that do not interfere with my mood. I am starting to think that it is a concoction of essential supplementation that I am not getting that is causing this problem.

Really interesting article–might provide some clues:

http://www.drpodell.org/hypoglycemia_symptoms.shtml

Question: Does anyone experience depressive symptoms after drinking–especially beer & wine. I’m not talking about a large amount of alcohol which could be depressive to anyone. I’m talking about a glass or two of wine or beer.

I know this happens to me–I get pretty severly depressed.

Here’s an experiment:

When you start to experience symptoms–try a small glass of juice (such as orange juice, try to stay away from apple). Be sure to also have some protein with it, ie. nuts. Notice how you feel with 15 minutes or so. Are you feeling better? Try to record it as a number scale–10 being depressed 1 being o.k.

I know this has been working for me–I’d love to know how it works for others.

Can people report back and let me know how they feel?

I am very knowledgable about this subject. I notice a common theme here: After exercise, people feel worse than before. This is most likely due to a susceptibility to hypoglycemia, which is ‘low blood sugar’. I have had this for years and it is caused by an over-active pancreas which tends to release excessive insulin which then eats up too much suger in the blood. This is caused by eating sweets or not eating snacks often enough…at least 6 times a day, spread out over 2-3 hours each time. If you are careful to avoid sweets and anything with simple carbs, (such as white rice, white flour, plain pasta etc.) and instead have complex carbs (whole wheat bread or flour, brown rice, whole wheat pasta)this will allow for a slow sugar release, thus the insulin will be released slowly by the pancreas. Also, be sure not to over-exercise because this burns excessive sugar as well. Email me if you need more info.

tommybommys@yahoo.com

Tom

- I also feel terrible after sauna, smth I used to really enjoy after a swim.

- I also often felt depressed several hours or day after even 1-3 drinks. Hard time sleeping. If I got over-served, literally took several days to equalibriate. Had to stop bec wasn’t productive.

- I tried the hypoglycemic route a while back, but I recall not having pos results. Will revisit. I hate sweets; love protein. Carbs before or after help me recover a little, but core problem remains.

In fact, here’s smth odd that based on the above comments seems related, but oppositely: I feel really bad after oatmeal and brown rice, to varying degrees depending on I don’t know what. I’ve tried oatmeal with salt or with raisins and some honey, but cannot do. If I have brown rice for supper; next day I’m out of it. Tried dozens of times and same results. I’m starting to think I was a UFO child

yes, that is exactly what i am passing through,i feel that i had a target and i dont wanna be disturbed by anyone even if those are my responsability too like my husband and kids,so i became more nerveous moody,like if that i wanna focus and every single thing around me is disturbing me.but honnestly that s not right i must find someway to deal with both coze that s not there fault that i wanna reach my target .the point is that i totaly agree with you and i feel the same and i think the reason is that we feel that we had a responsibility to reach our target whish make us nerveous pressed.we act like if we will not let any external influence disturbed us over our target,so we becam defensive…this is my point of view i don’t know what u think?????

Crikey I cant believe i found this page, just wish i had time to read all of it. Im 35, male, recently been quite ill and diagnosed with Chrons colitis, lost 25 pounds in weight etc over 2 months (165 to 140lbs), now recovering well (thanks to being put on Prednizone, that i want off as soon as i can for the long term side effects). Anyway, i thought i would go back to playing badminton with friends, couldnt last the usual time due to still beign a bit weaker, just played 2 games, usually play 2 hours solid. Afterwards could not sleep at all then the next day was awefull, very depressed, hot and cold fluhses, sweaty, no concentration, even my boss was concerned as he could see it in me, just echos of what others are saying here really. Talking to my wife i realised ive always been down after exercise and always struggle sleeping afterward as well. She told me shes always called it my hump grump coz i get depressed after sex (surely thats not supposed to happen eh!) this last time at badminton , I assume, was a lot worse than normal because im not fully recovered from the bout of illness and the stress of exercise had more of an effect on my body than if i had been fit. Im so glad i found everyone on here in the same situation, as I was (as an engineer as someone else said) analyzing it with conventional knowledge and getting turned upside down when the answers came out backward!. Im going to monitor this page and try some of the suggestions Fish oil. B12 etc and will post my thoughts / conclusions when i have something worth saying. If anyone wants to ask me anything just post.
Bless you all

i too feelthis way, although i thought it was because i am going through menapause, and it is hell. also i don’t look the way i think i should after working out,which discourages me and then the depression sets in. so maybe the depression can also be caused by our expectations. GG

I have the same issue with exercise. I also get the same problem with oatmeal that someone else mentioned – crushing exhaustion after eating it. It’s a nasty fatigue – like one you would get with a flu. I’ve tried to figure out why – thinking it’s a gluten issue or hypoglycemia or a type of starch that causes it or an intolerance to oatmeal…I can get the same effect to a lesser extent with quinoa and buckwheat. Also, honey, dates and high fructose vegetables and fruits (but not HCFS soda) will give me that same fatigue, with a little hypoglycemia thrown in. I’ve always had problems with breakfast since I was kid. I’d be out of it for most of the day if I ate it… a more protein heavy breakfast could somtimes not work but sometimes not. So I solved this by skipping breakfast and not eating for 8 hours after awakening. Of course that has its own problems.

Interesting article about glycogen replacement…

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/aa081403.htm

Just a quick update on some cursory research I’ve done on something called “late-onset hypoglycemia.” While many of the things fit the pattern see here, some do not. As a preface, apparently hypoglycemia does not have to be related to a diabetes type and can occur as a symptom to other physical issues.

One thing that does fit well is that the effects occur 4-48 hrs after exercise. Also, carbs and such do help with the symptoms, sometimes to a decent extent, and hot showers and saunas do appear to have an effect on insulin.

One of the ones that does not fit is that the articles suggest that the problem occurs if there is a sudden increase in intensity or length and, importantly, that consistent exercise will alleviate the symptoms and is recommended. This unfortunately is the direct inverse in my case and some of the others here and the main problem. While a relative increase in intensity does increase intensity of symptoms, even minimal amounts of exertion over gradual time still have some effect. I wish this were not the case, bec I’d have this covered. I do not say it’s not hypoglycemia, only that if it is, it’s not the type commonly discussed.

My plan at some pt in the future is to step into the abyss yet another time for experimental purposes in this context. I’ll exert myself for a couple of days in a row and then get tests done for anything related to hypoglycemia, thyroid and liver. Will report.

Glad that I found this website!!! I thought that I was crazy too!!! This started happening to me after I had a bad reaction to thyroid medication. I was taking Armour and they ran out of my dose, so they switched me to the generic. It caused major problems and this was one of them. I also became hypersensitive to medication. Tylenol makes me dizzy, sick to my stomach, and immediately tired.

I have tried the experiment of exercise. After 20 minutes of exercise this happens about 4-8 hours later. It feels like a chemical depression, very bad and to the point I can’t even sleep…..

I have done some research as well and think that it has something to do with a depletion in the adrenal gland. Possible cortisol. I talked to my regular doc about this and she didn’t have a clue. She just offered a perscription for an antidepressant. I am planning on speaking with my endocrinologist at the end of this month. I trust him to help me because he has done a lot for me so far. I am going to show him this chat room and maybe he’ll have some ideas. I will post an update after I talk to him.

Like many of you, I am so glad I found this site. I, too, thought I was the only one in the world who suffered from this.

