Yoga for Depression

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a whopping 9.5 percent of the United States population, or about 18.8 million American adults will suffer from depression this year alone. Although major depression can be disabling and interfere with your ability to work, sleep, eat, and enjoy life, there are less severe forms of depression that although not disabling, can interfere with your ability to function or feel good.

The causes of depression include a combination of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors. Recent research confirms that depression can be also triggered by physical changes caused by chronic illness, injury, or even normal hormonal disorders. Regardless of their causes, the NIMH says that major depression is often associated with changes in brain chemistry and function.

This is where yoga comes in. I know that yoga can help with depression, especially the kind that is generated by chronic illness and injury. I know yoga helps ease depression; not because the academic literature says so; and not from my own successes in teaching yoga to depressed people. I know yoga helps because of my own personal experience as a patient with clinical depression.

In 1993, I developed MS and by 1995, suffered near paralysis in both arms. Clinical depression followed because my life as a yoga teacher and practitioner, as I had known it, was over. I completely quit yoga and soon gained over 20 pounds. But that was then. Today, my shoulders have mostly recovered and although I still endure chronic MS pain and fatigue, I am no longer depressed. At least I now have enough energy that allows me to do some meaningful work. What facilitated my recovery? Although medication and psychotherapy helped, what helped most was renewing the very yoga program I developed soon after I became ill; and then quit as my depression deepened.

Recovery Yoga is a very simple yoga exercise program. No forcing, No trying, No pushing into pain. No heavy forced breathing. Just a well-thought-out simple and easy-to-do yoga program practiced 15-to-45 minutes daily. Yoga helps enormously to deal with both the physical and emotional aspects of chronic illness and injury. When appropriately practiced, yoga increases healing blood flow to all areas of your body and brain. Increased blood to the body facilitates healing. Increased blood supply to the brain promotes neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin, which are the “feel-good” chemicals of the brain. I was both depressed and overweight when I renewed my Recovery Yoga practice just over four years ago. It took nearly a year of daily practice, but as they say, "the rest is history."

Today, yes, I still have MS and most that goes with it, but the depression has passed. My yoga practice has also helped me to lose all that extra weight. That alone has increased my energy. Although I'm still quite limited in my ability to work, I have enough energy to teach part-time, and to help other people, such as writing these articles and adding material to my website. I didn’t choose MS and its debilitating physical and emotional illness, but at least, I can choose to practice yoga in a way that maximizes my potential and minimizes my liability. For me, the payback of doing yoga well exceeds the energy I expend in its practice.

Article by yoga instructor Sam Dworkis, auther of Recovery Yoga and ExTension. Visit his web site at www.extensionyoga.com .

The above article is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition. A qualified health care professional should be consulted before beginning ExTension or Recovery Yoga, or any exercise program. Read the rest of our disclaimer and terms of use.