Does exercise lift your mood or give you energy?

I wonder how this works for others. I have been told time and again that exercising consistently will improve your mood and give you more energy. I finally decided that I would really push myself and give it a try. I have been exercising 30 minutes nearly every day for a month and notice nothing. It’s still a constant push to get myself to do it, but I do. Yes, I’m frustrated and discouraged.

This is very true. If I don’t workout more than two days, I start felling back into the dark pits

I’m glad it helps you.

What kind of exercise do you do?
How is your diet? I have to also mention that exercise is not the only thing i do. It is merely one aspect of my health regiment. For instance, if I skip therapy or if I eat sugar then I am still in a bad mood. In summary, all aspects of my health regiment have to be there in order for me to be in a stable mood: therapy, no sugar, healthy eating, and exercise and medication. Exercise by itself does not solve the problem.
You mentioned that you started about a month ago. One month may not be sufficient time to have your body adjust to an exercising routine and seeing its benefits.
Also I don’t always feel good. I have my ups and downs but I believe that exercise takes the intensity away. Do not give up. Please have hope. Additionally, exercise prevents other diseases and has its benefits that is not visible to the naked eye.

To answer your first question, it works for me. It's not a game changer, but it helps. It helps get me out of my head when I'm doing it. I feel better physically when I'm done, which helps my mood. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. I feel that it makes me a little more emotionally resilient when it's going well. It's part of an overall self-care package.

I'm sorry you're not feeling any benefit from it. Maybe try changing things up?

Does it feel like a chore or a grind? Trying various things until you find something more pleasant for you should hopefully have an effect. Maybe you're pushing too hard? Maybe you're not being vigorous enough? Something more social? I have social anxiety, but have had a much better time of it going to exercise classes. The socializing in a small and safe setting, as well as just getting out for a change of scenery, does a lot for me. It keeps me going.

I'm not an athletic or exercising type. I started this almost a year ago out of desperation and some minor health concerns. So I get how hard it is for us non-exercising types. But I've found ways to appreciate it more.

Everyone is different, so there's no way to really know. You just have to try various things. Hard when you're depressed, I know. But you've stuck with it for a month already. Well done!

I hope things work out for you.

I’ve been using an exercise bike or walking outside if the weather is nice. I eat pretty well and have a low sugar intake. Maybe you are right and it needs more time. I do know it’s good for me in the long run, but would like to feel some benefit from it too.

Thanks for this. I’ve never been one that likes exercise. It definitely does feel like a chore. I’m in a place where I don’t really enjoy anything, so finding something I like to do is really hard.

I see... the type of exercise that helped me is intense exercise. If I do a mild cardio or mild exercise, meaning walking or medium or less effort on the exercise bike, I am not increasing enough serotonin to offset the upset and irritability. This has been my experience. So with that being said, unless I do hard-core/intense exercise, I do not feel the benefit from exercising. Does this make sense? Should you have any questions regarding diet or any other thing I am more than happy to help. Again, I am not cured or anything I am grateful if the intensity is down as I usually am drowning in the dark pit.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could answer YES to this but it most definitely has helped. I have gone from about 10 minutes a day to now a good solid hour. In the last couple of weeks I have started walking which is quite a feat to walk 500 feet on a walker, but I am doing it. My mood is definitely stayed more even and I have a great sense of accomplishment now that I can feel and see the progress. I am now strong enough to do the stairs, about 10 of them at a restaurant we like to go to. Since December I have been working out 5 days a week. I haven't missed more than three days.I

I can honestly say Life is better! Wishing you the best!!

Ah, good old anhedonia.

As I mentioned, I was desperate enough to try anything at the time. Obviously I don't recommend that as a planned strategy.

Sometimes lowering expectations helps with combating overwhelm and discouragement. I needed to do something. So I tried things and did the most of not what I enjoyed (wasn't happening), but what was the least unenjoyable. It felt better over time because depression messes with your head -- even when you know it's doing it.

I also tried some light meditation around the same time to try and get better at being with things I didn't necessarily enjoy. One saying I liked and found helpful was "Thinking about it is much harder than doing it." I still use that one sometimes when washing dishes. It's easy to fall into the habit of standing there thinking "I'm going to hate this. I hate this. I'm still hating this. Isn't this over yet? 'Cause -- guess what? I hate this." It's so much better to just start and just do it without the added unhelpful commentary.

Also, like FallDuskTrain said, a higher intensity might help if you're just not feeling it physically. Worth a try.

Well, enough rambling. Hopefully there's a helpful suggestion in here somewhere.

Good luck!

Thanks so much CepheidVariable. That was helpful.

I appreciate this. Right now this is as intense as I can handle since I haven’t exercised in years. But hey, I started being only able to do 10 minutes and now I’m up to 30, so there’s improvement.

I don't know if it helps with mood but when I exercised I lost weight maybe you could look at that

That is an improvement for sure. I am sure you are benefitting from your current regiment a lot but just not feeling it yet. Sometimes things start getting fixed in our brain but we don’t feel the benefits until later.
Yeah, no need to push it too much and get injured.
I admire your resilience.
We can do this!

I have exercise induced asthma so I can’t do intensive exercise. Unless I want to cough my lungs up for a couple of hours. Walking on a treadmill or yoga help me.

Me too. I do it coz everyone says it helps with depression but I have to force myself to do it.

I'm surprised that after a whole month it hasn't lifted your mood , maybe it will take longer. I used to go to the gym . I didn't work out everyday but I'd work out for about 2 hours 4 times a week plus go to the sauna and steam room. It dramatically improved my mood and self confidence , I think it gave me more energy too but what I mostly remember was my mood elevating . It's been along time since I have worked out though and I'm very unfit and unmotivated . I would like to get myself back to that place where I can workout again.

Same here. My current fitness wont allow me to do intense exercise right now. Maybe that's why I don't feel better when I exercise. I don't walk fast enough...I'll try to increase the pace, maybe it will help.

Thanks everyone. It is helpful to hear about other people’s experiences. Even though I haven’t seen any benefits (yet), I am determined to stick with it.