I have never had a good history with exercise. I always hated sports; gym class was my least favorite class in school. And I never liked playing outside, especially running games like tag. I preferred to sit inside and read or work on a jigsaw puzzle or play board games – things I still enjoy much more over sports! In the past I was involved in karate, but I do not take that right now. About the only thing I’m interested in being involved with at the moment is bowling.

I am an administrative assistant and thus have a “sedentary” lifestyle. I started doing pushups a couple of months ago and feel rotten after each session (I only do 70-80 per day right now but my goal is 100 per day).

To be honest, I only do them because I want to take better care of my physical body and everyone says it’s good to exercise.

My friend insisted that it takes “a week or so” to get used to it, and then you actually start feeling GOOD afterwards. Unfortunately, that has not happened yet. I still feel terrible.

I have always felt this way, even as a kid, as I said earlier. It is not too different today. It peaked in 2003 when I was a senior in high school I had gone through major surgery in Dec 2002 and was off gym for six glorious weeks, but when I came back and played something I wanted to bawl.

I think, like many of you here, that this is linked to depression. I have always had depression, as far as I know; but unfortunately it was untreated. (My family is the type that believes depression is all in your head, etc.) And so, I still don’t like being active.

I think something that makes things worse is something that almost all of you have been saying: most people don’t suffer from this, doctors aren’t trained to treat it (and most haven’t heard of it), and 99.9% of sites, blogs, and instructors will tell you that EVERYONE feels better after exercise.

I can’t say I feel rotten during exercise – I generally don’t, unless it’s running or something. But afterwards, definitely. In fact, the reason I dug up this site was because I thought I was going insane: I felt terribly rotten after a really, really fun night of bowling last night.

I remember my gym teacher telling all of us that EXERCISE will release HAPPY HORMONES!!! And it will make you FEEL BETTER!!! because it releases HAPPY HORMONES!!! (Well, that’s about the gist of it, and I am sure many of you can sympathize.)

I appreciate the others who have gone through theories. Maybe I feel bad after bowling because I neglected to eat right. I can try that. I don’t have diabetes, but again, I do think I have pretty severe depression. I’m going to see if maybe I can look more into the cortisol treatments and improve my mood that way.

So to all who ever had to live through a crazy gym teacher insisting that they will be cheered by “happy hormones” … to all those who want to bawl after a run … to all those who pull the covers over their heads the day after mowing the lawn and weeding … to all those who hate exercise because it makes them depressed rather than making them happier … I feel for you.

Let’s all hope for help in the near future!

My own latest theory is that it has to do with increased serotonin levels in the brain. I think what is happening is that exercise causes a jump in serotonin and that we, for whaever reason, don’t handle this well. I have noticed some other things that raise serotonin levels significantly, like alcohol, chocolate or all carbs meals, give me a similar depressing effect. Perhaps these things in raising serotonin levels either cause some regulating mechanism to come on line causing a pretipitous fall in serotonin levels or perhaps it causes a depletion of our ability to make serotonin in some way. Ecstacy users for an extreme example will often get severe rebound depression and its main drug effect is to raise serotonin levels.

How do other people here do with chocolate? This is another thing that is suppose to make you feel good though a recent study, just like with exercise, has contradicted these ideas.

If this is true, I guess the trick would be to be careful with serotonin boosting items. Anywy, just an idea.

Perhaps, there is some sort of interacton going on between serotonin and dopamine which causes the mood derangement.

Guys, this is the first time I read this blog in like a year. I have posted here a while back but I stopped looking at it. I applaud what you all are doing in attempting to figure why this happens, blood sugar, serotonin, dopamine, there is something that is causing this, hey we might all have different causes. I posted at some point last year and I will repeat what I said then again, I have solved this problem by not exercising. It has been more than a year since I last exercised and I am feeling great. I spent years attempting to get into exercise and I have tried everything possible, meals before and after, tryptophan supplements, water, fruit juices, vitamins blood sugar testing, omega three supplements I can keep going on listing things that I have tried but the conclusion is nothing worked. Actually the final conclusion I had was that there something chemical that goes wrong whenever I exercise and I have no solution for. I stopped exercise and I have been feeling great for over a year now. I understand that people on this forum want to be like everyone else who doesn’t have this problem (meaning most people who exercise and do not feel like they want to die afterwords) but in reality that’s not the case. All I am trying to say I guess is whatever benefit one gets from working out is not worth this shitty feeling we get afterwords, so until there is a medically conclusive reason of why this happens and how to prevent it we shouldn’t exercise. Personally I have discovered this to be the solution last year and I have been feeling great for over a year now. Every time I remember how depressed I felt back in the days when I was working out I feel glad that I don’t feel that way anymore. What do you all think of this advise?? am I making sense or am being illogical? I would love to hear what you all think?

My last entry was back in Feb and since then I started taking LexaPro 10mg a day and so far it seems to be helping, the only step back was with alcohol, a couple of beers hit me hard the next day ever since then I stay away from it and so far taking walks that used to beat me up the next day are not too much of a problem now. I’m taking it slow and so far so good.

Hi there
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. Its been really refreshing to find a discussion on this topic. I have suffered from depressive episodes for the last 10 years and have only just self diagnosed it! I’m 38.
My issue, like many of the contributors, is that one of the primary causes of my depression is exercise. However, all the literature I have read on depression says that exercise is a good treatment for depression.
The impact of exercise on me differs from others in this discussion and follows a pretty familiar pattern for me. First I start an exercise programme, with some bike riding. Later I would move into higher cardio work outs like running (30-45min sessions). Usually after about 2 weeks of running (running maybe 3 times or so a week) I’m hit hard with depression symptoms. The symptoms would normally come about 2 days after the last session and would last about 3 days. Note that unlike others – straight after the exercise I actually feel pretty good.
Then I endure 3 days of feeling rotten – lethargic, anti-social etc. Then a bounce back pretty quickly. Then hold off on exercise for a week or so. Then pluck up the courage to start exercise again. And so the pattern continues.
I’m over it and keen to explore options with a GP or specialist. Im a naturally positive, happy person and feel pretty disheartened that exercise (which I really enjoy and is important for all round health) is actually making me feel depressed.
As a footnote, on occasions a heavy drinking session will cause exactly the same pattern above as well (ie 2-3 days after the session, i get hit with depressive symptoms). However, this is far less common.
Im off to my GP next week. I will also start to look at some of the suggested treatments from the contributors.
As my symptoms differ somewhat from other, any thoughts would be welcome.
Thanks for hearing me out.

Medical literature attests to the fact that the consumption of alcohol, tea, coffee, soft drinks, refined sugar, and chocolate should all be minimized (or even avoided) by anyone who is being prescribed antidepressant or anxiolytic medications. Each of these contain substances (e.g., caffeine/theine, theobromine, alcohol, and simple carbohydrates) which will interfere with the psychotropic properties of the medication. As a result, the following day a “rebound effect” (i.e., increased depression and/or anxiety) may be experienced which FAR outweighs any fleeting mood enhancing benefits which are experienced shortly after their consumption. It true that cocoa beans contain the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine and phenylethylamine. As well, it is known that cocoa increases the levels of brain chemicals called endocannabinoids – which are known to enhance mood and memory. However, for those who use antidepressant medications, the long-term effect of consuming dark chocolate is usually quite negative. Consequently, it should be avoided.

Like most individuals who have posted in this discussion thread, after a cardio workout I too feel more depressed and anxious. However, in my own case, these negative symptoms are usually realized only the next day. Rather than avoiding all exercise as suggested above, I’ve found that the introduction of strengthening exercises (weight training) does not have the same negative repercussions on my depression and anxiety. As well, there are cardiovascular benefits to weight training.

In the end, I guess everyone has to figure out what works best in their own situation.

Don’t think the last comment went through…if it did–sorry for the double post.

I found a great article on energy/depression/hypoglycemia. I’m still researching…

Had another bout–I think from cardio interval training. Strength training doesn’t bother me but anything that raises my heart rate too high does. When will I learn!

Hope everyone is well.

sorry–won’t let me leave a link.

I feel terrible after exercise, the more intense the exercise, the longer I feel bad. I call it my exercise “hangover.” I, like everyone else, have been feed the message that exercise will always make you feel better. And when it didn’t I exercised harder, and flet worse. When will the medical community stop treating us like we are all the same average person supposedly represented in the “scientific studies”?

Like almost everyone else, I was really happy to find this site! It is really comforting to see other people with the same experience! I found this site after Googling “exercise depression” right after one of my cardio workouts brought me to tears–not because I was physically drained, but I just suddenly felt empty and…well, sad. I have experienced this before, but as many other people noted, this isn’t a very accepted reaction to exercise. So, I thought I probably was “crazy.”

I’ve been suffering depressive episodes for about ten years now (I’m 29), but I am not and never have been on medication. I think it’s interesting that those with and without medication have many of the same experiences. I’ve been exercising to try to “better myself” (and stay toned) for about five years. I don’t have sadness/depression every time I workout, but I do often. And, as someone else noted, it’s almost always with cardio. I don’t have as many problems if it’s strength training alone or yoga or something. I eat well, and I’ve gone periods before with eating almost NO sugar or refined foods. It didn’t make any difference in my mood.

I guess I just wanted to throw my voice in. I have no solution! I wonder why this isn’t more talked about, overall. My first reaction is that it goes against the medical/health community’s blanket answer of “exercise for everyone, at all times,” and they don’t like that. But honestly, I don’t think blanket answers are very helpful. They just make us feel like weirdos, or like we must be doing something wrong, when it may be the case that not everyone is meant for every kind of exercise. Hmmmm…

I have heard that over training can cause depression. A close friend of mind does body/mind therapy. Her model is that trauma is stored in your body. Perhaps the physical exertion is bringing out these emotions.
If I have a mood while at the gym I know I am not working hard enough. Trust me by the 20th sit up there is only one thing on your mind – STOP! so don’t.

I have been excercising for the last 4 months and my depression has become so severe that my doctor is putting me on anti-depressants. Haven’t taken them for years but there is just no reason for this feeling. I thought that I was the only person experiencing this.

Yet another person who is so thankful they found this post. I too, thought I was the only person who felt this way. I have gotten past the idea that I’m “crazy”, and just figured that I’ve got some wiring crossed in my brain. I have been depressed for most of my life, and have been on prozac for the past 10 years or so.

Daph (post 188) has so accurately described my issue, that I won’t bother repeating all that she wrote. I am also in full agreement with Anthony P (post 169) that I want – or more accurately need – to know the *cause* of this problem so I can fix it, instead of just putting a band-aid on it so I don’t have to suffer from the symptoms.

Over the years, I have tried a lot of the suggestions that I have read throughout these posts to try and fix myself (eating healthy, timimg my eating with my exercise, not over-exercising, etc.), but the only thing I’ve found that helps is not exercising – which really isn’t an option. Exercise, or regular physical activity, is just a part of life; if you avoid exercise, you avoid living (imho). However, the flip-side is that partaking in exercise causes me to be a hopeless mess the rest of the day (and often into the next). It’s a really rough catch-22 that we’re stuck in – yeah it sucks, but there it is…

To get on a more positive note, I will post some facts that might help narrow the range of diagnoses – in case there really is someone out there who is reading this post and trying to help.

* I’m a 34 year old female, happily married for 11 years, no kids, have pets.
* I am overweight (BMI says I’m obese), as are most of the women in my family. Although I have been significantly cutting back on my portion sizes and junk food while increasing my exercise over the past 8 months.
* I eat frequent small meals (every 1.5-2 hours) and try to incorporate a fruit/veggie and protein with each meal/snack. Most of my carbs are complex and low on the Glycemic Index.
* I have been tested for glucose intolerance, however, have not had the 6-hour glucose test. I’ll look into that.
* I have recently undergone tests for liver and kidney function (due to upper abdominal issues), and they seem to be working fine.
* I have taken fish oil supplements to try and reduce my HDL levels, but saw no difference in HDL, nor did it seem to effect my exercise-induced depression. I also take a calcium supplement daily.
* I notice the change in my mood both during and after exercise. The more rigorous the exercise, the more likely I am to experience depression/anger during the activity. The longer the duration, the more likely I am to experience depression into the next day.

I would like to thank all of you who have posted your experiences and suggestions on this board. It has been so helpful to know that I’m not alone in this and that others are also looking for the cause and cure.

I am currently training to walk a marathon, so I have several short (30 min) walks during the week and an increased-distance walk on Saturday (I have to take the next day to recover from the depression). I will have plenty of chances to experiment with different vitamins, supplements, diet, and lifestyle changes over the course of my training (the big day is October 4th). I’ll try to post back here with my results. I really hope I can find the cause and cure for this problem and that I don’t suffer the nearly week-long funk I had after my last marathon. Yes, I know about the post-marathon blues, and I’m sure I suffer from that as well, but combine it with my everyday post-exercise depression and I find myself way too deep in the hopeless abyss.

Thanks again to all of you offering support and advice. We’ll get this issue resolved, one way or another!

I just found out that my testosterone levels are well below normal for my age. This comes as quite a shock, as I’m not obese or even overweight, I hardly drink, and my nutrition is as healthy as current scientific knowledge allows. I’ve been trying to find out what’s behind my depression/exercise thing for years, and I’ve followed a lot of avenues that turned out to be dead ends, but this testosterone finding may be a clue. Anyone else had their testosterone levels tested? Anyone else fatigued even when you don’t exercise? How’s your sleep?

Same story for me.

The relationship is crystal clear – working out induces a depression that sets in before lunch the day after and sticks with me for between 2 and 5 days. There is a 100% correlation between the exercise and feeling bad. It always happens when I do work out, and never happens when I don’t.

I am 28, fit, eat well and have tried everything from fish oil and a complex carb diet to st johns wort and magnesium/calcium supplements.

Let’s do something!

Let’s get organized people. Like..really, let’s find out what’s happening. What I propose:

1. I just registered an email: depressionandexercise@gmail.com please mail me your email address if you want to be part of this.

2. Once I have a list of emails, I will organize a questionnaire. During this phase we will agree on a set of questions (say 50 or so) that should be distributed to everyone to answer. The questions would be personal, but anonymous and be covering issues like age, gender, some medical history, what we eat, allergies, habits etc…anything that we can come up with that could be related.

3. This questionnaire will be sent out to everyone and each one of you would then send it back, i will then distribute a report (again, individual email addresses would be kept confidential) showing statistics about us. The goal with this is to find a trend…hopefully we do..maybe we’re eating to many bananas (kidding), everybody might be on an allergy medicine…it could be anything really.

4. If I get a lot of responses here I could also see myself organize a closed forum for us, where we could organize research, write about our experiences and report on our own projects (be they exercise types or experimenting with nutrition)

What do you guys say?

/ Raz

Add me to the list of those who thought I was crazy. The weird thing is that even exercise trainers have never heard of this. I first started to feel down feelings after exercise about 2 years ago. They were triggered after strength exercise, but lately even when I do cardio (runnig, step, cardio-strenth) I experience this little-talked about phenomenon. All doctors know to do is prescribe antidreppressants, but give you no good reason for causes. I am under NO medications whatsoever so cannot attribute it to that, I do drink one cup of espresso every morning.

thanks for starting the dialogue. Should we all write to that show “The Doctors” and see if they can give us any answers?

We’re not crazy, and in fact there’s nothing unusual about us that accounts for the depressive effect we’ve experienced from continued/chronic exercise. Rather, we should pat ourselves on the back for being insightful observers and challenging the pervasive MISTRUTH that a regular exercise regimen has a lasting positive impact on mood.

The answer lies in the system of mu-opioid neuro-receptors and the endorphins which stimulate that receptor immediately during and after exercise. The physical stress and muscle tissue damage that occurs during exercise triggers the production and release of endorphins, which are responsible for that amazing “runner’s high” we experience. However, like any mood-altering drug, the effect doesn’t last forever and entails a comedown which returns us to a basal state less pleasant than the one before we even experienced the drug. Physiologically, this is a result of the “down-regulation” (i.e. the desensitization/reduction) of mu-opioid receptors after the flood of endorphins have done their job. This is not merely theoretical — It is well established that chronic exercise decreases mu-opioid receptor sensitivity, as confirmed by a few studies that I just googled:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T0N-4KKWVK1-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=858b6856c7a72ac2876ac3fbeec99a68

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T0N-4B7YP4Y-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=6b3bdc2c89d51603b198c31d76d29ee2

By the way, the mu-opioid receptor is the same receptor directly stimulated by drugs of abuse such as alcohol, heroine, and opiates, and indirectly potentiated by cocaine, amphetamine, and other stimulants. Therefore, those who tout that “exercise alleviates depression” are really no different than the junkie who says he takes pain pills to “relieve his depression” or to “feel normal”, even if the exercise enthusiasts are totally unaware that they are simply excusing “an addiction”.

Does this mean you should stop exercising? For the sake of overall health and longevity, I wouldn’t recommend it. But I think we need to accept the fact that indeed exercise entails a trade-off between physical and mental well-being, even if the dampening of mood and energy is a small price to pay for the physical benefits we derive. Afterall, the mu-opioid receptor, which is implicated in motivation and the basic pursuit of pleasure, affects every aspect of human behavior, so “addiction” is a relative term. …As with everything, I think moderation is the key here

Cheers,
Chris Young
christof.young@gmail.com

Amazing to find this … doctors thought I was crazy or attributed it to an underlying anxiety disorder … love it when they attribute everything to stress and anxiety … yeah let’s get organized and perhaps get doc involved … one that actually does “research” (*shocking gasp*) … if there are enough people this could be a source of funding for a researcher …

Thanks for all of the posts. I have been running or riding regularly for the past 14 years. Up until two years ago, I only experienced depression type symptoms after running races (20km or 1/2 marathon). Since that time, I have felt these symptoms after long rides and just recently after short workouts. Has anyone else had a similar experience where the episodes became more frequent over time?

This is exactly true with me too. I have been trying yoga, meditation and exercise since 10 years. Everything was fine for 2-3 years in the begining but went worse later on. Since, I used to feel very energetic while doing breathing and exercise, I went through a lot of techniques to get these things back in my life but none of them work for me. Whatever strong determination (lets say it doesn’t matter even I die by doing these things) I take, I ended up with high blood pressure, anger and many more. I know doing in a moderate and comfortable way is the key but this is not for me. Huh! I had tried more than thousands time but still couldn’t get these things in my life. Still couldn’t get the state that I wanted to be.

Okay, now lets talk about the solution. Do following things if it works for you.

1) Keep in mind, moderate is the key. Do everthing (exercise, rest and diet) moderately. We don’t want to break our bones by lifting weight of beyond our strength and also we don’t want to underestimate our own strength. Similar things are true for rest and diet. The level of moderation might vary with person, age, time etc. Your conscious mind might be raising a question-what is moderation ? If you feel comfortable by doing things in a way, that’s the way of moderation.

2) Do and forget about it, don’t think much about it.

If it doesn’t work, the way we are doing is not wrong at all. The problem is with the acceptance of these things by our mind. Our mind is not accepting them. We can force our mind to accept the things to a certain limit but can’t go beyond limit.

So, if things don’t work even doing everthing moderately and trying in different possible ways, the only solution is quit and forget about it.” If you leave the problem, that doesn’t exist for you and have no problem at all”. I know quiting is also difficult. For example, everyone knows smoking is bad but there are a lot of people which are having it since they can’t quit it. Most of the people say, Yoga, exercise and meditation are good, good and good. So, obviously good thing will be hard to quit. But I am sure, try it, you will be able to quit.

My condition nowadays: Since I tried a lot of possible ways (philosophically, managing time, diet, rest and way of doing) but didn’t get peace of mind anywhere. Finally, I decided to quit all these things and all of a sudden everything went well. Obviously, sometimes different kind of thinking creep over my mind but I don’t care and play much with them and they go away after sometime. Nowadays I am focussed with my day to day work and having peace of mind most of the time. Hopefully, these things will work you too. Believe me my frens, for the happiness if one door is closed, thousand doors open. Happiness is not related with only gaining a particular thing, it’s infinite. You can get it from different ways.

Hopefully, this will help you to figure out the way.

Finally, I felt really happy while reading comments in this forum since I met some frens who also got the same problems as I used to. We will keep on sharing the things in future too.

Good luck. Take it easy.

Please check out this link it gives quite useful information regarding to Hypoglycemia and Exercise
http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/results.php?storyarticle=6531

Wow! I am truly amazed to find this!! I have reported this issue to several doctors, and all thought it was odd, saying they never heard of this. I had one doctor tell me that I might be ‘reactive hypoglycemic’. In other words, though I am not hypoglycemic, my body reacts to things as if I am and the solution is to be careful to treat myself as if I am hypoglycemic or I will end up that way. Interesting, but it didn’t resolve my problem, our shared problem.

In the interest of completeness, I’m going to say as much as I can about what I feel and when, but some of this might be “TMI” for some readers (don’t worry, no vulgarity or such).

I am bipolar, type 2. This means I’m generally depressed with phases of hypomania. I was born this way, but not diagnosed until my early 30s (40 now). We’re still fighting it and trying to find the right combo of meds for me. My thyroid, blood counts, sugar levels, and cortisol levels are all within normal ranges. (The circadian rhythm of the cortisol is out of whack as would be expected in a BP patient.) However, the sugar levels were not measured before, during, and after exercise, which is something I’m considering now (friend provided me with a meter).

As a kid, I was always very active, strong for my size without looking athletic or muscular. I could hike a 5-mile, steep trail without pausing to take a sip of water or a snack. Also as a kid, I was quite a handful: temperamental, moody, creative, intelligent, loner, risk-taker at times and totally fearful at others. I was molested once, but the symptoms of BP(2) were already in place beforehand (we now know). But, I could exercise, or what I called play back then.

In my mid-20s, I noticed the problem we are all reporting here: exercise-induced depression. I’ve seen it also called exercise intolerance. What happens to me varies, depending on what I did to cause it. Hard exercise, aerobic or just weights, leads to an almost immediate breakdown: I feel sick, nauseated, sorrowful, a need to cry that can be overwhelming. I’ve curled up on the floor of my truck and bawled within half an hour of the workout!

Gentle workouts of any type don’t have any immediate impact, but it adds up. Eventually, I end up in the same place: depressed. If I take it easy, I still fall into depression eventually, even become ill (a cold, flu, etc, like something lowered my immune system’s functionality, as we know depression does).

What I eat seemed to not have any impact, but the common info might be wrong for us. Maybe a sweet before is needed; maybe it’s bad. I need to look into this more.

Now, I used to think this was a ‘new thing’ for me, this exercise-depression. That it started in my mid 20s. Nope… I now realize that there were earlier events. Sometimes after making love to my girlfriend way back when, I would have the exact same response. I thought it might be due to the molestation and my girl was very understanding (thankfully!!). In retrospect, I know that the molestation issue is something I had already dealt with and put away by then. Yes, I am serious about that. Even before then, I had adjusted my feelings about it, learned to accept that it wasn’t my fault, didn’t do me any physical harm, I wasn’t ‘dirty’, and, in fact, was openly discussing it with anyone who needed to hear it so I could help them. It became a tool in my toolbox for helping people. So, this crying and depression after sex required some thinking… and I realized finally that it is more likely after more vigorous sex. In other words, the more exercise-like the sex, the more likely the exercise-induced depression. All this is to say that this problem has been with me since my late teens, at the least.

Like many of us, I need to lose a few pounds and would love to get back some of my former vigor! Many of us are reporting symptoms and some of us are reporting what works or not for us. A few are reporting links to info we find. Let’s start focusing on a solution! Links and summaries are the way to go, much like academic research. This builds a reliable knowledge-base for us all to access with the summaries helping those who can’t or won’t wade through the research material that we discover and assemble.

Personal research, like my intent to take glucose levels before, during, and after exercise of many types, would also be helpful. Just be very careful and do not hurt yourself or take out-sized risks!! Working together, we CAN find a set of solutions (no single solution will help everyone) for us. Hopefully, we can find some doctors who have knowledge and/or can help in this.

Good luck and happy hunting. Let’s help each other help ourselves!

I’m amazed that after 8 years or so of searching for answers I found this forum.

My story, in brief: I used to be very and consistently athletic. Since I got sick one year in college, I’ve been progressively more unathletic for many of the reasons others here have listed. For me, depression is part of it, but perhaps worse is the debilitating fatigue and brainfog I experience. I’m a teacher, and today we had a tug of war… grade 7s against the teachers. My pride got the best of me, and now I am suffering the usual symptoms: depression, irritability, extreme exhaustion, stuffiness, hot/cold, dry eyes. It lasts between 24 and 36 hrs usually. I’ve tried everything: yoga, light jogs, weights… all things I used to do regularly. Walking is the only thing that doesn’t mess me up now. I’ve also tried to slowly build up my exercise threshold, but usually felt so miserable I had to stop. I feel very good and positive when I don’t exercise. This year I was also diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I check my sugars often, so hypoglycemia is certainly not the issue with me.

Anyway, I’m happy to find that I’m not alone. I’ll check back often to see if anyone has any new advice, and I think I’ll try some of the suggestions people have offered here. All the best of luck to everyone here. Thanks.

my name is sean, 33 years old. very good to find other people with same condition. i went for a 10 min jog this tuesday , yes only 10 mins. it is now sat morning and just begining to feel normal again though still bit light headed. i’ve been very teary,anxious, depressed my HPA axis has been going again (this is often active in people with depression). i have had this condition on and off since i was 22 years old.

currently on prozac also been drinking alot lately which i’m sure is related. to be brief i think it may be a combination, or one of following:

1 fat cells releasing toxins in bloodstream

2 this could also set the immune system off . google ‘depression inflammation’. very interesting .they are now linking depression with inflammatory markers in the body and brain, such as IL6 , TNF, NFkb.

i think the exercise could also inflame the body/brain when inflammatory markers are already out of balance. for e.g the more intense the exercise the more inflammatory it is to the body. for instance IL6 stimulates the HPA axis. prozac also works in part by anti inflammatory actions and some of the the latest trials of anti depressants are actually anti inflammatory drugs which inhibit COX 2 (an inflammatory enzyme)

3 exercise induced cortisol screwing the brain up

4 liver disfunction causing the low blood sugar

5 lactic acid produced from intense exercise

would wecome any feed back on these.

check out post 203 from Raz and register on his e mail address

sean

update from my post above. for a quick look at abstracts regarding depression and inflammation check out http://www.flameez.com/inflammation_depression

it is known that regular exercise is anti inflammatory. but during the exercise pro inflammatory substances are produced.

it could be with us lot on this forum that the pro inflammatory substances cascade out of control during the exercise (which are known to effect neurotransmitter metabolism, see website above)and takes several days to return to normal levels?????????

by the way all the research articles listed on the link above are from 2006-2008, so the whole inflammation/ depression link seems to be the latest theory out there.

sean

Hi again. I’m back and I have interesting news!!

I had a visit with the cardiologist today, and I have to say that it was very eye-opening. I posed the question to him we here have asked many times over. I told him that just about all of our doctors have no idea (after I told him about this website).

He had an idea… One that is absolutely plausible. Now, neither he nor I claim this is the right answer for all of us, but we hashed it out a bit and have every reason to believe it is the answer for many of us. So, take this info to you doctor and discuss it.

The chemicals in the brain that influence our mood are also heavily involved in the physiologic response to exercise, high blood pressure, and stress. The very simplified explanation of what is likely happening to many of us here is that the hormones that elevate our mood become depleted and/or the hormones the depress our mood increase. The depressive hormones have certain responsibilities in our bodies, but they also cross the blood-brain barrier, where they wreak havoc on our mental state, especially if the mood-elevating hormones are depleted.

His recommendations for exercise are the obvious choices of walking and low-impact hiking. He also includes tai-chi and yoga because they tend to not induce the same stress-type physiologic response while still burning calories and giving a good, toning workout. Basically, any exercise that doesn’t get the hear rate up much, if at all, should be good, but each person is different, so experiment carefully and with the consultation of your doctor.

Since I’m giving something of an answer here, I feel I should remind one and all, I am not a doctor (nor do I play one on TV). Read what I wrote here a few times to really sink it in; read more on this issue elsewhere as you can; take your new information to your doctor and discuss it at length.

Once again, happy hunting and good luck!

my symptoms begin even before the end of my workout. TERRIBLE debilitating fatigue. has anyone’s symptoms literaly began overnite? on a tuesday, i got my usually boost of energy, and felt great. the following day on wednesday i felt horrible. even doing one quarter of what i used to do. it has been the same ever since.

has anyone ever gone on antidepressants after experiencing exercise induced depression? was it helpful

Hi Mike,

I went on Lexapro and it doesn’t help one bit. What does help sometimes is when I have a small glass of juice and some kind of protein as soon as I start to feel the symptoms. For the most part I’m o.k. if I don’t get my heart rate up too high. I’m usually o.k. with strength training but can’t do interval training.

I’m still trying to get to the bottom of all of this. Will post if and when I find some kind of answer. Still believed (at least my case) is tied to metabolism and blood sugar levels.

Hope you feel better. Make sure to have a protein shake such as Muscle Milk (not the lite) immediately after training. Made a big difference for me.

My friedn went on lexapro and gained a lot of weight. He is now dealing with prediabetic issues.

I have gone on Lexapro now at 15 mg and it really seems to help, I’m keeping the weight off by exercising and it’s working, not perfect as I still can feel down from time to time yet compared to what happened before I’m a new person and I have had so many positive comments even on days after exercising that before would be horrible, If you have been going through this I would try Lexapro and see what happens, it is really helping me!

B12. It’s B12 deficiency. Test it. Eat a double cheesebuger. Feel better? I’ll bet you do. Found this after years of this irritablity/depression. B12 is not found in many foods and is depleted during exercise and stress. Deficiency causes irritability, depression, fatigue, anxiety. Sources: Clams, liver, beef, milk, salmon. Easy to miss eating these foods. Take a supplement if you are vegetarian. I hope this helps someone.
Cheers
Kim

Okay, here’s my two cents worth: I’m a 52 year old male who’s not in great physical shape. I’m 6/1″ and weight 240 lbs. When I started walking late at night a few years ago to get some regular exercise, I would become extremely depressed during the walk, and it would stay with me for a long time afterwards. At the time, I tried to research this on the Web, but I couldn’t find anything except how wonderful exercise is supposed to make a person feel with all those endorphins, etc. I figured it had something to do with the fact that I was in poor physical shape to start with, or with the fact that I’d been diagnosed with clinical depression (I was prescribed Welbutrin, but don’t take it any longer) but of course I never knew for sure. My doctor had never heard of this, and maintained that exercise should be making me feel better. This summer, I began working out regularly at a gym, but did NOT experience the depression during or after. This last week, I went in for a late afternoon workout (during the summer, I’d been working out in the morning, between 10 and noon) after a stressful day at work, and wham! the old feelings of depression hit me like a rock slide. When I went online to see if I could find anything about this phenomenon, I was surprised to find this forum. Thanks to everyone for posting their comments – it’s so comforting to know I’m not imagining all of this.

I also wanted to mention that I don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t take recreational drugs, and have not had any caffeine in seven years. I hardly ever drink soda pop, and while my diet could surely be improved, I don’t eat much fast food or “junk” food. I also suffer from sleep apnea – both obstructive apnea and central apnea. I’m including all this information in case anyone tries to analyze and correlate all the factors that people have mentioned in their postings on this forum.

A brief comment about Lexapro: tried it and only about a 10% improvement in re post exercise dep. No improvement and felt even worse after intense workout. I am not dissuading anyone from trying it, bec exercise aside I did experience some benefits and, in fact, it may work for someone else all-around. I just suspect that depression is not the main culprit for the issue herein. But interested in any feedback on this. PS, of all the anti-depressants I’ve tried (several just to see), Lexapro was by far the most easy to deal with and had the least side effects.

P Anthony,

I totally agree with you. I’m on Lexapro and it’s helped slightly with some OCD and anxiety that I suffer from but not the exercise-induced depression. I am almost certain mine stems from low blood sugar or related condition. I went for a physical recently and my fasting blood sugar was quite low. I think I’m pumping out too much insulin and when I exercise, no matter how well I try to eat, it drops me way down. I mean severe depression. I drink a small glass of juice and it helps–not totally but it brings me up a bit. I make sure to have a protein too so I don’t drop down too quickly again. I had gestational diabetes with both of my pregnancies and my mother has reactive hypoglycemia. Your brain functions almost fully on glucose and it makes total sense to me that if it’s not getting enough it will affect your moods.

All I can say is this is such a horrible thing. It throws me off for days. I am passionate about strength training and am a personal trainer but what makes me feel so good while doing it sometimes makes me feel like death later on. I’ve been to two nutritionists and an endocrinologist but nothing has helped. I have an appt. with a “integrative care” doctor who costs a fortune (doesn’t take insurance) but was highly recommended to me. She looks for the underlying causes of illness not just treats the symptoms. They do bio-chemical analysis and evaluate your psychological, stress, nutrition, exercise, etc.
Wish me luck and I will report back with any findings.
Good luck to you all.
Joanne

how many here have an incredable sensitivity to alchohol (1 drink and hangover feeling next day) as well as prescription medications? almost all meds cause that same depressive, malaise, brain fog, fatigue symptoms as exercise?

Hi…same issues as everyone else here. Please read Hanks comment above (221), do you guys think it matters what time of the day the work out takes place? I’m guessing the normal thing is to work out during evenings after work…have any one experimented with trying mornings? Did you guys notice a change?

Same thing happens to me…I talked to a therapist about it and she had a theory as to why this happens. She thinks the exercise gets rid of our immediate stress, and then allows us to deal with stress or events that we’ve repressed or haven’t dealt with. Not sure if this is what is happening, I think it probably has something to do with cortisol. Maybe its a combination or both.

Mike (#255), it’s funny you should mention the hangover. I’ve always had absolutely horrific ones, and just assumed it’s how everyone felt after drinking. But the more I saw how most people function w/ a hangover, I realized there’s something seriously wrong w/ mine, hence stopping drinking altogether. I too wonder if there’s a connection…

I am a 26 year old woman who has lost 82 lbs over the past 8 months. I started with shorter, less intense aerobic workouts at the gym, and as of late have been climbing a smaller mountain (1.1 mi to summit, then down…obviously lol) daily, and a larger mountain (2.4 mi to summit) once or twice on weekends.
Since the increased intensity in my workouts (which I LOVE as I’m doing it), I find that I come home and feel so LOW and hopeless that I start to sob uncontrollably. I attributed this to the peaking adrenaline and then the inevitable crash afterward.
I am also an avid tattoo collector, and have experienced the SAME feelings after being tattooed for 3-4 hours at a time. During the tattoo, your adrenaline is rushing, and once again, afterward, it has nowhere to go but down. Clearly I’m not an MD, but this was just my theory.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who experiences this. All I’ve ever heard about exercise is that is a magical cure for moodiness and depression.
I’ve never suffered from depression, and until now, have had mixed emotions about a percentage of the population claiming to experience it. My problem was that everytime I was sad, someone would inevitably approach me with “ah, you’re just depressed…” No, I was feeling SAD about a specific situation or issue. There is a difference between a consequential emotion and outward depression. That being said, this is how I know that what I feel after the mountain is actual depression. It is for absolutely no reason, and I am thinking no coherent thoughts while sobbing, aside from various general, hopeless sentiments.

It’s bizarre! But I plan on toughing through it, and have found the theory of low blood sugar interesting. I have been limiting my diet, but I may try adding more to it.

Good luck to everyone!

I have the same issues as everyone else here. It’s gone to the extent that I can hardly take a fast long walk without these symptoms setting in afterwards.

I live a quite stressful life (lot of responsibilities in the office, fast paced, lot’s of stuff going on at the same time etc.). What about you guys, do you experience stress? Think it can be related?

Hi All,
Exercise is also a kind of addiction. One should quit this to get rid of its effect (both positive and negative). Focus and engage your mind with day to day work. Working itself is also a kind of exercise.

I was suffering from same problems since 8 yrs. Not only exercise, but also yoga and meditation used to hurt me. I quited everything and feeling great nowadays. It was hard to quit in the begining but I succeded with strong determination.

Don’t waste time by hanging with the things that give you unbearable trouble. There are lots of thing from where you can get confidence and happiness of life.

Love you all.

Hi all. I am a medical doctor and a psychotherapist and I have finally realised that exercise makes me depressed. Last week I did 3.5km runs on a treadmill followed by 1 km on a rower at moderate intensity each day and after 4 days I became deeply depressed. Like others on this forum I have kept going back to the gym after recovering only to become depressed. I usually exercise in the mornings. I have a tendency to get above 80% Hr easily and for most of my workouts. I am 46yo male 172cm and 80kg. For what its worth I have looked at the medical literature and cant find any reports or studies about this published in Medical journals. I have read this entire blog and it seems there is a genuine syndrome being discussed that seems to have slipped under the radar. The comment made by the person who discussed it with their cardiologist is interesting and may contain a lot of truth but I think a general description does not explain why only a small minority of people seem to suffer from it. I would suspect some sort of genetic variant is at work here. Someone mentioned on this forum that her daughter also has the problem, this is important information and could be compiled to get some better grasp of the disorder. I will be joining Raz’s email group and I would suggest everyone else that visits this forum does as well so that we can do some research amongst ourselves.
I have started Holy Basil today as I think its worth a try but would be interested in what others experience with it has been.
Finally I don’t think it sounds like hypoglycaemia because that responds well to food and I cant see why the symptoms would last beyond a meal or two, but then again we could be looking at more than one syndrome here.
Its great to have found this forum. No we are not crazy as a matter of fact this is far saner than most other forums I have seen!
Thanks for all your honesty and detail.

Dr Jim

I think I may be finding an answer, at least for myself but hopefully it will help others as well. I found an integrative medicine doctor who is amazing. She checked my amino acids (with an at-home blood test) and found that I am low across the board except for 1 (there are 20). Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, necessary for many many important functions including repairing and building muscle, but most importantly in this case, they are pre-cursors for the neurotransmitters in the brain. If you are not eating enough, or not processing protein correctly you are bound to have problems. She also checked my cortisol levels through an at-home saliva test. An endocrinologist had tested them once but it was a blood test in a hosptial (which came back normal). This saliva test is preformed 4 times during the day. My results were that my cortisol was too low in the morning (when it should be its highest) went way up around noon and slowly came down through the day but stayed elevated through bedtime (I have major issues sleeping). My fasting and post-prandial insulin levels are also too low. I also have antibodies to wheat.

Basically, we are working on adjusting my amino acids through a custom amino acid mix (expensive!) and also a digestive enzyme with each meal to help me breakdown the proteins that I eat. I am also taking chromium (with the GTF factor–very important) that helps with metabolism of sugars/carbs. I have to say that for the first time in 2 years–I actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I have had issues all my life with anxiety/some depression (postpartum–pretty severe/and OCD. I also have ADD. I think this is a link to it all. My severe problems started after I gave up all desserts/candy/cookies/etc. about 2 years ago. I think that I was self-medicating with sugar. Also, after I joined the gym I would have severe depressive crashes later in the day.

It’s not all in my head! The symptoms are in my head but the problem lies in my stomach!

I have also been on a gluten-free diet (we tried no milk products for the first month–not a huge change) for a few weeks now. I also drink a powerade DURING my workout and a protein drink afterwards. I’m not sure what is helping but I have been feeling a MILLION times better.

Problem is, I haven’t tested it yet with anaerobic exercise–where I had most of my problems with the crashes (which would hang on for days). I’m too chicken but may do it in a couple months if I am feeling considerably better. I am hoping to get off of Lexapro and a sleep aid and an ADD med. Though each helps a bit, they basically just take the edge off my issues.

I have been sleeping better too! Which makes everything else feel better too.

I’m not advocating supplements or anything else unless you are under the care of a doctor. But my integrative doctor has been the first one to look at this in a different way–to find the cause and not just treat the symptoms.

I applaud the doctor who posted for trying to find an answer–thank you! You may want to consider having your amino acid levels/salvia cortisol/and antibodies to wheat and yeast tested.

Gluten sensitivity is huge and can cause a wide array of problems including hypoglycemia and mental problems.

Please find a doctor who thinks outside the box–my doctor is a medical doctor who mixes science with holistic type approaches. Unfortunately she doesn’t take insurance–the companies regulate everything doctors do in their practice. She took a full two hours with me the first appt. and there was no way an insurance company would pay accordingly. Some of my tests were covered by insurance as they were done through a lab. I’ve turned a blind eye to the cost for the time being. My sanity and happiness is worth it. I couldn’t go on living as I was–every day was a struggle within my mind–torterous when I have such a wonderful life otherwise.

Sorry for the very long post. I will keep you updated as we narrow down the specific cause. There is hope though! Exercise is so important–especially strength training. Please don’t stop looking for an answer. You just have to find the right person to help you. I suggest looking for an integrative or functional care doctor.

Best of luck to everyone! I’m saying prayers.

I have experienced exercise-induced depression, too, and have discovered mugh that is listed here. A solution that is working for me is to load up on amino acids as well as B-complex plus choline and inositol (members of the B family). My experience has been that exercise seems to deplete certain neurotransmitters, and if I feed these neurotransmitters with the supplements above, plus eating both a half hour before and immediately after a hard workout, that the depression doesn’t happen. Good luck to everyone here. Although I am not bipolar, I also have benefited from this site; http://www.bipolarodyssey.com, which features a nutritional approach to brain disorders.

OMG! I am so happy I found this site and to know I am not the only one makes me feel better. Everytime I strength train I feel ok for 2 hours after I am done but then it is all down hill for me. I get jittery, bitchy, annoyed with every little thing, just want to sleep because I am so exhausted etc.. These symptoms usually last 2 days and then I slowly start to feel better and then I hit the weights again and the sh*t hits the fan again. I told my hubby today that I am thinking of stopping weight training. We have a 1 yr old and a 4 yr old and I feel like I am not here (physically and emotionally) on the days after I strength train. If I walk I am fine and feel good. But if I get too intense, my body freaks out. This is all a little annoying because I have lost 70 pounds in 10 months and really want to keep it off. I used to be fine with all the exercise when I was heavier but now that I am 125 pounds it’s actually harder for me.

Thanks
Jennifer

its good to know there are others who feel low after excercise, i cant help but feel crap after doing weight lifting and stuff, i just feel angry, depressed and frustrated

i have tried the following

holy basil tea
lucozade / clucose drink
gingseng herbal tabs

i haven quite work out if they work or not as sometimes i feel ok after i take these and sometimes i dont, so im not sure if its down to how hard i push myself during excercise, but if i drink alot of a glucose drink i tend to feel lil more happier, and the holy basil tea calms me down abit, so all 3 are worth a go

for diabetics proberly not wise to touch the clucose drink

Hello everyone

Today i feel so very low, which appears to coincide with me commencing using a treadmill 3-weeks ago. I was discussing with my wife and decided to search for help and i found this forum. I can’t believe just how common this problem appears to be but i’m also relieved i am not alone (as i believed).

I have been struggling with depression for several years and my eating habits caused me to gain excess weight – hence the treadmill. I was actually starting to feel better before i started running but now i feel awful. I run every evening for 25mins at a decent speed for a 53 year old (10 km/hr)and my weight has been falling steadily. I have started eating sensibly (no junk) so you can imagine how i feel when all this appears to be harming me.

I used to visit the gym 3 years ago and did treble the work 4-days a week and felt great. Now i am at a loss for what to do.

I will read the posts with great interest and thanks for all the comments so far.

David

Sorry i should have mentioned that i have been taking omega-3 and Vitamin D supplements daily.

Wow, i cant beleive there are so many others that are going through the same thing. I seriously thought that i had some mental issues. I am glad to see that i am not alone in this battle. It is really such a weird feeling from the after effects of a workout. Who would of thought a workout could make you feel this way.

Today was an all time low point for me. I remember feeling angry, frustrated, and sad. I was at work and could not wait for the day to end and just felt like i was going to explode. This is such a difficult thing to dela with as it makes me very irrational, and ineffeicient. I just felt like i was worthless and could not do anything. I have not explained this feeling to my family and dont know how to break it to them. I think i need to as my beahavior really impacts them greatly. I am hoping that there will be some natural cure for what we are facing. I am refusing to take any type of prescription medication as i think the side effects will be far more devastating. Thank you to eveyone for your posts, and i will try some of the natural remedies.

In the meantime i will continue to pray for you all in here as well and hope that God will bring healing and restoration to you mentally. I know that God is a great God and we should cast our cares to him and believe in faith that you will be healed. I have written a prayer for you all and am asking God to heal everyone that has posted to this thread:

Almighty heavenly father i thank you for all my friends in this threaded discussion that have identified some discomfort in their lives. I ask God that by your powerful mighty hands you will remove any sickness, disease, anxiety, fear, and depression from their lives. I ask for freedom and restoration in their minds and hearts and i pray your continual blessings upon their lives. You are a great and powerful ruler and your word advises us to ask if we are in need. This day i ask God that you will bring complete healing to all my friends in this discussion and that you will also restore their relationships with family and friends. In your precious name we pray. Amen.

God bless you all….!!!

Hey Guys. Just a quick but perhaps meaningful update. I had tests done after I’d been active, and thyroid, while ostensibly within “normal” range (I suspect as dictated by ins co’s), was low. Liver function (AST, etc.) was very off. Liver does have impact on neurotransmitters, and I suspect there is a connection in our case, as some here have theorized directly and indirectly. I am also very sensitized to alcohol.

Practical tip that I’ve discovered: Try drinking a tall glass of milk with about 1/5 yogurt very shortly after you get home from workout/exertion (not cold seems to work a tad better for some reason, perhaps facitlitates better digestion and absorbtion). This appears to cut symptoms by about 50% for me personally, not bad. Have not ruled out late-onset hypoglycemia. As always, good luck and please report.

Hi All,

I hope you are doing well. Believe it or not, the comments section here in this blog is the best resource I’ve found. I feel for you all and hope your investigations are progressing nicely and that you are find resolutions in each of your cases.

I posted in Feb ‘09 and neglected to mention a couple of things.
1. I suspected I was gluten sensitive. I June ‘09 I finally eliminated gluten from my diet (it’s all or nothing) and on the whole feel a lot better. It took a while for the lining in my gut to heal. I can definitely feel it if I consume a product containing gluten. Overall, I am happier. As someone who works out a lot, it has made a huge difference to my performance and happiness during endurance events, knowing that I won’t have a reaction to foods during races/long workouts.

2. Despite going gluten free, I still get exercise-induced depression.

3. I used to have migraine-like headaches in the center top-left of my brain. Always the same spot. So debilitating that I just could not smile (i.e., depression-like). I still get these although less intense and less frequent.

4. As before, I will get depression-headaches very soon (5-30 mins) after a workout. I am on the path of eliminating from my diet, in as far as possible, all that I know that makes me feel down. Like many people on this list, I can not take alcohol as I used to. I do not drink most brands of beer because of gluten sensitivity. I have never been much of a heavy drinker but am very capable of having a six-pack. It seems as though (and I’m in my mid-30s now) I am not as capable of processing alcohol as, and I hate to say it, when I was a little younger. Most of my heavy drinking was done by 21 by the way!! So, I avoid beer and avoid drinking more than a unit at any one event/get-together.

5. I have found something that has been a help right away after symptoms appear: Seaweed.
In my earlier post, I mentioned miso soup being particularly helpful. And, paradoxically when taking into account the thread of comments, if I haven’t exercised in a couple of days and as long as it is not the evening, doing exercise is the best cure of all in my case. Nothing else will help alleviate the deep, to-the-bone depressive/anxiety feeling. If workout lasts over two hours that exercise high will even carry over an extra day. However, for that immediate, post-exercise crash, roasted and salted seaweed is like opening the blinds and feeling the sun again. I still feel some of the depression but the actual physical reaction to it, the semi-migraine feeling, partially dissipates about 2-5 mins after consuming seaweed. So much so that if I know that if I know that I ran out of seaweed at home, I will not go home after a swim or intense run before passing by the store to grab some. Every time I eat a leaf of seaweed, I hope that it works. Usually it does. I hope it helps someone else.

6. I have underlying depressive episodes. Won’t go into too much detail but I’ve gone through some pretty difficult things all by myself with little support. Difficult childhood, working my ass off to go to college, finding out I had learning difficulties, overcoming those, eventually getting a stable job, and then going through five years of a series of very unfortunate events. I think it’s taken a toll in some ways although luckily I’m strong-willed, never give up, and am an optimist and dreamer, on the whole. This has helped a lot. So much so that I started my Great Recession in 2003, am out of the worst of it, and set to for almost full recovery at the turn of the year. Bottom line: underlying stress/anxiety/depressive symptoms have a big effect. I’m convinced of that.

7. Having someone around you that believes in you or that at least doesn’t think that your exercise-induced depression is all in your head is important. The analogy is food sensitivities. I have so far failed to find someone that really believes that I am experiencing the food sensitivities that I have, but have some friends that do care a lot. So here goes. I have been lactose intolerant for at least 10 years and have kept on top of it for 7+ years. Recently finding out that I’ve been gluten-sensitive was actually a relief. But having these two sensitivities made me wonder. It turns out that they may be linked (i.e., gluten sensitivity may lead to lactose intolerance). I have also been increasingly sensitive to caffeine and I think increasingly to theine (in black tea) for the past 10 years. It turns out this particularly runs on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family. I have found that initially telling my family and closest friends resulted in sympathy, understanding, and an effort by them to make/set aside gluten-free food for visits. However, I just decline if offered gluten-, lactose-, and caffeine-containing food and drink if I’m around other people and just go about my day. Seems to make me feel more normal!

7. After reading through the majority of posts, I think there are many commonalities. We might not all be suffering from exactly the same disorder/syndrome, although there is a cure or resolution out there for most, if not all of you. In my case, there are many factors that affect my daily mood, on top of it my post-exercise mood and general feeling. I have addressed some of the things that I know and some that I believe may cause the ups and downs. I hope you find solutions and relief of your symptoms.

Wishing you the best of health

Just wanted to share my story…

I’m 24.. male. I’ve always been athletic. I’m 5′11″ and weighed about 188 lbs… I was starting to get a gut and I wanted to trim up.

So I started eating right and exercising everyday… And guess what, in 2 months, I am now at 172. I’ve lost 16 lbs and it definitely shows. I am much more cut and I have a defined six pack.

Here’s the problem: I feel like crap now… Even though I should be proud of myself and feel better about my body, I am always feeling depressed and down. It’s really frustrating. You’d think it would be win-win..

I can’t wait until I lose a few more lbs and then abstain from exercising where I know my great mood will come back. But then I’ll probably start gaining weight again. I just wish I felt great after a workout.